Fred & Barbara Erb Family Foundation

What causes people to care — and act on that care? That’s what we want to know at the Fred and

Barbara Erb Family Foundation. We want to see what the world looks like, in Southeast Michigan

and beyond, when people care deeply, become involved and take action to improve the health of

the Great Lakes, strengthen the region’s arts and cultural organizations, advance Alzheimer’s

research, promote sustainable business, and protect democracy.

Since we made our first grants in 2008, we’ve given more than $180 million to improve the quality

of life for residents in Southeast Michigan and around the Great Lakes. Recently, we decided to

act even more boldly. We decided to spend down its assets by 2034. This allows us to get funding

into communities when the need is most urgent.

We are guided by our values: to make a lasting transformative difference; embrace possibility;

work and learn in partnership; and pursue fairness and respect. We use grantmaking and other

supporting work to help us make a greater difference now and future-proof work that will

continue after the Foundation closes its doors. Putting strategic communications to work for

changemaking—a public interest communications approach—is essential to making a

difference, because it taps into what causes people to care and motivates them to act where

they can make a difference. It is our hope to inspire our community to do that long after we’ve

made our last grant.

We recognize that we cannot achieve this long-term goal without the help of a visionary

communicator who shares our passion for these issues and is eager to experiment with bold new

approaches.