Section 5: Who is The Skillman Foundation?
Who is The Skillman Foundation?
We help Detroit youth be the designers of their own destiny.
The Skillman Foundation is a private foundation. This means we have an endowment–a pot of money–left to us by a generous person who wanted to use their wealth to make a difference for others. For us, this was Rose Skillman. Rose had no children of her own, but loved kids. She founded The Skillman Foundation in 1960 and bequeathed it her fortune of $150 million. Over the decades, this money grew and gave, with approximately $727 million granted to date.
The Skillman Foundation has invested most heavily in education, afterschool programs, and youth and community leadership. You can read more about our history here.
In terms of what’s to come, this is guided by young people, whose role has always been to challenge the status quo, dream boldly anew, and change the course of the world. We’ve asked them to do this for our organization and others. We’ve put more decision making into the hands of our Youth Council and are asking young people and their advocates for input on where we focus our attention and funding going forward.
2021 Annual Reporting
Includes in-school and out-of-school learning as well as youth leadership and voice.
Includes instruction, interventions, educator support, school-going culture, policy and advocacy.
Includes program support and system building.
Includes community leadership, policy and advocacy.
Includes mini grants, matching gifts and memberships.
View grant details here, searchable by year and category.
Our assets at the end of 2021 totaled $631M.
Find detailed financial reporting here.
Our report card: See how grant partners scored our work.
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