Children's Foundation

Children's Foundation

Samuel Shaheen, a real estate developer and owner of Shaheen Development, established the Children's Foundation in 2003 with an explicit link to the Children's Hospital of Michigan. The foundation was structured to fund pediatric research and community health programs, and it continues to operate as the hospital's primary philanthropic partner. Shaheen remains an active trustee, guiding a board that includes Detroit business and civic leaders. The foundation manages an endowment that Altss estimates at roughly $123 million, allocated across a diversified institutional portfolio. The investment strategy spans venture capital, including early-stage and seed positions, buyouts, and fund-of-funds commitments — a posture more typical of a private foundation with a long-duration liability stream than a community grantmaker. Geographic focus for both investments and programming remains concentrated in Michigan, with southeast Detroit as the anchor. Collaborative funding relationships include joint initiatives with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and The Kresge Foundation on behavioral health and youth programs. In 2024, the foundation partnered with Bill and Lisa Ford and Ford Philanthropy on the Michigan Central Station Children's Endowment Initiative, raising over $19 million for community health. The foundation occupies a headquarters at 3011 West Grand Blvd in Detroit's New Center district and relies on a lean operating team. Andrew Stein serves as CEO and is embedded in Detroit's business leadership networks, including membership in the Detroit Athletic Club's executive groups and Leadership Detroit. The foundation's board includes Peter Ginopolis as Chair, an ambassador for the Eagles for Children program at Orchard Lake Country Club, reflecting deep integration with local philanthropic and business communities. Adjacent charitable vehicles under the foundation's umbrella include support for the First Tee of Greater Detroit and the Jamie Daniels Foundation, broadening its reach into youth development and substance abuse prevention. The foundation's architecture differs from traditional grantmaking foundations because it pairs a multi-asset investment program with a tight geographic mandate and a single hospital partner. The resulting structure resembles a hybrid endowment-philanthropy, in which the investment portfolio's performance directly dictates the scale and sustainability of pediatric health grants. This model avoids the program-related investment arms-length structure common among large foundations and instead ties grantmaking capacity directly to the foundation's own investing acumen.