Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan awards over $290,000 to Detroit organizations

Detroit-based organizations received over $290,000 in grants this July from the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan. The competitive grants include pre-development award money that organizations find essential for starting projects and acquiring additional funding.

Detroit organizations that benefited from the awards include:

    · Greening of Detroit – $50,000 grant for Southwest Detroit’s Romanowski Urban Farm Park to support the urban agricultural education program there.

    · Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance – $10,000 grant to support a study plan for the construction of three mixed-use commercial and residential buildings on Gratiot Ave near McClellan in Detroit’s Gratiot Woods community for low-to-moderate income residents.

    · University of Detroit Mercy – $10,000 grant for the Collaborative Design Center at U of D Mercy to work on prototypes of five unique, mixed-use homes to be built in the Woodbridge neighborhood.

“We’ve been doing these kinds of grants for 15 years and have given $600,000 for pre-development costs. The multiples we get on these small grants turn into the millions. You get a real bang for your buck,” says Mariam Noland, president of the CFSEM.

Sources: Mariam Noland, Anne Weekley and Cassandra Joubert, CFSEM