Nonprofits Remaking Detroit

In an extraordinary partnership with the city government of Detroit, one of America’s most troubled cities, local nonprofits are coming together to remake the city, and the effort is working, as this story from the Detroit News reports.

An excerpt.

“With the eyes of the world on Detroit, old-line philanthropic organizations are leaping into the vacuum, joining forces to reinvent the city.

“Instead of toiling earnestly in the background and writing checks, they're filling a void by deploying their combined clout of $30 billion in assets and decades of experience to build organizations, fund entrepreneurship and reshape the city and its schools.

“They're bent on sparking transformation, their leaders say, rather than change by dribs and drabs, seizing on both opportunity and need.

"We can be a model of how to turn around a city and a region," said Carol Goss, president of the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation, which organized a proposed $200 million Detroit school intervention.

"This is a moment in time for Detroit," said Rip Rapson, who has reinvented the $3.1 billion Kresge Foundation to focus on Detroit's crisis. "How much time do we have? Maybe 18 months."

“But if most hearts leap at the promise of help being provided to reimagine a more vibrant, economically viable Detroit, some city residents are alarmed by this emergent power shift.

“They wonder whether foundations, with their wealth and the opportunity created by crisis, are reimagining themselves so completely they're becoming a fourth branch of government, reaching into city politics, land-use planning and Detroit public and charter schools in unprecedented ways.”