Peter C. and Emajean Cook Foundation

Peter C. and Emajean Cook Foundation

Peter C. Cook, who built his wealth as the owner of Mazda Great Lakes and Import Motors, founded the Grand Rapids-based foundation with his wife Emajean in 1987. The Cooks embedded their Christian values into the foundation's mandate, concentrating its grantmaking on education and religious organizations. The foundation remains tightly held, with second and third-generation family involvement through President Thomas H. Claus and Treasurer Carrie L. Boer, who also oversees investments at the affiliated Cook Holdings entity. Unlike a broad-based endowment, the Cook Foundation's activity is heavily weighted toward direct community transformation in West Michigan rather than diversified grantmaking across unrelated geographies. Its asset mix includes minority stakes in local institutions — notably through Boer's role as a director of Northpointe Bancshares — as well as direct ownership of several property assets. The foundation's real estate footprint includes the ICCF Community Homes Initiative in Grand Rapids and Lansing, The Highlands property on Leonard Street, Cook Village apartments in Holland, and the Cook Library Center and Cook Arts Center on Grandville Avenue. These holdings reflect a posture that blurs the traditional line between a grantmaking foundation and a place-based community developer. The foundation operates alongside Cook Holdings, which shares the same Charlevoix Drive office and management team. Claus and Boer are the public faces of this compact structure, with a supporting staff that includes Becky J. Mikowski and Laura Matonich. Ryan Cook also serves on the board, continuing the family's direct governance of the entity. A significant past philanthropic partnership links the Cooks with the Van Andel family — co-developers of the Van Andel-Cook Center — and with the DeVos family on other West Michigan capital projects. Where most private foundations operate as pure grant distributors, the Cook Foundation's direct-property-holding model sets it apart. It does not outsource community development; it acts as a property owner, landlord, and neighborhood investor. The foundation's board retains family majority control, and its executive functions are run through the related Cook Holdings, ensuring investment decisions and grant strategy remain a single, integrated operation rather than a bifurcated family-office-plus-foundation structure.