News & Insights

Yesterday, McGregor Fund grant partners received a message announcing our board’s unprecedented decision to significantly increase the Fund’s payout rate for the next two years. We understand what you're up against, and we want to step up and support you.

We are delighted to announce the 2025 cohort of the Eugene A. Miller Fellowship Program – four distinguished leaders who determined that this was their year to take time away from their organizations to rest, reflect, and recharge.

The McGregor Fund’s trustees and staff are delighted to welcome Nikia Washington, who will serve as our inaugural Director of Engagement & Communications.

The McGregor Fund hosted a session entitled “Advancing Equity in Philanthropy by Prioritizing Nonprofit Wellness, Thriving, and Rest" at the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) annual conference in Traverse City, Michigan.

In June, after settling into new office space within The Skillman Foundation suite at the Talon Centre, McGregor Fund staff and trustees were delighted to welcome grant partners to an open house.

Vanessa Samuelson recently spoke at the 2024 Youth Development Resource Center - Detroit Unify to Liberate Summit, a gathering elevating youth voices and highlighting the essential role out-of-school providers play in Detroit.

The McGregor Fund's Heidi Alcock participated in a panel discussion during the Rest Forum, led by Michigan Community Resources and sector partners, on a day of conversation and reflection on the systems that keep nonprofit leaders from thriving.

"Funders have got to acknowledge and own the role they play in burnout and exhaustion. You don't have the answers. Trust the people who do, get out of their way and support their success. That is what is going to lead to the peace and justice that we're all here for." - Heidi Alcock, McGregor Fund Director of Grant Development & Communications

We are thrilled to announce the McGregor Fund’s 2024 Eugene A. Miller Fellows! This sabbatical program proudly supports our grant partners’ CEOs and executive directors to take extended time away from their organizations to recharge, immerse in enriching experiences, build skills and knowledge, and broaden their vision – all according to a plan of their own design.

The McGregor Fund is thrilled to share that we are moving from our longtime offices in downtown Detroit to offices within The Skillman Foundation suite at the Talon Centre on the Detroit River.  We are delighted to be sharing space with our friends at Skillman!

The McGregor Fund prioritizes learning with and from grant partners. Two years ago, we changed an important learning practice: our grant reports. We stopped asking for narrative reports by default and began asking grant partners if they would like to check in with us and, if so, how.

The McGregor Fund's Heidi Alcock and Marcia Gardner were honored to join the Midnight Golf Program's birthday celebration and to accept our long-time grantee partner's Driver Award on the Fund's behalf.

McGregor Fund President Kate Levin Markel and Trustees Joyce Jenereaux and Sheilah Clay joined Developing K.I.D.S. (Kingdoms In Different Stages) Founder and CEO Kimberly Johnson for the renovation groundbreaking for her organization's new and expanded home.

At its 20th Anniversary Gala, McGregor Fund grantee partner The Yunion recognized Heidi Alcock, McGregor Fund Director of Grant Development & Communications, with its Community Equity and Inclusion Award.

Over the last 17 years, Kim has transformed Developing K.I.D.S. from a small neighborhood family support group into an expanding organization with a waiting list, newly acquired permanent home, and a workforce development program.

McGregor Fund President Kate Levin Markel recently appeared with Allandra Bulger, Executive Director of Co.act Detroit, a McGregor Fund grantee partner, on the Camelback Ventures "It’s Not Your Money" videocast.

From Crain's Detroit Business: Nine prominent Detroit-area nonprofit CEOs and directors have been awarded a sabbatical through a fellowship aimed at allowing them to "recharge, immerse in enriching experiences, build skills and knowledge and broaden their vision."

We are thrilled to announce the McGregor Fund’s 2023 Eugene A. Miller Fellows! This sabbatical program proudly supports our grant partners’ CEOs and executive directors to take extended time away from their organizations to recharge, immerse in enriching experiences, build skills and knowledge, and broaden their vision – all according to a plan of their own design.

