The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan will support training and professional development for Detroit changemakers tackling economic and neighborhood revitalization with $245,000 from the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The programs will focus specifically on capacity building and professional development to encourage organizational growth and economic vitality. In their third round of funding…

As 2016 comes to a close, we invite you to participate in a special conversation with two of the field’s emerging leaders, NCFP Fellows Katherine Lorenz & Doug Bitonti-Stewart. Doug and Katherine will reflect on a variety of issues they have explored with NCFP and will discuss important trends in the field at large. Moderated by NCFP President Ginny Esposito, this webinar will highlight…

We usually think of scale as an escalator that moves in only one direction: up. Things start small and local and, if they succeed, they grow to be large and global. Often, this model is correct. But focusing too narrowly on it might make us miss opportunities to scale in other ways. Sometimes, in fact, scale can work in reverse — by taking a…

David McGhee stood in line, waiting to check out at a grocery store, and a customer recognized the philanthropy consultant and grant writer. So as his groceries were rung up, the person pitched an idea for a new program for the Flint YMCA. The sharing continued as McGhee, who now works for the Skillman Foundation, headed to his car and placed his groceries inside.…

The importance of documenting the ethos of our founders is well known in family philanthropy. Authors and leaders throughout the field have published articles and tools (e.g. Grandparent Legacy Project) aimed to help families ask questions to elicit the core values of our founders. These values are the backbone of our work. And when we are able to connect our founders’ values to real-life…

Why did your family start giving? Did you want to achieve a specific impact on an issue close to your hearts or did you want to bring your family together to pass on specific values from generation to generation? In most cases, it is a little bit – or a lot – of each. Simon Sinek offers a very clear case for understanding a…

Ask Amanda Fisher what makes her run. She’ll tell you it’s the shoes. Sounds funny, but she’s serious. “Really, one of my biggest motivations for the choices I make are the shoes I have yet to fill,” she says. But what she’s really talking about is the legacy of the Fisher family: a family of towering figures here in Detroit, leaders and philanthropists on a…

When a house across the street from John George’s family home in northwest Detroit fell into disrepair, drug dealers moved in. Not wanting his then two-year old son to grow up across the street from a crack house and determined to stay in Detroit, George and two neighbors took action and boarded up the house. When the dealers came back and couldn’t get in, they…

The PNC Foundation, Skillman Foundation and Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation today announced a $1.5 million, two-year collaboration to build preschool children’s vocabularies in two Detroit neighborhoods. Say & Play with Words (Hablen y Jueguen con Palabras) will infuse vocabulary and literacy strategies and family service learning into a powerful educational model for families in the Southwest Detroit and Brightmoor neighborhoods. Read the…

What’s in a word? Or more specifically, 30 million words? A child’s future. Leaders from the PNC Foundation, Skillman Foundation and Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation will unveil a $1.5-million, 2-year collaboration to help build preschool children’s vocabulary in two areas of Detroit. The Say & Play with Words program will be announced at a news conference Tuesday in Detroit. The idea: Infuse…