Kresge Foundation Launches Racial Justice Grant Initiative

This summer spurred a social and cultural reckoning over systemic racism and oppression. Organizations in Detroit and around the country are now stepping up their efforts to be more explicitly involved in working toward equity and equality.

“It’s not just one kind of monolith of justice organizations, but really trying to support the strands of issues that need to be tackled to dismantle systemic racism in our community.”  – Wendy Lewis Jackson, Kresge Foundation.

The Kresge Foundation, which has long supported many racial justice initiatives, is one of those organizations that is now expanding their efforts even more and they’re doing it with a new $30 million commitment to support more than 50 racial justice and community-led engagement and organizing efforts across the country.

Listen: Kresge Foundation launches Detroit grant initiative. 

Guest:

Wendy Lewis Jackson is the managing director for the Detroit Program within the Kresge Foundation. She says the new investment is focused on large and small organizations who are committed to racial and economic justice. “We’ve tried to think about how do you deconstruct, essentially, the issues that are driving structural and systemic racism in our community?” says Jackson.

The project, according to Jackson, is focused on a wide range of organizations, representing various avenues for community investment. “It’s not just one kind of monolith of justice organizations, but really trying to support the strands of issues that need to be tackled to dismantle systemic racism in our community,” says Jackson.