Ribbon cutting for Detroit Achievement Academy's recent expansion.

Celebrating 10 Years of Impact Across Michigan!

Ten years ago, the City of Detroit was less than a year removed from the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history and working to restructure more than $18 billion in debt held by 100,000+ creditors. Despite this, local nonprofits continued to provide essential, community-strengthening services, while Detroit’s philanthropic community stepped up to bridge significant funding gaps while helping to lift the city from insolvency.

Though 16 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) were serving Detroit at the time, there was still extraordinary need for additional lenders prepared to invest in mission-driven organizations committed to building the city’s future – particularly outside of the downtown and Midtown areas. So, too, was there significant need for the non-appraisal-based real estate loans that IFF has offered since inception. The presence of a lender like IFF that was both willing and able to provide flexible capital to nonprofits based primarily on their ability to repay the loan was essential.

Recognizing this, The W.K. Kellogg, Kresge, and Skillman Foundations provided IFF with the funding and relationship-building support needed to expand into Detroit and begin supporting community changemakers intent on creating a path to inclusive growth.

A decade later, with more than 25 staff across two offices, IFF has expanded throughout the state to support organizations and their communities so they can thrive.

Scroll down for some of the milestones from the last 10 years and click here to learn more about our offerings in Michigan.

Click here for a comprehensive look at IFF's impact in Michigan over the last 10 years.

10 Years of Impact in Michigan

  1. 2014
  2. 2015
  3. 2016
  4. 2016
  5. 2018
  6. 2020
  7. 2021
  8. 2022
  9. 2023
  10. 2024

  1. 2014Detroit Office Opens

    With funding from the W.K. Kellogg, Kresge, and Skillman Foundations, IFF opened its fourth office outside of Illinois – in Detroit.

    Shortly thereafter, IFF provided its first loan – $17,250 to Detroit Achievement Academy (DAA), then a little-known, year-old public charter school committed to providing world-class education through an expeditionary learning model focused on developing and nurturing the whole child. That loan helped DAA purchase furniture, computers, and other technology needed to enrich students’ academic experience and launched a longstanding relationship with the organization and its founder, Kyle Smitley.

    Later this year, IFF conducts its first Real Estate Solutions contract with Focus: HOPE and launches Learning Spaces, working to increase capacity and improve access to quality early childhood education. In 2021, Learning Spaces expanded to Grand Rapids.

  2. 2015Comprehensive Detroit ECE Study Unveiled

    IFF releases The System We Need: A Neighborhood Snapshot of Early Education in Detroit. The report estimates that in 2015 nearly 28,000 of Detroit children needed but did not have access to quality early childhood care. The study compares the number of slots available at licensed and registered facilities with the number of children in need of care, and breaks down the supply-and-demand estimate by individual neighborhoods and program types.

  3. 2016$50 million in Loans Closed!

    In just three years, IFF marks closing $50 million in loans. The Oaks of Ann Arbor LDHA, LP officially helps us reach this milestone.

  4. 2016Hope Starts Here Launches & First NMTC Deployment

    In 2016, more than 18,000 Detroit residents came together to address the challenges of early childhood care and education and develop a model to increase access for children from birth through age 8. This became Hope Starts Here – an initiative to make Detroit a city that puts young children first by 2027.

    IFF played an integral part in the creation of Hope Starts Here and continues to lead the work focused on improving the quality of Detroit’s early childhood facilities. Through this, IFF supports providers to expand and enhance healthy, bright, active early childhood learning spaces through technical assistance, funding, targeted support, and new construction.

    Also in 2016, IFF provides its first New Market Tax Credits deployment in Michigan to the YWCA West Central Michigan.

  5. 2018Grand Rapids ECE Study Completed

    A System for All Children: An Early Childhood Education Needs Assessment in Grand Rapids is released and examines access to quality early childhood education programs in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

    The study found that the city needed about 4,000 additional licensed and registered early childhood education slots and that there was a dramatic lack of access to early childhood education slots for infants and toddlers.

    An update to the study was released in 2023, Split by More Than the Grand River – How Uneven Access to Affordable Child Care Divides Kent County.

  6. 2020Stronger Nonprofits Initiative comes to Detroit & IFF Closes $100 million in Loans in Michigan

    The Stronger Nonprofits Initiative (SNI), which launched in Chicago in 2017, is a 14-month program that aims to support nonprofits led by people of color in navigating system barriers to accessing capital and real estate opportunities.

