Fellow, Detroit Program; TKF

The Kresge Foundation’s Detroit Program has an immediate opening for a Fellow who will serve a two-year term.

The Kresge Foundation is one of the top 20 private foundations in the United States and is metro Detroit's largest foundation. With a $3.6 billion endowment and a staff of nearly 100 employees, we work to expand opportunities in America's cities for people with low incomes. We do this through grantmaking and social investing nationally in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development in Detroit.

The foundation’s state-of-the-art headquarters maintains an array of energy-efficient, water-conserving and health-promoting systems. The foundation also operates an office in Detroit’s Midtown district.

We place our highest priority on neighborhood-based, resident-led organizations, seeking to join with them in strategies for tomorrow’s transformations. It is imperative that the city’s resurgence be broadly inclusive of neighborhoods and their residents, the city’s heart and soul.

• Early Childhood Development

Along with our partners, we are reimagining the city’s neighborhoods by putting the essential building blocks in place that will support the healthy development of young children and prepare them for educational success.

• Robust Arts & Culture in the city and region

We support metro Detroit arts and culture at multiple levels, from operating support to organizations of various sizes, to support for neighborhood-based efforts and projects in the city of Detroit, to unrestricted financial support for individual creators. We actively promote the power of arts and culture to enhance identity, connectedness and opportunity.

• Community Development/Neighborhood Development

We support an array of activities and investments that make transformative changes to improve the conditions and prospects of residents. We particularly seek to bolster – through project and operating support – a range of community development organizations best positioned to involve the voice of residents in neighborhood-level change.

• Civic Capacity

We aim to build the beliefs, knowledge and skills necessary for residents, their nonprofit organizations and representative government bodies to work together to enhance the collective ability of Detroiters to self-direct their future. This includes support for citywide organization networks and intermediaries, the development of resident leaders and the elevation of community voice.

• Layered Support

Combining the right resources at the right time in the right place has proven catalytic possibilities when there is a strong neighborhood steward organization with deep connections to residents. Stewards are key in connecting these layered resources to amplify the strengths and enhance the unique character of the neighborhood. Today we seek to extend and adapt these lessons in Live6 (Livernois-McNichols), in Eastern Market, in Jefferson Chalmers and in the New Center and North End.

We deploy multiple forms of capital – grants, loans, deposits, equity and guarantees – to advance our goals. Further information about the Detroit Program’s work can be found on Kresge’s website.

The Fellow will support the Detroit Program in advancing its goal to promote and expand long-term, equitable opportunity in Kresge’s hometown for its residents. The fellow will gain experience and insight into institutional philanthropy, policy and advocacy, community development and strategies to incorporate equity firmly into a place-based philanthropic strategy. This position provides a valuable career development opportunity for an emerging professional as well as added capacity to the Detroit Program to fulfil its ambitious goals.

The fellowship is a two-year appointment and is open to those who have completed a minimum of bachelor’s level training and at least two years of relevant experience.

• Leading a body of work during the term of the fellowship on a topic to be determined jointly by the fellow and the Detroit team.
• Providing project management support and contributing to the coordination…