NONPROFIT QUARTERLY
By Rick Cohen
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. [link]
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:
Entirely separate from all of this is a commitment of $3.5 million from the Skillman Foundation to offset healthcare cuts for city retirees.
By Rick Cohen
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. [link]
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
- A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, Detroit: $5 million
- Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, Southfield: $2.5 million
- 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.
