Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

The Mott Foundation supports nonprofit organizations that are working to strengthen our hometown of Flint and communities around the world.

We believe long-term funding offers grantees stability, which allows them to focus on important work and pursue innovation.We fund the core activities of our grantees, rather than requiring them to shape projects around shifting priorities. We believe our grantees are experts in their fields, and well-equipped to make the critical decisions that guide their work.In addition to our regular grantmaking programs, found below, we also support unusual or unique opportunities addressing significant national and international problems. Proposals for these Exploratory and Special Projects grants are by invitation only.

Charles Stewart Mott’s belief in the partnership of humanity remains the guiding principle of our grantmaking, but the Foundation has refined and broadened its work over time to reflect changing national and world conditions.

Through our programs focused on Civil Society, Education, Environment and the Flint Area, the Foundation seeks to fulfill its mission of supporting efforts that promote a just, equitable and sustainable society.

We believe our work in these critical program areas will lead toward systemic change that improves the lives of people, strengthens communities and fosters the success of institutions.

Fundamental to all Mott grantmaking are certain values:

• Nurturing strong, self-reliant individuals with expanded capacity for accomplishment;
• Learning how people can create a sense of community, whether at the neighborhood level or as a global society;
• Building strong communities through collaboration to provide a basis for positive change;
• Encouraging responsible citizen participation to help foster social cohesion;
• Promoting the social, economic and political empowerment of all individuals and communities to preserve fundamental democratic principles and rights;
• Developing leadership to build upon the needs and values of people and to inspire the aspirations and potential of others; and
• Respecting the diversity of life to maintain a sustainable human and physical environment.