Letter from Leadership

Since 1984, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan has worked diligently to build the resources, relationships and expertise needed to pursue its mission of making our region a desirable place to live, work and play for all residents, today and tomorrow. Since our founding, these efforts, coupled with the generosity and commitment of our donors, have led to the distribution of $1.4 billion through more than 90,000 grants to nonprofit organizations making a difference in communities throughout our region.

In 2024 alone, the Community Foundation awarded 4,700 grants totaling just over $128 million and welcomed new gifts of $113 million, closing the year with $1.3 billion in assets under management. We are proud to partner with more than 5,000 donors — including 12 major philanthropic foundations — and the more than 250 charitable organizations that are building endowments with us. We also welcome partnerships with hundreds of nonprofit organizations that receive support from our grants programs each year.

We began 2025 with new leadership* that has embraced the responsibility of carrying forward the legacy of our previous leaders, Mariam Noland and Ric DeVore. To do so, we have invested in operational excellence to ensure that the Community Foundation remains strong, agile and resilient — ready to face today’s challenges and seize tomorrow’s opportunities.

During the past year, we’ve been intentional about bringing two dimensions of our work into focus: data and front-line engagement with our partners. We’ve invested in a data warehouse that holds thousands of important pieces of information about our region, and we’ve hosted major in-person visits and events to better understand the key issues and trends emerging around the region. Taken together, our continued focus on data and information alongside front-line engagement events for trustees, donors, emerging donors and staff have already started to pay the dividends of deeper insights and greater expertise on the issues that matter most in southeast Michigan.

This year, we also were pleased to launch MyCF, a new digital hub for our donors, nonprofit grantee partners and nonprofit endowment fund holders. This platform makes it simpler and easier for our partners to track their grant activity, recommend grants from donor-advised funds, obtain information about their funds, and stay connected with the Community Foundation.

As the funding and operational landscape for our community partners rapidly changes, our capacity to function at a high level becomes even more critical. We take our role in community problem-solving seriously, and we have an infrastructure our local partners can count on.

As we pursue strength, agility and resilience in everything we do, we invite you to lend your support with a gift to our Southeast Michigan Forever Fund.

Thank you for your trust, partnership and dedication to creating a thriving southeast Michigan — in 2025 and beyond.

Yours for the region,

David T. Provost
Nicole Sherard Freeman