2000s

In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., Mott joined with other foundations to help communities, schools and businesses recover from the catastrophic event. The Foundation provided 22 grants totaling almost $4 million to help with recovery efforts.

Mott made the first in a series of grants totaling nearly $7.8 million to help the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy acquire 6,000 acres of ecologically significant property in northwest Lower Michigan. Part of that land became Arcadia Dunes: The C.S. Mott Nature Preserve.

The Foundation also granted $10 million to support The Nature Conservancy’s Big U.P. Deal, which preserved 271,000 acres of forest, lakes and streams in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

From 2001-2007, the Foundation provided more than $7.7 million to launch and support the Great Lakes Revolving Fund, which helps nonprofits and government agencies purchase and preserve critical natural resources. Overall, Mott funding has helped protect more than 390,000 acres of land in the Great Lakes basin, 14 miles of shoreline and the Humbug Marsh, a cornerstone of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.

The Mott-funded launch in 2002 of the Genesee County Land Bank Authority — initially called the Genesee County Land Reutilization Council — marked an innovative new approach to the management of tax-foreclosed and abandoned properties in the U.S. Whereas other land banks around the country served primarily as custodians of problem properties, the Genesee County program, born out of research supported by Mott, adopted a leadership role in transforming such properties into community assets. The success of that approach earned the Land Bank the Innovations in American Government Award in 2007 from Harvard University, and today the program serves as a national model for land use reform.

Mott’s support for South Africa’s paralegals and community advice offices began in the late 1980s. After apartheid ended, advice offices proved to be crucial to democracy, social justice reform and the realization of people’s rights. However, the sector was fractured, with no unified voice to advocate on issues of common interest, and advice offices were closing due to lack of funding. In 2004, after more than a decade of helping to stabilize the sector, Mott joined with other funders to ensure its long-term sustainability by establishing what later became known as the National Alliance for the Development of Community Advice Offices, followed in 2013 by the launch of the Association of Community Advice Offices of South Africa. In 2018, NADCAO and ACAOSA merged, forming the Centre for the Advancement of Community Advice Offices in South Africa. In addition to serving as the representative body for community paralegals, CAOSA will conduct research and advocate to strengthen the sector. Mott’s support related to community advice offices in South Africa totaled nearly $28.2 million as of 2022.

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and other communities along the Gulf of Mexico, Mott responded with $5.8 million in related grants. The funds supported immediate disaster relief, as well as long-term efforts to restore Louisiana’s coastal ecosystems and revitalize its nonprofit community.

In 2005, the Mott Foundation awarded $25 million — at the time, our largest single grant ever — to the University of Michigan Health System for construction of a new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. We previously granted $6.5 million to build the original hospital in 1964-1965, and $2 million for a major renovation of the facility in 1984. Today, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital is one of the premier health care institutions for children and women in the country.

In the late 1990s, a Canadian firm’s audacious plan to fill tankers with water from Lake Superior and ship it to Asia for use in high-end hotels exposed an alarming truth: there were no laws to prevent diversions from or excessive use of Great Lakes water. After a decade of work by many organizations, including several Mott grantees, the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact became federal law. The historic agreement severely restricted diversions of water and required the eight Great Lakes states to improve management of water resources. The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec approved a nearly identical companion agreement.