Relentless Care Foundation
Rethinking Philanthropy: Creating Belonging
At Community Financial, we value belonging over banking. How better to create belonging than by investing in the communities where we live, play, and serve? Building on our legacy of giving, we created the Relentless Care Foundation to magnify equitable systems in Michigan Communities. That means we are committed to ensuring the communities, counties, and regions we serve are places where everyone can prosper - now and into the future. To achieve this, we will walk alongside our partners, funding what makes housing attainable, strengthens the workforce, and fosters community mobility in our local neighborhoods throughout Michigan.
We're here for you.
Were you affected by the recent ice storms in Northern Michigan? We’re offering up to $1,000 in emergency relief grants for members who were impacted. Funds are limited and will be awarded first come, first served. Application opens 4/25/25 and will be live until funds are exhausted. For eligibility requirements, please visit the application link.
Note: Community Financial employees, Board/Committee members, and their immediate family are not eligible to apply.
Our Funding Priorities
Making housing attainable
- Homeownership
- Safe and Stable Housing
Strengthening the Workforce
- Women & Minority-Led Enterprise
- Arts Education & Critical Thought Development for Youth
Fostering Community Mobility
- Autonomy & Independence for Individuals & Communities
- Economic mobility
- Mobility of information
- Transportation
In addition to these individual pillars, we are eager to find ways to strengthen the ecosystems surrounding and supporting each pillar. We are excited to find ways to bolster the sustainability and capacity of our grant partners as well as the collaboratives and networks they may be a part of.
How We Got Here
For the last 25 years, Community Financial Credit Union has grown its commitment to reinvesting in the communities we serve. In the last five years alone, $3.6 million went to back to our communities. In December 2022, the Relentless Care Foundation was incorporated to help the credit union make deeper, lasting impact on issues like affordable housing. In December 2023 the Relentless Care Foundation was granted 501(c)(3) charitable status and launched with our three funding pillars and a commitment to give at least $10 million by 2033.
The Relentless Care Foundation culminates decades of giving and reasserts Community Financial’s commitment to the communities we serve. As we open this next chapter, we hope you’ll walk with us to put housing, great jobs, and economic mobility within reach for more Michiganders.
Housing is a determinant of success. Michiganders shouldn’t have to fight for it.
We are working to put housing in reach for our friends and neighbors. Too many Michigan families spend over 30% of their income on housing. For our low-income neighbors that figure reaches over 50%. For communities to truly thrive we must solve the housing affordability crisis. Our foundation’s efforts in both homeownership and safe and stable housing will focus on organizations working towards affordability, renovations, new builds, home repair, and programmatic pathways to housing stability.
Housing is a complex and far-reaching issue. Our involvement will evolve as we learn how best to make an impact, but right now, we will not be working directly on homelessness.
Great jobs are a catalyst.
The path shouldn’t be a mystery.
Our communities need great jobs, awesome companies, and creative, thoughtful leaders to thrive. We know female leaders and entrepreneurs grow stronger companies with more revenue, think bigger, provide higher growth jobs, and have more engaged employees. Young people are hungry to work for these visionary leaders, feeling seen and fulfilled at work. Despite the connection between representative leadership and talent, woman and minority leaders are underrepresented in both small and large companies. To help shift this reality our foundation will focus on organizations and programs working to ensure existing and future leaders are equipped with the skills, tools, and networks to be successful.
We also believe strongly in the power of arts education for young people. We’ve aligned arts education with workforce because it fosters self-discovery, supports nontraditional and neurodivergent learners, ignites passions, and fosters creative problem solvers. Our foundation will work to increase access to arts education, creative expression, and other critical thought development programs for young people.
Mobility isn’t just about wheels. It’s also about the things communities need to succeed.
Community Mobility centers on autonomy and independence for individuals and communities. We believe the conversation around mobility must expand to include the tools and infrastructure required for our communities to be successful and thrive. A great example is broadband internet access. Broadband represents mobility of information and allows for telehealth visits or remote work opportunities, which drive health and financial outcomes. Transportation is imperative too. Safe, reliable rides connect afterschool programs and their parents to great jobs. Communities across our state are calling out for solutions to these economic mobility barriers. We hear them and will work with communities and organizations to expand access to the resources needed for success.
Making Lasting Impact… but how?
The Relentless Care Foundation’s primary action will be making grants to nonprofit, charitable organizations. But our foundation is about more than just dollars. We see ourselves as allies of our grant partners, walking with them as connectors, good listeners, and thought partners. Our team is actively working on the same issues and systems we fund so Michigan can be the most inclusive, equitable, and thriving state in the nation.
The Relentless Care Foundation will not seek to establish an endowment. That means, the dollars we raise will go to the need right now. Not stored up to trickle out forever.
Raising New Roofs in Detroit
In Detroit’s Fitzgerald neighborhood, about five miles from our forthcoming Detroit Branch, Bargain Block stars, Keith and Evan and their company Nine Design + Homes are giving new roofs to 10 long-time residents of the neighborhood in a program called Roof the Block. The Relentless Care Foundation not only committed $50,000 to Roof the Block, but also engaged Brilliant Detroit to ensure Roof the Block is rooted deeply in the neighborhood it’s meant to serve.
