Kellogg Foundation

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Randy Maiers

To most of you, the “Kellogg” name probably means breakfast cereal.  In the philanthropic world, it means one of the largest foundations in America, with several billion dollars in assets.  Based in Battle Creek, Michigan, the Kellogg Foundation was created by Mr. W. K. Kellogg in 1930 with an initial investment of about $60 million.  Over the last 80 years the foundation has continued its focus on developing healthy youth. 

While the W. K. Kellogg Foundation supports initiatives around the globe, since the mid 1990’s it has been one of the strongest partners of the Community Foundation of St. Clair County.  Back then the Kellogg Foundation offered a million dollar challenge grant to community foundations around the state in an effort to engage high school students in philanthropy.  Our community foundation successfully met that challenge resulting in the creation of our Youth Advisory Council (YAC).  Made up of high school students from around the county, our YAC has about $1 milllion in their endowment fund today and have provided several hundred thousand dollars in grants over the last decade. 

More recently, as a part of the Access to Recreation Initiative, the Kellogg Foundation awarded our community foundation a matching grant of $90,000 to create a new endowment fund for accessiblity.  This is in addition to the grant funds used to build the new Tree House at the Pine River Nature Center and the new accessbile canoe and kayak launches on our inland rivers.  This new fund, now with $180,000 in assets, will begin providing grants and incentives to support accessbility issues in St. Clair County.   

In these challenging economic times it’s nice to have the suport of a major private foundation, leveraged with the generosity of our local residents, to improve the quality of life here in St. Clair County—- for all residents.