Empowering communities to define their own futures

2025 Civic Hub grantee

The Keweenaw Community Foundation (KCF) serves Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, including Houghton and Keweenaw Counties, located within the Ceded and Home Territories of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

Founded in 1994, KCF has grown beyond traditional grantmaking to act as a rural development hub, addressing complex community challenges through collaboration, capacity building, and trust-based leadership. The region it serves is small and remote, shaped by the legacy of mining and natural resource extraction, and now facing new pressures from climate change, limited childcare and housing, and balancing tourism with community needs.

KCF believes communities should define their own futures, and its role is to connect resources, partners, and leadership to make that possible. From supporting local childcare businesses, to co-leading land stewardship transitions, to building emergency services infrastructure, the foundation works to create long-term, community-led solutions.

This year, KCF helped launch the Community Breastfeeding Collaborative after hearing from families about the need for more support and resources. Partnering with a local early childhood nonprofit, KCF brought together nine organizations, including the hospital, health centers, Head Start, and the health department, to listen and respond to community voices. Through surveys and listening sessions, families guided the strategies and programming of the collaborative. By centering their experiences, KCF strengthened trust and agency between residents and local organizations, while also fostering collaboration among partners. One clear outcome was the community’s call for spaces to gather, learn, and share support—needs that the collaborative is now working to address.

KCF is planning to use its Civic Hub funding to support internal capacity that will allow the foundation to continue its collaborative work.

Learn more at www.keweenawcommunityfoundation.org