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Kalamazoo Community Foundation
William E. Upjohn made the founding gift in 1925, creating a permanent charitable endowment for Kalamazoo County. The foundation has since become the...
Kalamazoo Community Foundation
William E. Upjohn made the founding gift in 1925, creating a permanent charitable endowment for Kalamazoo County. The foundation has since become the connective tissue for the area's most ambitious place-based philanthropy, stewarding funds from families like Stryker and Gilmore alongside hundreds of smaller donor-advised funds. Its grantmaking and impact-investing mandate spans early childhood health, housing, workforce development, and racial equity, all executed with a geographic lens fixed tightly on a single Michigan county. The investment office, led by CIO Joshua Sledge, deploys capital across a portfolio that blends traditional endowment assets with a dedicated social-impact allocation targeting local projects. The foundation participates in direct program-related investments and mission-aligned commitments within Kalamazoo County, though specific AUM figures are not publicly disclosed. Its work intersects directly with large-scale, nationally cited local initiatives. The foundation was a launch partner for Kalamazoo Rx Kids, a cash-prescription program providing unconditional payments to new mothers — a partnership with the Stryker family that has drawn attention from public-health researchers. The foundation operates from its headquarters on East Michigan Avenue and maintains close structural ties to the Council of Michigan Foundations and Mission Investors Exchange. Its leadership participates in ABFE, the association of Black foundation executives, reflecting an institutional emphasis on racial-equity governance. In a county of roughly 260,000 people, KZCF functions less as a passive grantmaker and more as a convener that aligns municipal, nonprofit, and philanthropic balance sheets toward specific local outcomes. The structural differentiator is geographic concentration paired with multi-generational family-philanthropy alignment. Few community foundations sit at the intersection of a globally recognized education moonshot, a multi-billion-dollar family legacy in Stryker, and an explicit racial-justice mandate — all within a single-county footprint.
General information
Firm type
Endowment / Foundation
Year founded
1925
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Kalamazoo
Corporate office
402 East Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49007, United States
Principals
Grace Lubwama
President & CEO
Joshua Sledge
Chief Investment Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Kalamazoo Community Foundation?
Joshua Sledge serves as Chief Investment Officer, overseeing portfolio construction and the foundation's social-impact investment sleeve targeting Kalamazoo County. President and CEO Grace Lubwama holds ultimate fiduciary authority and sets the foundation's strategic direction. The investment committee structure and external manager relationships are not enumerated in public disclosures.
Is Kalamazoo Community Foundation a single-family office or an endowment?
It is a public community foundation and endowment, not a private family office. While the Upjohn family provided the initial gift in 1925, KZCF now stewards assets from hundreds of donor-advised funds, corporate partners, and multi-generational local families including Stryker and Gilmore. Its 501(c)(3) status and public-charity classification distinguish it from single-family structures.
Does KZCF make program-related investments or only grants?
KZCF maintains an explicit social impact investment portfolio alongside its traditional grantmaking apparatus. The foundation is a member of Mission Investors Exchange, which signals active deployment into mission-aligned, place-based investments within Kalamazoo County. The precise balance between grants, PRIs, and MRI commitments is not publicly itemized.
What is Kalamazoo Community Foundation's relationship to The Kalamazoo Promise?
The Kalamazoo Promise is a separate, independently administered educational initiative that guarantees tuition for Kalamazoo Public Schools graduates. KZCF is a closely aligned partner and community convener that helped catalyze the ecosystem around it but does not directly administer the Promise scholarship fund.
How is the Stryker family involved with Kalamazoo Community Foundation?
The Stryker family, whose wealth originates from the medical-device company Stryker Corporation headquartered in Kalamazoo, are major donors to and partners with KZCF. In 2024, the Stryker family collaborated with the foundation to launch Kalamazoo Rx Kids, a pioneering unconditional cash-transfer program for new mothers in the county.
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