Quote:
Originally Posted by ILikeBuildings
The donation to the city is incredible though! Almost $1B ($400M to the city and $550M to WMU) in anonymous donations for a city of this size has to be unheard of.
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I'm guessing that there is some combination of Parfets, Johnsons, Upjohns, and / or Strykers on that donor list. Regardless, this is huge news.
The fact that a city of Kalamazoo's size will now have this self-sustaining fund
in addition to The Promise fund is nuts. My hope is that this leads to a lot of visible investments & improvements in infrastructure & the built-environment. But most importantly, I hope we start to see measurable reductions in poverty and crime, which are both way-above average for a city this small.
To-date, the FFE has been used for three things:
- Property Tax Savings
- Budget Stabilization
- Aspirational Projects
The
website shares some metrics about how funds have been allocated since the creation of the fund in 2017 (last updated November 2020). It originally started with $70 million in the pot -
Source:
Kalamazoo Foundation for Excellence