Since its creation in 1939, the Detroit-based Hudson-Webber Foundation has supported organizations that are propelling Detroit forward. The foundation was started by the Webber family in honor of Joseph L. Hudson, who had emigrated from England as a child, opened a small men’s and boys’ store in Detroit called the J. L. Hudson Co., which grew to be the city’s largest department store. To date, the foundations has given more than $200 million to Detroit nonprofits. The foundation aims to support initiatives that bolster one of its four focus areas. In arts and culture, the foundation has given to the Detroit Historical Society for an exhibit on the 1967 civil unrest and the Detroit Institute of the Arts for its Woodward Circle giving initiative. To support the environment, the foundation has given $1 million to invest in real estate development and public infrastructure through Invest Detroit’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund. The United Housing Coalition’s work on helping residents avoid tax foreclosure was a grant recipient under the foundation’s community and economic development goals. The Detroit Public Safety Foundation’s Ceasefire violence program also received funding, meeting the foundation’s focus area of safe and just communities.
