News & Insights
From grantmaking updates to sharing what we’re learning from our community, grantee partners, and peers, we invite you to learn more about our ongoing work here.
McGregor Fund Announces $8.8 Million in Grants & Other 2025 News
The McGregor Fund is delighted to announce $8.8 million in grants awarded to 33 area nonprofit organizations in the first half of 2025.
News & Insights
From grantmaking updates to sharing what we’re learning from our community, grantee partners, and peers, we invite you to learn more about our ongoing work here.
McGregor Fund Announces $8.8 Million in Grants & Other 2025 News
The McGregor Fund is delighted to announce $8.8 million in grants awarded to 33 area nonprofit organizations in the first half of 2025.
Highlighting the Work of Our Grant Partners
📣 Message from McGregor Fund President Kate Levin Markel:
Friends, please consider sharing with your networks. Time to resist together and often.
In solidarity,
Kate
📌 The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program is facing newly proposed (and unlawful) limits on which nonprofits can qualify as eligible employers. Nonprofit organizations could be excluded based on their missions or the communities they serve.
📌 This action would adversely affect nonprofit professionals, making their eligibility for the program subject to shifting politics, priorities and ideologies both now and in the future, and as a result, impacting nonprofits' ability to attract and retain dedicated team members to serve their communities.
📌 This unlawful guidance from the federal administration violates existing law that clearly states that all 501(c)(3) charitable organizations are eligible employers for the program, regardless of mission area or who they serve.
Find more info from the National Council of Nonprofits below:
📣 Catching up with recent changes at the McGregor Fund!
This spring, we welcomed two new team members…
➡️ Taylor Fisher, Senior Accountant
➡️ Jonathan Pulley, Director of Grant Development
And two long-time team members began serving in new positions…
➡️ Heidi Alcock, Vice President of Strategy & Grants Portfolio
➡️ Vanessa Samuelson, Vice President of Learning & Insight
Read more about Taylor, Jonathan, Heidi and Vanessa on our blog:
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📚What we’re reading: “Community Beyond Resources” in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Some excerpts:
📌People experiencing homelessness need someone to stand beside them—with honesty, belief, and consistent presence…to walk with them: to offer friendship, challenge, presence, and hope. It’s not about sympathy, but solidarity.
📌Building stronger pathways out of homelessness means prioritizing not only shelter, but also belonging…housing is the foundation, [but] relationships are the thing that keeps people in homes.
📌Low social capital and a lack of trust only amplify the effects of poverty. When someone has been pushed to the margins, even small things—like asking for help—can feel risky.
📌People don’t recover in line with performance frameworks. They recover in relationships.
📌People need homes. But they also need people. And when we center both, we don’t just end homelessness. We build something better.
Read the full article here:
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📣 In the first half of 2025, the McGregor Fund made seven Foundation Directed grants, totaling $1.8 million, to support capacity building, community journalism, civic engagement and legacy grantmaking.
📌 A note about our Foundation Directed - Capacity Building Partners:
To strengthen the capacity of the nonprofit sector, the Fund is expanding support for trusted partners advancing the missions of nonprofit organizations serving low-income individuals and communities. The Fund continues to learn from these partners and from their work in community. Both offer comprehensive services, including legal and technical assistance, leadership development, cybersecurity support, and financial and operational coaching. This expanded funding is crucial at this time, as requests from these organizations’ non-profit partners, some of whom are also McGregor Fund grant partners, are expanding exponentially due to federal actions.
📌A note about our Foundation Directed - Community Journalism Partners
The Fund also supports community-centered, high-quality, non-partisan, non-profit journalism, an essential tool to strengthen civil society infrastructure and civic engagement. Two partners have built hyper-local newsrooms and collaboratives marked by commitments to rigorous fact-checking, deep community engagement, and transparency.
📌 A note about our Foundation Directed - Civic Infrastructure Partners.
The Fund also supports civic causes critical to the economic and social interests of Detroit and its residents. A grant was made for strategic communications awareness support around the expected impact of Medicaid cuts on health care providers, community health centers, hospitals, and local economies. Another grant supported a community-led, Detroit-wide project to build power for residents by compiling a list of vetted, qualified candidates for municipal roles, each of whom is committed to advancing the public interest, engaging marginalized communities, and wielding structural power in service to all residents.
➡️ Read a letter from our president, more information about our grantmaking and other news from the Fund, as well as a note regarding our different approach to sharing news this cycle: mcgregorfund.org/mcgregor-fund-announces-grants-other-news/
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Statement on White House Announcement on Crime and Homelessness in the Nation’s Capital
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McGregor Fund Founders
More than 100 years ago, the McGregors devoted their lives to community service – Tracy as an agency founder and social entrepreneur ending homelessness and unemployment for Detroit men, and Katherine as the founder and benefactor of an orphanage in Highland Park. Their proximity to people experiencing hardship and trauma informed their charitable giving and Tracy’s role as a civic leader.
McGregor Fund Founders
More than 100 years ago, the McGregors devoted their lives to community service – Tracy as an agency founder and social entrepreneur ending homelessness and unemployment for Detroit men, and Katherine as the founder and benefactor of an orphanage in Highland Park. Their proximity to people experiencing hardship and trauma informed their charitable giving and Tracy’s role as a civic leader.
McGregor Fund Newsletter
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