Lead Attorney

The Kresge Foundation (the “foundation”) has engaged Major Lindsey & Africa on an exclusive basis to conduct a search for a Lead Attorney to be located at their headquarters in Troy, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). Interested candidates please submit your resume (in MS Word format) to Heather Fine at  or to the MLA recruiter who contacted you about this position.

Please do not contact the company directly; all resumes sent to the company will be routed to MLA for handling and will create delays.

Overview: The Lead Attorney will be a thoughtful and trusted advisor to the Board, Executive Team and staff and assist in advising on grantmaking, investments, social investments, governance issues, tax (specific to exempt organizations) and other general corporate law matters of the foundation including contracts and leases, intellectual property, technology, and insurance related matters. This position includes ongoing work as well as short and long-term projects such as policy development, research, and analysis, with an eye toward ensuring compliance with laws governing private foundations.

This work will be done with the support of external counsel, in partnership with the foundation’s Executive Team and under the supervision of the VP, CFO, CAO, Treasurer and Board Secretary.

Organization: The Kresge Foundation is a $3.6 billion private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development in Detroit. In collaboration with nonprofit, public, private and philanthropic partners, the foundation helps create pathways for low-income people to improve their life circumstances and join the economic mainstream.

For more information, please go to (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below). .

Compensation: Competitive salary and benefits.

Experience: The successful candidate will have at least seven (7) years of corporate/business law experience with an emphasis on transactional matters. Experience advising tax-exempt entities, specifically experience counseling private foundations, is a clear advantage. Experience handling investment transactions is a strong plus. Prior law firm experience is required.

Relocation: Yes. This is a national search.

Bar Admission: Admission to a State Bar of any jurisdiction in the United States and licensed to practice in Michigan (or admitted to the Michigan Bar within a reasonable time following the commencement of the position).

The Kresge Foundation is a $3.6 billion private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development in Detroit. In collaboration with nonprofit, public, private and philanthropic partners, the foundation helps create pathways for low-income people to improve their life circumstances and join the economic mainstream.

Our Mission

Established by Sebastian S. Kresge in 1924:
To promote human progress.

“The brilliance of Sebastian Kresge is best exhibited in his guiding wish that the foundation ‘promote human progress.’ It is the responsibility of the board and staff to interpret his maxim and to take the foundation where it needs to go to be relevant in the 21st century. Redefining ourselves as a strategic philanthropy represents our efforts to fulfill this responsibility.”

ELAINE

D. ROSEN, CHAIRWOMAN, KRESGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Our Values

These five values shape who The Kresge Foundation is as an organization and guides how the foundation works – with each other and with its many grantees and partners.

Stewardship

How we manage our resources:
The foundation commits to exhibiting the highest levels of integrity, humility, excellence, and an abiding sense of responsibility in acting as stewards of the human, reputational, and financial resources entrusted to us to advance the foundation’s mission and to animate the credo of our founder, Sebastian Kresge to leave “the world a better place than we found it.”

Respect

How we treat one another:
The…