logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

The Foundation Tally of Detroit’s Unprecedented Grand Bargain

Rick Cohen
July 7, 2014
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Detroit

July 06, 2014; Crain’s Detroit Business

This is Detroit week. What’s happening in Detroit this week might be the most momentous confluence of events affecting nonprofits and foundations in years, even decades. With the “Grand Bargain” likely to go through, having already received the state’s commitment to the plan to funnel capital to the underfunded pension funds through the mechanism of saving and converting the Detroit Institute of Arts and almost assuredly to get a positive vote from the city’s pensioners, the foundations and the state now face the challenge of mechanics. To get the unprecedented commitment of $366 million in foundation dollars into the public pensions, the foundations are creating a new 501(a)(3) “supporting organization” called the Foundation for Detroit’s Future, which will somehow serve as the mechanism for the conversion of the Detroit Institute of Arts into a nonprofit and to get the foundation moneys into the General Retirement System and the Police and Fire Retirement System.

The new supporting organization will be housed at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, which is itself a significant contributor to the Grand Bargain, and governed by a five-person board of directors, including community foundation CEO Mariam Noland, current community foundation board chair and PVS Chemical CEO James Nicholson, former community foundation chair and retired Ford Motor Co. executive Allan Gilmour, Kresge Foundation VP and chief investment officer Robert Manilla, and Ford Foundation vice president and general counsel Ricardo Castro.

To create the new supporting foundation, the Community Foundation hired two non-Detroit law firms—Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler LLP in New York City and Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey PLC of Grand Rapids. Apparently there were no Detroit law firms that weren’t “conflicted” by being on one side or the other of the bankruptcy case. The Crain’s article doesn’t identify how much money was spent to hire and pay the outside law firms or what it will cost the Community Foundation to operate the new supporting organization.

 

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

So let’s take a tally of what the Grand Bargain adds up to. For the Grand Bargain itself with funding going into the bankruptcy plan per se, the foundations committed to the deal are as follows:

  • Ford Foundation, New York City: $125 million
  • Kresge Foundation, Troy: $100 million
  • W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek: $40 million
  • John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami: $30 million
  • William Davidson Foundation, Southfield: $25 million
  • Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Detroit: $10 million
  • Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Flint: $10 million
  • Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Bloomfield Hills: $10 million
  • Hudson-Webber Foundation, Detroit: $10 million
  • McGregor Fund, Detroit: $6 million

In addition, two foundations are putting in money toward helping the Detroit Institute of Arts meet its $100 million commitment for its conversion to a nonprofit:

  • A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, Detroit: $5 million
  • Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, Southfield: $2.5 million

Additional foundation grants committed to the plan but not clearly specified regarding their administration are as follows, including two new commitments from local auto companies:

  • Ford Motor Co., Dearborn: $10 million
  • General Motors Co./General Motors Foundation, Detroit: $10 million
  • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York City: $10 million ($5 million contingent on the DIA’s raising of its $100 million)
  • Chrysler Group: $6 million
  • J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles: $3 million

Entirely separate from all of this is a commitment of $3.5 million from the Skillman Foundation to offset healthcare cuts for city retirees.

All told, this is an absolutely unprecedented series of foundation commitments from the foundation community, stretching the boundaries of what foundations might have ever considered doing anywhere. It may “save” the DIA, and it will certainly generate a substantial sum toward helping write down the cost of the huge amounts owed to pensioners. Those might be absolutely necessary steps for the DIA and the pension funds, but the ultimate measure of success is going to be whether they help save not only the multi-billion dollar art collection, but help save Detroit as well.—Rick Cohen

This article has been altered from its original form to add the contribution of the Chrysler Group to the listing of auto manufacturers.

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Philanthropy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
The Emergence of Black Funds
Cyndi Suarez
What We Lose When We Win: Exhaustion and the Fight Against Racist Repression
Camille Bennett
This Juneteenth, a Campaign to Fund Black Migrant Power
Kitana Ananda
Freeing Ourselves from Colonial, White Savior Models of Philanthropy
Nicolette Naylor and Nina Blackwell
What Is the Nonprofit Sector of a Future, Equitable World?
Devon Kearney
New Data Tells Us Where Donor-Advised Fund Dollars Go—And Don’t Go
Chuck Collins and Helen Flannery

NPQ_Summer_2022

Upcoming Webinars

July 14th, 2 pm ET

Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in 21st-Century Social Movements

Register Now
Group Created with Sketch.
July 28th, 2 pm ET

Changing the Subject

Boards As Social Movement Spaces

Register Now
You might also like
The Emergence of Black Funds
Cyndi Suarez
What We Lose When We Win: Exhaustion and the Fight Against...
Camille Bennett
This Juneteenth, a Campaign to Fund Black Migrant Power
Kitana Ananda

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.