Through an innovative public-private partnership, the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) is working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to equitably guide resources that expand access to public recreation opportunities through the Michigan Spark Grant program. The partnership with Michigan philanthropic organizations makes a new pathway for nearly 40 opportunity communities to participate in a $25 million grant distribution process. The CMF/DNR partnership is aimed at expanding access to healthy indoor and outdoor recreation opportunities and advancing transformative change for many of Michigan’s historically under-resourced and underrepresented communities. The partnership will help limit the barriers to participation in public recreation grants by simplifying the grant review process and relying on community partners to ensure that community voices are centered in this work to advance equitable and transformative change for opportunity communities. To achieve this goal, the program provides equity-focused technical assistance and ensures opportunity community capacity to be competitive, to implement their work with success and to provide quality maintenance over time.

This grant opportunity is possible because of the Building Michigan Together Plan, signed in March 2022, which included a historic infusion of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding in our state and local parks. The DNR received $65 million in ARPA dollars to be distributed through the Michigan Spark Grants program. A portion of those funds were awarded through two initial Spark Grant rounds that were open to all communities across the state. The DNR committed the remaining $27.5 million to this CMF/DNR Spark Grant program. The majority of the resources ($25 million) were designated for a grant distribution process available to 39 pre-designated opportunity communities while the remaining $2.5 million was committed to providing technical assistance and needed support services to expand community capacity to successfully manage and implement transformational recreation projects. Another critical component of the CMF/DNR partnership is the investment of philanthropy in the overall program implementation, capacity-building and technical assistance for local communities to access and administer the Spark Grants, and the potential local co-investment to sustain the awarded Spark Grants. Beyond the ARPA funding, $1.1 million in philanthropic resources has been committed to support the program through CMF’s Statewide Equity Fund.

The ultimate goal of the CMF/DNR Spark Grant program was to improve healthy spaces in communities experiencing significant levels of health, social and economic disparities and with little or no previous parks and recreation investment through increased public and local/regional philanthropic support and technical assistance. To achieve this goal, the DNR wanted to create a new grantmaking model. They sought advice and perspective from an advisory group composed of philanthropic, regional government planning, parks and recreation, and other grantmaking entities with relevant expertise. The Governor’s Office of Foundation Liaison (OFL) offered technical assistance to board members and the department, counseling on effective ways to identify under-resourced communities and engage local community foundations. 

What emerged was the framework for a grant program with an equity-focused application and evaluation process, a new approach that gives funding priority to opportunity communities – areas that lack public recreation spaces and have a high proportion of households that are struggling financially and a high number of residents with physical and mental health disparities. The DNR wanted to find creative solutions that didn’t just create a new grant program, but could instead leverage the locally based resources of community foundations to provide opportunity communities with additional support, remove barriers and create the conditions for each community to have long-term success. 

The Governor's Office of Foundation Liaison designed and brokered the partnership between the DNR and CMF recognizing that CMF – representing Michigan’s united, diverse philanthropic community, and an original member of the Michigan Spark Grants advisory group – had the structure and network in place through its members to engage and support the opportunity communities. The DNR then forged a groundbreaking partnership with CMF to align $27.5 million in Michigan Spark Grant funds (the balance of the program’s original $65 million allocation) through CMF member foundations to support communities in developing and implementing their local public recreation projects.

Community foundations were a catalytic component of this program, working alongside local leaders to develop and execute strategies that advance equitable outcomes by way of elevating community voices, providing or connecting opportunity communities with technical assistance opportunities, making considerations of local capacities and providing a statewide network of partners to problem-solve collectively.

The DNR leveraged and combined public information and data sets about communities identified by the Spark Grant advisory group when establishing the program’s financial and social considerations scoring category. This blend of local health and economic information, combined with a lack of access to nearby public park space, is one way to identify a subset of Michigan communities – opportunity communities. 

The data sets used (including those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United Way) in both the Spark Grant financial and social scoring category as well as in identifying opportunity communities as eligible for this pathway of support include: 

• Park density by municipality - Those with fewer accessible public park spaces ranked higher on the list. 
• Financial considerations - ALICE by census tract (based on the United Way's "Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed" standard for households earning just above the federal poverty level but not enough to make ends meet). 
• CDC Mental Health Disparity by census tract - Communities with a higher percentage of residents living with mental health challenges ranked higher. 
• CDC Physical Health Disparity by census tract - Communities with greater physical inactivity ranked higher. 

You can see the full list of 39 identified opportunity communities here.

Projects must support and enhance neighborhood features that promote improved health and safety outcomes or address increased repair or maintenance needs for public facilities that would result in significantly greater use in local communities adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Projects may include:  

• Development, renovation or redevelopment of public recreation facilities. 
• Provision of recreation-focused equipment and programs in public recreation spaces. 
• Indoor recreation opportunities. 

Land acquisitions were not eligible. Additionally, grants that only focus on studying, planning, designing and/or engineering were not allowed. (An awarded grant will allow for up to 25% to be eligible for planning and design services, but it must be part of an infrastructure-based project.)

A grant review committee was established to assess project proposals based on the below evaluative criteria: 

• Demonstration of equitable community engagement including outreach to those historically underrepresented or excluded from decision making tables
• Public benefit and anticipated outcomes 
• Financial and social considerations 
• Access to the project site 
• Access to new opportunities for people of all abilities 
• Demonstration of community feedback being reflected in the grant application 
• Clarity of scope and ability to execute Renovation and long-term maintenance 
• Applications addressing existing park infrastructure were given priority. Also, consideration was given to applications that complete critical trail projects or provide access to new opportunities that currently don’t exist within a local community. Lastly, in keeping with the program's primary goal of allocating resources to communities that have been unable to access parks and recreation resources in the past, CMF prioritized opportunity communities that were not awarded funding through round one of the general DNR Spark Grants program.

$24.2 million has been awarded to date to 29 opportunity communities through the CMF/DNR Spark Program. You can see a full listing of the opportunity community grants here. Of the $25 million allocated through the DNR/CMF Spark partnership, $800,000 is being held in a sub-granting contingency fund to support any projects that may run over budget. CMF and the project management team will be monitoring resource allocation to ensure the full $25 million is expended in accordance with the partnership goal to improve healthy spaces in communities experiencing significant levels of health, social and economic disparities and with little or no previous parks and recreation investment.

Each project will have an independent timeline based on the nature of the project, but all projects will be completed by September 30, 2026.