    The first Detroit cohort included: Connect Detroit, COTS, EcoWorks, HELP, HeritageWorks, InsideOut Literary Arts, Jefferson East Inc., Plowshares Theatre Company, Southwest Detroit Business Association, and Urban Neighborhoods Initiatives.

    At the end of the year, another milestone is reached with IFF closing $100 million in loans. In a full circle moment, Detroit Achievement Academy, who received IFF’s first loan, helps reach this mark.

  7. 2021Marygrove Early Education Center Opens

    Built on the campus of the historic Marygrove College in Northwest Detroit, the Marygrove Early Education Center (Marygrove) is a 28,000-square-foot facility that includes 12 spacious classrooms, dedicated developmental spaces, and a central focus on interior courtyards that bring in natural light and connect to the larger campus. Connectivity between the indoors and outdoors, the color scheme, and furnishings are several examples of how Marygrove models best practices that can be incorporated in early education facilities throughout Detroit and beyond.

    IFF was honored to serve as the lead developer for the project, overseeing construction and working closely with architects, contractors, community members, and early childhood providers to develop and build the facility.

    Marygrove was the first new center under the Hope Starts Here framework.

  8. 2022Grand Rapids Office Opens & Caring for MI Future: Facilities Improvement Fund launches

    After several years working with customers across the state, IFF opens a second office in Michigan – in Grand Rapids – to better serve Western Michigan.

    Also this year, IFF receives $59 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, awarded by the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) as part of the Caring for MI Future initiative, to administer Caring for MI Future: Facilities Improvement Fund (CFMF).

    CFMF is a grant program for new and expanding child care providers across the State of Michigan in order to renovate and upgrade their facilities to accommodate additional child care slots, especially in geographic areas with limited providers.

  9. 2023Michigan Affordable Housing Loan Pool Launches & $150 million in Loans Closed

    The Michigan Affordable Housing Loan Program (MAHLP) is a visionary initiative managed and administered by IFF, in collaboration with Kent and Ottawa Counties, offering developers flexible financing for high-quality affordable housing in West Michigan.

    Uniting private and public resources, MAHLP will leverage $64 million in private capital, along with $17.5 million from Kent County and $10 million from Ottawa County, creating a revolving fund of at least $91.5 million. IFF is committed to raising more money, to leverage the already committed dollars, ensuring the revolving fund can grow and support affordable housing in the region for years to come.

    Commongrounds Cooperative in Traverse City helps IFF reach the milestone of $150 million in loans closed.

  10. 2024$200 million in Loans & McClellan Early Childhood Center Opens

    Ten years since arriving in Detroit, IFF closes $200 million in loans with the Micah 6 Community in Pontiac. As featured in Second Wave, Micah 6 is a great example of an organization repurposing a community asset to strengthen the community.

    This year also marks IFF’s first owned development by IFF in Detroit, and the second center to launch under the Hope Starts Here framework, the McClellan Early Childhood Center features eight classrooms for 96 news students. The $8.75 million development was funded and financed by JPMorgan Chase, The Kresge Foundation, Cinnaire, City of Detroit, PNC Bank, and IFF. Matrix Human Services will be the early childhood education provider.

    Click here to learn more.

Client Spotlight · Various

How Three Detroit Nonprofits Have Evolved to Strengthen Communities

As we celebrate IFF’s first decade in Detroit, we’re shining a light on three nonprofits that received loans ten years ago that have grown and evolved in remarkable ways to contribute to the creation of stronger, more vibrant communities – Detroit Achievement Academy, Wellspring, and Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation.

Read Story
Balloon arch outside McClellan.
Client Spotlight · Early Childhood Education

McClellan Early Childhood Education Center

On August 20, IFF and Matrix Human Services (Matrix), along with numerous partners, celebrated the opening of the new McClellan Early Childhood Center (McClellan) in the Gratiot Woods neighborhood on the East Side of Detroit with a ribbon cutting event. The 15,000-square-foot-facility features eight classrooms that are providing 96 new seats for early learners in the community, and is a prime example of what is possible when passionate partners come together. The $8.75 million project was funded and financed by JPMorgan Chase, Cinnaire, The Kresge Foundation, the City of Detroit, PNC Bank, and IFF.

Read Story
Chris Uhl

Chris Uhl

Executive Director - Eastern Region
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