In celebration of Black History Month, we're highlighting the diversity of our team and the voices of our Black team members by exploring why diversity in philanthropy is critical to building more equitable communities.

Venture 313 launched in October 2022 as a revolutionary new program to better support Detroit entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey. After a successful launch party and onboarding hundreds of entrepreneurs, the team looks to the future to build momentum with new features, updates, and goals for 2023.

The Gilbert Family Foundation today launched Venture 313, a three-year, $10 million commitment that will help fulfill Detroit’s entrepreneurial potential and provide Detroit-based founders with meaningful opportunities to participate in the innovation economy.

We are excited to announce the creation of the Detroit Eviction Defense Fund, which will invest $12 million over three years into three Detroit-based organizations that will provide low-income Detroit families facing eviction proceedings with legal representation. This investment is expected to benefit nearly 6,000 families per year.

In this edition of Q&A, we sat down to talk with Darnell Adams, Director of Community Initiatives at the Gilbert Family Foundation. Darnell talks about his passion for the work, and gives his insight into how we can solve for some of the biggest challenges facing housing stability in Detroit.

One year ago, the Gilbert Family Foundation and Rocket Community Fund made a joint $500M philanthropic commitment to build economic stability and increase access to opportunity for Detroit residents. Since then, the Gilbert Family Foundation has been proud to make a number of important investments.

In our first Q&A blog series, we talked with Director of Economic Mobility James Feagin about his vision for entrepreneurship, and how we can help elevate Detroit's entrepreneurial ecosystem.