McGregor Fund Director of Grant Development & Communications Heidi Alcock spoke on "Advancing Equity through Collaborative Philanthropy" at the Further Together conference in Washington, D.C., in November, 2022. Also appearing on the panel with Heidi were Amanda Cage, CEO of National Fund for Workforce Solutions; Dawnn Leary, Chief Program Officer at Greater Washington Community …

Introducing the “Advancing Workforce Equity in Metro Detroit: A Blueprint for Action” report. We’re thrilled to share this important work undertaken by community partners, including Heidi Alcock, McGregor Fund Director of Grant Development & Communications and Co-Chair of the Detroit Area Workforce Funders Collaborative. …

The McGregor Fund is recently released our 2020-21 Biennial Report, “Joining the Work of Justice.” This new report looks back on two years of enormous effort, adaptation, learning, loss, and regeneration – for the McGregor Fund, our partners and our community. We invite you to read more about the Fund’s COVID crisis response, what …

TeQuion Brookins Transitions to Advisory Role; Malika Pettigrew Joins the McGregor Fund The McGregor Fund is celebrating TeQuion Brookins, our departing Director of Operations and welcoming Malika Pettigrew as our new Accounting & Operations Associate (AOA). At the end of 2021, TeQuion transitioned to full-time mission-driven entrepreneurship. During her time at the Fund, …

Largest Grant in McGregor Fund History Made to UCHC At the end of 2021, the McGregor Fund made a $1 million operating support grant, the largest grant for services in the Fund’s history, to United Community Housing Coalition (UCHC). This Housing & Homelessness Prevention grant will support UCHC's substantially increased effort to deploy …

Kate Levin Markel Named to Crain’s 100 Most Influential Women; Creates Her Own List of Influential Women In November, McGregor Fund President, Kate Levin Markel, was named one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan by Crain's Detroit Business. The trustees and staff are and grateful for Kate’s leadership and thrilled that …

Choose Healthy Life Initiative with Mayor Duggan In April, we were honored to join Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan; Reverend Horace Sheffield, III; Debra Fraser-Howze, founder of Choose Healthy Life; and Dr. Darienne Hudson, Executive Director of United Way for Southeastern Michigan at a vaccination event held by The Detroit Association of Black Organizations …

The Detroit Community Development Mini-Grant Fund's COVID-19 recovery grants for Detroit-based community organizations are administered by Co.act Detroit and Community Development Advocates of Detroit, with support from the McGregor Fund and the Hudson-Webber Foundation.

In 2020, a year of extreme challenges, loss, and reckoning, a big story quietly and quickly unfolded in Detroit. Our city came together to keep Detroiters experiencing homelessness safe — and now, we can do more.

Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan's "Investing in Us" report combines Detroiters’ stories and neighborhood-level improvement plans into a “unified city-wide vision of economic well-being.”

2020/03/31
The McGregor Fund team is joining with public sector partners, leaders in our local social sector and funder colleagues to help ensure that community-wide responses to this crisis are swift and highly coordinated. Learn more about the steps we’re taking.

2019/12/18
Even when it is temporary, the experience of homelessness is traumatic and life-altering. A home is the foundation for so many aspects of life, supporting a wide range of our needs and aspirations, from basic health and safety to stable employment. Photo from The NOAH Project

2019/12/18
In the city of Detroit, where the workforce participation rate hovers around 53.4 percent, a significant proportion of job seekers face multiple, critical, and interlinked barriers to employment, such as reliable transportation, affordable and quality child care — and, most vitally, stable housing. Photo from SER Metro

2019/10/30
More than 10,000 Detroiters experienced homelessness in 2018, enough to fill one quarter of Comerica Park, and representing the largest share of people experiencing homelessness in the state.

2019/08/12
The Workforce Intelligence Network for Southeast Michigan (WIN), is releasing a report on “Supporting Job Seekers Facing Multiple Barriers to Work," funded by the McGregor Fund.

2019/01/21
We use Tracy McGregor’s name while explaining our mission, and you’ll find his photo all over our website and social media channels. There’s a good reason for this.

2018/10/19
In 2017, we shifted our grantmaking approach to address the needs of the whole person and to take a long term view of the journey out of poverty and what is needed along the way.

2018/09/10
To permanently end homelessness, we must both establish a multi-layered, rapid crisis response system and vastly improve access to affordable housing.

2018/06/08
In May, the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty wrapped up a two-year research initiative to answer the question: What would it take to dramatically increase mobility from poverty?

2017/01/29
On July 18, 2013, Detroit became the largest city in U.S. history to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. At stake was nothing less than the very survival of America’s Motor City.

2017/01/17
In 2013, University of Michigan-Dearborn launched the Public Allies Metro Detroit Program, an initiative to develop young community leaders and strengthen local nonprofits. In 2013, the Fund became the first investor in the program.

2017/01/17
What if unemployed Detroiters could transform vacant property into a beautiful, working landscape, one that sustained residents for generations to come? And, what if, in the process, they could also access landscape industry training, job-readiness programs, and case management services?

2017/01/17
The Fund is working with TDC to understand how tri-county nonprofits are capitalized and create tools and resources for organizations seeking to learn more about capitalization.