Photo by David Rodriguez Munoz | Detroit Free Press
Lisa Ford and Andrew Stein, Op-ed contributors
This article was originally published via the Detroit Free Press on Saturday, July 13
Just over a month ago, we witnessed the incredible reopening of Michigan Central Station – and two weeks ago, we announced that our six-month fundraising campaign for the Michigan Central Station Children’s Endowment Initiative nearly doubled its initial fundraising goal of $10 million, raising more than $19 million.
The gratitude we feel toward this community will stay with us forever.
The Children’s Foundation will now facilitate a process to select 10 youth-serving organizations to receive funding and support to build an endowment of at least $1.5 million each. (Applications are now being accepted, due Aug. 1. An informational webinar is set for 9 a.m. Thursday, July 18.)
Over the past six months, we shared our vision for this campaign with hundreds of foundations, companies, and individuals. As we move into the next phase of this initiative, we want to share answers to two of the most common questions we received: Why endowments? What does success look like?
Why Endowments?
Like Michigan Central Station, endowments are permanent. They grow over time and provide organizations with annual, unrestricted funds.
Many universities, hospitals and large cultural institutions were built and rely on endowed funds. While annual funds are also critically important to these institutions, endowments provide them with financial sustainability that leaves little doubt that they will exist in perpetuity.
What we refer to as “social change” organizations, however, rarely have endowments. These organizations tend to be smaller, provide direct services to communities and are often led by people of color and individuals from other historically marginalized groups.
Leaders of these organizations spend a lot of time raising the funds they need to operate annually, which can distract them from their mission. Typically, fundraising success for these organizations means raising a little more money than they spend each year – only to start the process over again. It can be exhausting and often leads to burnout.
Reports from The Center for Effective Philanthropy and The Bridgespan Group make the case to consider endowments for social change organizations. These reports are part of what inspired us to focus this initiative on building endowments for organizations that directly serve children in our area.
There is a natural tie between our campaign and the re-opening of Michigan Central Station. Michigan Central is about the future – and our region’s children are our future. And just as the station is an old building now fit for a modern purpose, endowments are an old tool that this initiative is applying in a modern way.
By creating endowments for 10 youth-serving organizations, we acknowledge that – like Michigan Central Station – these organizations are critical anchors in our community and need to be here to serve children for generations to come.
What Does Success Look Like?
We have five key measurements of success:
- We aim to shift the historical perspective and narrative about which organizations deserve endowments. This community rallied to raise over $19 million in six months, which we think demonstrates incredible success on this front.
- We want to empower 10 organizations to become more financially sustainable by helping them learn how to leverage their new endowment. This is one of the reasons each organization will have the opportunity to access $500,000 in matching dollars for each gift they secure toward their newly created endowment. We hope this gives organizations courage to have bigger, bolder conversations with their stakeholders – and we hope donors see an opportunity to make larger, legacy-type gifts that they may have previously reserved only for larger institutions.
- We want to enable these organizations to plan for the future. This is why each organization will have access to resources at Michigan Central. In addition to their initial endowment gift, each organization will also receive unrestricted grants in 2025 and 2026, plus technical assistance and capacity-building support throughout this process. For example, if an organization needs to invest in its marketing capabilities or wants to develop a multi-year fundraising plan, it will have support and resources to do that. We want to give these organizations something they rarely get: time and resources to innovate, plan and evolve into the future.
- We want to demonstrate what equitable, trust-based philanthropy can look like. We sought the counsel of many philanthropic leaders in this community, which helped us develop the eligibility criteria and an open, transparent application and selection process. Most notably, a 15-person selection committee will pick the organizations receiving these endowment gifts. This committee represents the diversity of the geographic area this initiative covers. It includes political, civic, business and nonprofit experts. Most importantly, it also includes youth voices, and the voices of those who have been served by our area’s nonprofits. Rightfully so, they will tell us which organizations must be here forever.
- Success will also be defined by what we learn along the way, and how we share those learnings. We hope that the journey these 10 organizations are about to undertake makes it easier for another 10 organizations to start an endowment. We hope that the funders who supported this initiative understand the long-term return on their investment. We hope that this initiative will shine a light on innovation coming from Detroit, and that the local and national philanthropic sector will learn from us. Perhaps this type of approach will inspire another community to celebrate their own historic moment in a similar way – or to develop yet another way to ensure that the organizations providing critical services in their community can exist for generations to come.
We are so incredibly grateful to this community for its generosity. We have one final ask of you: If there is an organization that serves children in this area that you believe needs to be here in perpetuity, please encourage them to consider applying. The eligibility criteria and application information are here.