This collaborative effort further stabilizes an already vibrant neighborhood while ensuring housing security and the eventual generational wealth transfer.
Building Belonging in Hillman, Michigan
In Hillman, Michigan, just minutes from our branch, Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan is building five new, affordable, single-family homes. In addition to committing $30,000 to cover the land purchase, our team is partnering with Habitat on a federal grant application to help ensure that working people can afford these homes. What’s more, Community Financial’s hOpe! Mortgage program will empower Habitat for Humanity to create belonging for more first-time buyers by ensuring the biggest barriers to homeownership don’t stand in their way. We do all of this because we see in people, not numbers - #BelongingOverBanking.
Anyone can be a philanthropist.
Walk with us and magnify equitable systems in Michigan communities.
You don’t need a cool million to be an important donor, you just need a commitment to giving. Whether you’re new to giving or a seasoned donor, your support for the Relentless Care Foundation will go directly to expanding our grantmaking.
DONATE
Philanthropy is a state of mind, not wealth.
Community Financial members can make one-time, fee-free donation with a transfer via online and mobile banking.
Members can donate by transfer!
Make reoccurring or one-time donations with a card or ACH .
Want to talk about a larger gift?
Send us an email.
VOLUNTEER
Prefer to give your time?
Come walk with us as we build our fundraising muscles. People give to people, so your help expanding our network of donors is itself a gift.
PARTNER
Looking to bring impossible dreams to life? Us too!
Larger donors and foundation looking stand together to magnify impact should reach out. We’d love to talk, find alignment, and leverage our resources.
Thanks to our corporate partners for walking with us in this imperative work.
Relentless Care Partner
Thrive Partners
Catalyst Partners
Ignite Partners
Belonging Partners
GRANTS
Looking for funding? You’re in the right place!
Is your organization working to put housing within reach, create a stronger and more equitable workforce, or foster community mobility? We would love to hear from you! Please take some time to familiarize yourself with our funding pillars. If you see alignment, we want to learn more about your work. Reach out to our foundation team and let’s get connected!
Our team is deeply committed to showing up as a grant partner not just a funder. We walk alongside those we fund as thought partners and champions because we share your desire to overcome the barriers facing members of our communities. Part of our commitment is appropriately valuing your organization’s time and capacity. For this reason, we strongly encourage applicants to reach out and explore if alignment exists for funding before applying for any open grant rounds.
Target Geography
The Relentless Care Foundation’s target geography focuses on five counties in Northeast and Southeast Michigan. Oakland, Wayne, and Washtenaw, Otsego, and Montmorency Counties. Organizations seeking funding must provide service or otherwise directly impact one or more of these counties. Statewide initiatives which make a specific impact in these counties are also eligible.
Who is eligible:
501(c)(3) charitable organizations, in good standing with the IRS.
The Relentless Care Foundation will not fund:
- Event sponsorships
- Endowments
- Retroactive funding
- Grants to individuals
- Grants promoting political and religious ideologies and doctrines
- Organizations who discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
2025 Grant Round Submissions
Summer Grant Round
Open April 4 - May 23!
Our Summer grant round will be open April 4th through May 23rd! If you’d like to learn more about being an RCF grant partner, familiarize yourself with our funding priorities and our 2025 grant guidance. If you see alignment, we strongly encourage you to reach out to our foundation team below!
General Guidance
Important things to know:
- This grant round will be open from April 4th through May 23rd 2025.
- It is strongly encouraged to be in touch with our Foundation team before beginning your application. If you are interested in submitting, contact us by email at foundation@cfcu.org.
- We are not making unrestricted grants, but we are willing to fund operational expenses tied to programs/initiatives.
Application Guidance
The most successful applications will:
- Create new or leverage existing partnerships, coalitions, or other means of collective impact.
- Strengthen or rethink the ecosystem around a specific issue or set of issues related to our funding pillars.
- Address root causes and barriers to issues related to our funding pillars.
- Align with more than one of our funding pillars.
- Present a clear and demonstrable vision of how our grant will help drive success for your organization, mission, or impact area.
- We don’t expect the most professionally written grant, but we do expect thoughtful and thorough responses – Note, thorough does not mean the longest.
Attainable Housing Funding
We will prioritize applications that:
- Create or lay groundwork for affordable homeownership. (e.g. pre-development costs, renovations, LIHTC single family conversions, new build, etc.)
- Leverage new models, tools, or ownership structures to expand access to affordable housing and homeownership.
- Take steps to keep individuals and families in their homes and maintain intergenerational wealth.
- Lead to new affordable housing rental units.
How to submit your proposal
It’s easy to enter your grant proposal submission!
- If you are interested in submitting, connect with us ahead of time by email at foundation@cfcu.org!
- Starting April 4, 2025, you can submit your proposal online through our application portal.
Stay Connected with Us!
Contact the foundation by emailing foundation@cfcu.org.
