Council of Michigan Foundations

History, Membership, and Leadership

In 1972, leaders of independent and family foundations, community foundations, and corporate foundations in Michigan created the Conference of Michigan Foundations as an annual professional education conference. ⁵ The impetus for the conference was the federal Tax Reform Act of 1969, which changed the federal tax and regulatory environment for private foundations. After the success of the original conference, the Council of Michigan Foundations was created in 1975 as an independent organization with an initial membership of 77 foundations. ¹

CMF’s founding members included major foundations with national presence such as the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Ford Motor Company Fund, Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, Hudson-Webber Foundation, Kresge Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. ¹ It currently lists 191 members, including the Ballmer Group, Dow Company Foundation, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Skillman Foundation, and William Davidson Foundation. ⁶

For its first 25 years, the Council of Michigan Foundations was led by Dorothy A. “Dottie” Johnson. Under her leadership, CMF was an advocate and educational resource for the state’s philanthropic foundations and their major donors, promoting state and federal government policies that advanced their interests. ¹ CMF was one of the first organizations to regularly lobby federal lawmakers and regulators in favor of policies that increased tax benefits for charitable donations, decreased the federal excise tax on foundations, and loosened federal requirements for foundations to pay out a specific percentage of their assets over time. ¹

Policy Advocacy

For the first two decades of its existence, Council of Michigan Foundations’ lobbying and policy advocacy efforts were largely focused on promoting a tax and regulatory environment that was conducive to its members’ efforts to address societal issues through private philanthropy. ¹

In the 1990s and into the early 2000s, CMF began working more closely with state and local governments and engaged in multiple projects where government, not private philanthropists, played the central role. ¹  This began around 1989 with CMF’s work with the Michigan Department of Public Health to create the Michigan AIDS Fund, and expanded strongly after president and CEO Rob Collier took charge in 2000. Under Collier’s leadership, CMF was much more active in operating programs in partnership with state officers and agencies including the governor, attorney general, Department of Community Health, Family Independence Agency, and State Housing Development Authority. ¹

CMF promotes a policy agenda that includes increasing state government spending on mental health services, government-supported broadband and IT infrastructure, subsidized childcare and after-school programs, and other largely left-of-center priorities. ⁷

Promotion of DEI

In 2008, Council of Michigan Foundations became the first statewide organization of its kind to formally embrace left-of-center diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles through its “Transforming Michigan Philanthropy through Diversity and Inclusion” initiative, which was intended to “transform Michigan philanthropy to become more diverse and inclusive.” ³ The Arcus Foundation, Kresge Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Skillman Foundation provided funding for the six-year initiative. ¹

During that time, CMF was a member of the D5 Coalition, which was a center-left project of NEO Philanthropy to promote the use of center-left DEI principles in philanthropic grant-making. ^{8 9} CMF was named a “Take 5 Champion” by D5 for its role in advancing those DEI principles in Michigan. ³

While CMF is not primarily a grant-making organization, it does offer grants to community foundations in the state to “support their needs in addressing racial equity issues.” ¹⁰

CMF has announced the primary strategic principle to “Embolden and equip Michigan philanthropy in the relentless pursuit of equitable systems and the embrace of inclusive diversity.” ^{11 2} It advocates at the state and national level for nonprofits to base their governance on left-wing DEI principles, including giving those principles a prominent role in all philanthropic grantmaking and gift-giving. ²

CMF president and CEO Kyle Caldwell is a board member of BoardSource, formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, which similarly promotes a strongly DEI-centered model of nonprofit board construction and governance. ^{12 13}