At The Skillman Foundation, our grantmaking and advocacy is designed for, and shaped by, the rising Generation Z and their demand for an equitable education system – one that produces career-ready skills and rewards independent, creative thinkers who solve old problems and forge new worlds. 

As a private philanthropy, we provide grants to nonprofit organizations and efforts that are closely matched to our strategies to change the odds with and for Detroit youth. We also support education advocacy efforts with connections, data, storytelling and narrative.

Today, we’re building new strategies to support Detroit youth, educators, and community to influence education policy and systems change. A Listening Tour with Detroit youth and community, a 40-year history walk of our past work in education systems change, on-going community conversations and co-design sessions, and our Youth Council are shaping our work.

In a nutshell: We are investing in people and systems. We support Detroit youth, educators, and community to have a leading voice in the redesign of education. We call this our Ground Building work. And we support education policy and systems change efforts that are built for and by Detroit youth and community, who are closest to the issues and the answers. This our Policy & Systems work.

As we build out our strategies and grant areas, we will update this site. To stay in the know, sign up for our monthly newsletter.