Lakeshore Foundation

Lakeshore Foundation

Founded in 1984 by Michael E. Stephens, the Lakeshore Foundation operates as a Birmingham, Alabama-based non-profit dedicated to advancing physical activity and research for individuals with physical disabilities. The organization was built around a sprawling campus that houses fitness, aquatic, and recreational facilities, now recognized as an official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site. The foundation’s capital base supports a diversified investment pool spanning private equity, hedge funds, alternative funds, and fixed income. These assets underpin both programmatic spending and the physical infrastructure of its campus, which includes a main fitness and research facility and residential cottages. Operational partnerships with the University of Alabama at Birmingham drive a collaborative research agenda, while the Birmingham Squadron, an NBA G League affiliate, uses the Lakeshore campus as its primary practice home. Jeff Underwood served as CEO for three decades before retiring in 2021, handing leadership to John D. Kemp, the former CEO of the Viscardi Center. The board includes family representation through Allison Stephens, widow of the founder. Real assets tied to the foundation include multiple commercial buildings clustered along Ridgeway Drive. A disclosed collaboration with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee gives the foundation a dual designation unique among American training sites. The structure is that of a traditional philanthropic endowment with an unusually specific operational mission tied to elite adaptive sports. Its hybrid posture combines grantmaking, direct campus operations, and a multi-asset investment portfolio managed to sustain both. The presence of a parallel commercial real estate footprint alongside campus operations creates an uncommon physical endowment architecture for a non-profit of its scale.