The Kresge Foundation



Creative Placemaking and Expansion of Opportunity

Favorite Creative Placemaking, the integration of arts, culture and community engaged-design into comprehensive community development and urban planning, has gained momentum in the last several years. This paper examines critical needs or opportunities to help the Creative Placemaking field continue taking root in community planning, and to better contribute to expanded opportunity and equity in low-income communities. Several years into the advancement of Creative Placemaking, the language and general premise are taking hold. The term is now widespread in the arts and culture field, and increasingly in community development and urban planning. Yet critical gaps in the field must be addressed Read more





Strategic Learning, Research and Evaluation

FavoriteKresge’s Strategic Learning, Research and Evaluation Practice this week launched its first-ever page on the Kresge website to share its knowledge and evaluations with the sector and community partners across the country. The web page reflects the expansion of the practice with the hiring of Strategic Learning and Evaluation Officer, Anna Cruz, who joined Director Chera Reid. The foundation’s strategic learning, research and evaluation function was established in late 2015 to help Kresge program and practice teams connect data and insights with action to augment the expansion of opportunities for people with low incomes in America’s cities. Learn more here.





Journey to Creative Placemaking: Lessons and Insights

FavoriteReflections, learnings and insights on Creative Placemaking are shared in this series of white papers from The Kresge Foundation’s Arts & Culture team in concert with partners from different fields and sectors for grantmakers and practitioners working to fully integrate arts and culture with community development and urban planning practices. The first paper, Kresge’s Arts & Culture Program, the First Decade, was posted in January, 2018, and subsequent papers will be posted throughout the year. Topics include: Kresge’s journey to creative placemaking Creative Placemaking on-the-ground impacts Creative Placemaking field observations Catalyzing Culture and Community Through community development finance institutions (CDFIs) Anchor strategies  





Building Sustainable Cities through Blended Capital

Favorite A Program of Study and Case Analysis on The Kresge Foundation’s Social Investments Practice in Detroit. This case study examines strategies to confront the interconnected web of complex issues facing cities and their residents as they address income inequality and reimagine a sustainable Detroit.







Report: Community-Driven Resilience Planning

FavoriteThe following framework: 1) advocates deepening democratic practices at the local and regional levels, 2) seeks to put forth the principles and practices defining this emergent field, and 3) outlines resources for community-based institutions implementing community-driven planning processes. While the primary audience for this framework are community-based organizations developing, advocating for, and implementing climate solutions, we hope it will also be useful to philanthropic institutions that are developing funding strategies to tackle the climate change crisis, as well as to public sector officials charged with protecting our cities from the unpredictability of climate disruption.





Capital Scan: Climate Resilient & Equitable Water Systems

Favorite This Climate Resilient & Equitable Water Systems Capital Scan was commissioned by The Kresge Foundation and authored by MissionPoint Partners and California Environmental Associates. It is designed to illuminate integrated strategies with pathways for using a full suite of capital tools — including program related investments (PRIs) and mission related investments (MRIs) – to  accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions to unlock the flow of capital in the water sector. The goal is support of Kresge’s Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems (CREWS) work – advancing a water equity agenda that supports solutions to address climate-related impacts on water systems, enhance climate planning Read more





Guide to Impact Investing

FavoriteGrantmakers In Health (2017): This guide provides a framework to help funders think strategically about the potential of impact investing, part of a growing practice that incorporates environmental, social, and governance criteria into investment decision making. Kresge helped fund the study.







A Resilient Power Capital Scan

Favorite This report, one in a series of reports by Clean Energy Group and Meridian Institute on advancing resilient power in low-income communities, seeks to address how foundations can best develop a portfolio of capital interventions—from grants to impact investments— that together would successfully scale up the solar+storage/resilient power market to benefit low-income populations and to advance their missions. It provides a capital scan of foundation opportunities and actions to guide foundation financial support for this market.







Capital and Collaboration – Strengthening Community Investment in Smaller, Postindustrial Cities

Favorite To better understand the system of community investment, and with the hope of developing interventions that would permit it to achieve greater scale, efficiency, and impact, the authors developed a framework they called “capital absorption.” This work offers potential routes forward for understanding and addressing need in low- and moderate-income communities in postindustrial cities throughout New England.





Capital and Collaboration – An In-Depth Look at the Community Investment System in Massachusetts Working Cities

FavoriteThis publication presents the work of the Capital & Collaboration Initiative, a cross-sector effort designed to increase the scale, efficiency and impact of investments in Massachusetts cities of more than 35,000 people (excluding Boston.) The initiative has identified several cross-cutting priority areas for action that are important to achieving their broader goal of transformative change.





Ideas 42 Report: Nudging for Student Success

FavoriteBreaking Barriers to Postsecondary Education:  Ideas 42 issued a report in June 2016, sponsored in part by The Kresge Foundation, that presented 16 case studies based on behavioral science that shows how subtle, sometimes hidden barriers can, over time, result in a student not completing a postsecondary degree.





Blueprint for a Healthier America

FavoriteThis report, produced by the Trust for America’s Health with support from several foundations including Kresge, calls for a new approach to health which prioritizes improving health and addressing major epidemics in the United States. The report highlights pressing crises and how investments could yield positive returns on investment by adopting proven health strategies, such as substance use prevention, programs to promote physical activity and connecting health and social services.





Healthy Communities of Opportunity: An Equity Blueprint to Address America’s Housing Challenges

FavoriteThis research paper by PolicyLink, with Kresge support, examines how housing and development policies affect economic opportunity and community health, reviews recent trends that have increased housing insecurity, surveys practices that link health and housing opportunity, and suggests a reform agenda for policy changes.





Integrated Transactions: An Emerging Focus For Community Development

FavoriteThis paper examines development models that intentionally integrate elements from two or more sectors, the capital challenges inherent in such projects, and the unique role that CDFIs and philanthropy play in overcoming those challenges. This paper focuses on neighborhood-level efforts that go beyond single sector investments that are emerging through partnerships and collaboratives working to deliver community driven solutions. Includes case studies.  





Breaking Down Creative Placemaking

Favorite What exactly is creative placemaking? The simple answer is any artistic or creative effort to make a particular community stronger. There are literally hundreds of communities carrying out creative placemaking projects across the U.S. – and countless more around the world. Here are two particularly strong examples, both supported by The Kresge Foundation. .





Community Investment: Focusing on the System

FavoriteThis working paper reviews initial work on community investment (CI) as system. CI is defined here as investments intended to achieve social and environmental benefits in underserved communities Our goal in writing it is threefold: • To encourage people to think about the system for organizing CI demand, • To suggest ways to make the system visible and tractable in a given place, and • To offer some suggestions based on current and past efforts on how to make the CI system more robust.