If you want to understand what resilience looks like in Detroit and across Michigan, look at the people and organizations doing the work every day. Start on a block in Brightmoor, where a vacant, blighted lot became a garden that blooms every season.
Detroit Hives had the vision. Neighbors, local businesses and community members brought it to life, planting more than 500 perennials and 14 trees where an abandoned parcel once sat. The DTE Foundation helped make it possible, but the garden belongs to the block, and today it stands as a gathering place, a habitat and a living classroom for the next generation of stewards.
That is what community activation looks like: partners on the ground, and the Foundation helping carry what they start. It is the story the Foundation’s 2025 Impact Report tells across the city, a year defined not by dollars handed down, but by presence, by showing up alongside organizations that know their neighbors’ needs.
When families faced hunger, food partners like Gleaners and Forgotten Harvest moved millions of meals to neighbors, backed by the Foundation’s support. When home fires threatened lives, Red Cross volunteers installed the smoke alarms that woke families in time to escape. “Their generosity has helped us protect families against the threat of a home fire and assist individuals who are impacted by disasters,” said Nada Charara of the Red Cross Michigan Region.
The Foundation shows up in the city’s shared spaces, too. Along the riverfront, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy opened Ralph C. Wilson Centennial Park, inclusive of the DTE Foundation Summit, a place that brings people together and inspires pride in Detroit. “We are deeply grateful to the DTE Foundation for their generous support of public spaces in Detroit,” said Ryan Sullivan, CEO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. It shows up in a free Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert, and in the Detroit Institute of Arts‘ exhibition honoring Native American creativity through the work of Great Lakes artists.
The Foundation invested $15.1 million in 445 nonprofit organizations in 2025, but those dollars are only as meaningful as the partners who put them to work. That is how the DTE Foundation understands its place: not in front of its partners, but beside them, in the communities where we live and serve.
