Focus: HOPE Raises $102M for Education, Job Training

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Focus: HOPE, a Detroit-based nonprofit, today announced it has raised $102 million from nearly 11,000 donors to be used for student scholarships, IT training, neighborhood revitalization projects, early childhood education, among other initiatives.

“We are proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with (Focus: HOPE) to provide the training, education, and other critical resources necessary to create economic opportunity for more Detroiters,” says John Carter, JPMorgan Chase Michigan market president, whose company donated $1.2 million.

The Ford Foundation, General Motors Foundation, Microsoft, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation all donated more than $5 million toward the  “Investing in Hope” campaign that began in 2005. It was suspended during the economic recession for three years and resumed in 2011.

Focus: HOPE was founded by Fr. William Cunningham and Eleanor Josaitas in Detroit in 1968 following the 1967 city riots. The non-profit’s mission is to find practical solutions to the problems of hunger, economic disparity, inadequate education, and racial divisiveness.