Detroit neighborhoods to benefit from nearly $20M in Knight funding

Detroit’s neighborhoods will see new investments in art, technology and public spaces as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation commits $19.8 million to 12 projects across the city.

“These are all things that we believe are really important to creating a vibrant and thriving city,” said Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, the foundation’s president and CEO. “By focusing on these areas, we create opportunities for connection, we help preserve vital history for the community, we provide ways for the community to really access one another and the downtown core.”

“Now what we’re doing with this latest run of investments is really expand from there — to come out to the next inner ring of neighborhoods around downtown, and continue to build on the success that we’ve seen,” she continued.

The announcement was made at a community celebration on Sunday, Sept. 7, at Michigan Central, featuring grantees, community members, a performance by Detroit poet Jessica Care Moore and a Motown-inspired tribute.

According to the foundation, the $19.8 million will fund:

• Unified Greenway Project ($5 million): Expanding nearly 30 miles of trails and public spaces linking the Joe Louis Greenway, the Detroit Riverfront and 23 neighborhoods. Funding includes $2.5 million through the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan for operations, programming and maintenance, and $2.5 million to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy for construction and activation.
• Black Tech Saturdays ($2 million): Scaling Detroit’s equity-focused tech economy to connect residents with high-growth jobs and entrepreneurship. With more than 20,000 visitors nationwide, the initiative will expand digital infrastructure, host events, grow storytelling and help unlock $10 million in income opportunities.
• Joe Louis Greenway Partnership ($2 million): Activating a Woodward Avenue trailhead that links Highland Park residents to the 27.5-mile greenway and adds cultural programming.
• Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit ($2 million): Upgrading infrastructure to expand programming and activate the Knight Foundation Community Commons for year-round community access.
• Vanguard Community Development Corporation ($2 million): Completing the North End Community Campus, a cultural hub with studios, performance spaces and workshops that will serve more than 10,000 residents annually and lay the groundwork for affordable artist housing.
• Eastside Community Network – Mother Tree Wellness Campus ($1.5 million): Completing a nine-acre environmental and health-focused public space with gardens, fitness stations and solar-powered gathering areas.
• Detroit Horse Power ($1 million): Helping develop a 14-acre equestrian center in the Hope Village neighborhood, billed as the nation’s largest urban site, with youth programming and community events.
• Give Merit – Merit Park ($1 million): Transforming vacant land into a youth hub with sports fields, outdoor classrooms, retail incubators, and civic spaces along the Joe Louis Greenway. The grant will fund public amenities and a small business space at Merit Park Plaza.
• Design Core Detroit / College for Creative Studies ($1 million): Supporting local creative businesses through training, funding, and events like Detroit Month of Design.
• Black Leaders Detroit ($1 million): Funding a no-interest loan program for developers and entrepreneurs excluded from traditional financing, supporting over 30 residential projects and 150 jobs.
• Downtown Detroit Partnership ($800,000): Improving accessibility in spaces like Campus Martius and Capitol Park.
• Rootoftwo via CultureSource – The Transformer Building ($500,000): Converting a former electrical substation into a civic studio with tech labs, digital tools and workshops to support collaborative public problem-solving.

Decisions about which organizations or initiatives receive funding are “driven by the community itself,” Wadsworth said.

“We’re here to support the amazing, creative, passionate people who are Detroiters, who have the ideas about what it is that their community needs in order to continue to thrive,” the president and CEO told the Free Press. “Knight’s role here is really only to serve as the wind at the back of these amazing people who care so much about their community. So every one of the decisions about where we invest is driven, first and foremost by the people of Detroit.”

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Several initiatives, such as Detroit Horse Power and Merit Park, underscore a focus on youth. Wadsworth said part of Detroit’s growth depends on ensuring young people have access to “quality programs, activities, things that help them … learn how to grow their leadership skills, and be active in the community.”

Other grants emphasize economic opportunity. Black Tech Saturdays is expected to help generate $10 million in earned income, while Black Leaders Detroit’s loan fund will back more than 30 residential projects and create 150 jobs. The Eastside Community Network’s Mother Tree campus and Merit Park also include job training and small business activation.

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The latest funding builds on more than 25 years of Knight Foundation support in Detroit, totaling $215 million through 750 grants. Much of that investment has focused on downtown revitalization; this round expands into the city’s inner-ring neighborhoods.

“Further investing in these areas that have perhaps not been as invested in, in the past, as folks have focused on that downtown core, is the next opportunity to continue this outward expansion of economic mobility and reinvigorated public space, and the hallmark things that are needed to ensure that a whole community is thriving.”

The Knight brothers, who established the foundation in 1950, have a history in Detroit that dates back 85 years. The Detroit Free Press was the third newspaper the brothers acquired in 1940, later selling it to Gannett in 2005.

“Today, their namesake foundation is proud of the historic investments we are announcing in Detroit,” according to the Knight Foundation.

The multi-year grants will be distributed over time, with disbursements expected to begin this year and continue through the grant period; the rollout schedule has not been finalized.