Our History

In 1995, a group of five individuals from the Community saw the need for a community foundation for the City of Troy. They saw many items and events that were being postponed or denied because of the lack of funding. They realized that they did not want City government to finance everything because that would increase taxes and make Troy a less desirable place to live. They wanted the economic vitality of the community to remain strong and they wanted an organization other than government to provide for unique needs of the citizens in a different way. The vehicle to accomplish these things was through a foundation. A foundation has the ability to raise endowed funds that are invested and subsequently used toward grants to fund organizations, promote educational opportunities, assist with human services, and maintain a strong community.

Once they decided a community foundation was the vehicle that was needed, they visited with other community foundations within the State of Michigan. They explored the possibility of becoming a component fund to an already established foundation such as the Greater Rochester Area Community Foundation or even a much larger foundation such as the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan. After gathering all the data they could, they decided the best course of action for the Troy community was to develop their own Community Foundation. The next step was to meet with a representative of the Council of Michigan Foundations to determine the steps that were necessary to reach their goal. By January, 1998, they had met with City Officials, Representatives of the School Board and Chamber of Commerce, to ascertain their support and undertaking.

During the summer of 1997, they drafted the Articles of Incorporation and the original by-laws for the Community Foundation of Troy. These documents were submitted to the State in October of 1997. In June of 1998, they received their long awaited approval for 501(c)3 status as a charitable organization from the Internal Revenue Service

RRealizing that over 55% of our donations and funding have been received from sources outside of Troy, The Board of Directors decided to expand the service area of the Foundation to include cities that don’t have a Community Foundation of their own. In order to reflect this increase in service area, a new name for the Foundation was chosen and effective May 8, 2008, they officially became the North Woodward Community Foundation.

Woodward Avenue is truly the very heart and artery of this area of Oakland County and numerous communities, rich in culture and diversity, exist along its path. Different generations embrace it because it nostalgically speaks to them - hence the Dream Cruise. Similarly, differing lifestyles and cultural groups embrace Woodward as home and safe haven which offers a spiritual connection to a lot of folks. With the expansion of the Foundation’s service area to cities like Madison Heights, Clawson, Bloomfield and the many others along the Woodward corridor, a whole new group of communities can take advantage of the many services the Community Foundation has to offer.