Photo: The DMC Foundation partnered with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan to support The Ruth Ellis Clairmount Center in Detroit. The integrated primary and behavioral health and wellness center for LGBTQ+ youth was completed in 2022.
This story was first published in the Spring 2024 REPORT newsletter.
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan envisions our region as a place where everyone thrives.
A key component to thriving is good health, which the Community Foundation promotes via grants from a set of endowed funds. These health-focused funds, which are invested for long-term growth, recently got a boost thanks to the former DMC Foundation.
Formerly known as the Health & Wellness Foundation, the DMC Foundation was incorporated in 2010 to receive certain charitable assets from the Detroit Medical Center following its sale to Vanguard Health Systems. In 2013, the Health & Wellness Foundation, under its assumed name, DMC Foundation, became a supporting organization of the Community Foundation to take advantage of our grantmaking and investment expertise.
As a supporting organization of the Community Foundation, the DMC Foundation promoted the well-being of people in metro Detroit by supporting health-related research, education and community benefit activities. Since 2013, the DMC Foundation awarded more than $20 million in grants focused on improving the health of communities in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
- For example, a recent DMC Foundation grant to the Community Health and Social Services Center (CHASS) in Detroit was used to expand ultrasound access and launch mammography screening services for its uninsured and underinsured patients. These culturally and linguistically appropriate services directly impacted the health outcomes of women who received services at the center.
- Another example is the DMC Foundation’s support for the Ruth Ellis Center, a metro Detroit nonprofit that creates a supportive community and provides trauma-informed services for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults of color. Funding from the DMC Foundation allowed the center to expand its behavioral health services and build a health clinic.
The DMC Foundation reached the end of its 10-year term as a supporting organization on Dec. 31, 2023. It was then dissolved, and its assets were distributed to the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
The Community Foundation will continue to honor the legacy and intent of the former DMC Foundation and the charitable purposes of its funds. The remaining funds will be used to augment existing health-focused funds of the Community Foundation, and will continue to benefit the changing needs and well-being of people throughout metro Detroit in perpetuity.