About ioby Detroit | Donate to a project | Events & Webinars |
Start a project | Resources | Press and partners
About ioby Detroit
There’s a lot to love about the Motor City, but our favorite thing has got to be Detroiters’ readiness to get good done. Since we began our on-the-ground work in Detroit, ioby has supported over 216 resident leaders
Meet Ross Harris, ioby's Detroit Action Strategist
As the Detroit Action Strategist, Ross Harris partners with neighbors and community-minded individuals across Southeast Michigan to create community-driven power and sustainable change. Ross believes that community power comes from the people when they're informed and organized. Over the past 13 years he has committed himself to informing the community in various roles, working as a housing counselor, community organizer, and activist. Racial equity and justice is the motivation that keeps Ross committed to the community he serves. In Ross' spare time he loves to garden, kayak, camp, and spend time with his four beautiful children.
Learn more about our City Action Strategists and how we work on-the-ground to support resident-led change.
The 2022 Detroit Match Program is live!
Whether you're a student with an amazing idea, urban farmer, social justice activist, artist, or a motivated neighbor looking to make a difference within your own community, ioby’s Detroit Match Fund is a way to double your donations and make a meaningful impact within your own neighborhood.
Learn more about the ioby Detroit Match Program here
Start A Project In Detroit
On ioby, anyone with a great idea for creating positive change in their neighborhood can raise funds, find volunteers and promote their project. When you fundraise for your community project on ioby, you can:
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Receive one-on-one fundraising and implementation coaching
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Collect tax-deductible donations
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Have ioby act as your project’s fiscal sponsor
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Find new volunteers
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Join us for grassroots fundraising trainings and workshops
Share your idea and ioby will reach out to support you on your journey to making positive change in your Detroit neighborhood
Donate to a project in your Detroit neighborhood:
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The North End Urban Expressions Art Festival: The Healing 2022
Art & Healing in the North End neighborhood of Detroit.
NEEDS: $13,000 of 13,000 + Volunteers -
The second annual SWFest 2022: a FREE large scale music and art festival in Southwest Detroit.
Organized by a collective of local NextGen creatives, the festival is a representation of everything that makes Southwest Detroit unique.
NEEDS: $9,800 of 10,000 -
TimeBank Trips!
Build community connections through fun experiences like group bike rides, going to a cider mill, blueberry picking, a Belle Isle Beach party, and Kayak Tour.
NEEDS: $2,934 of 3,514 + Volunteers -
Community Care Spaces for Detroiters
In this time of great change and collective grief, we need community spaces to heal. We gather to offer free, accessible healing spaces for grassroots Detroit groups, and to deepen our relationships with communities.
NEEDS: $6,178 of 8,000 -
Underground Music Academy
Underground Music Academy is pleased to embark on our third annual fundraiser. We’re continuing Phase 2 of construction and launching an in-person pilot program for young adults with local partner Living Arts.
NEEDS: $30,928 of 30,928 -
Technology for Summer Reading Program!
6-week Summer Reading Program Targeting Pre-K -4th Grade Students Using Kumon Curriculum and Technology to Help Prevent Summer Learning Loss and Promote Reading Growth.
NEEDS: $0 of 6,431 -
A Woman's Will: Veterans and Returning citizens entrepreneurial program
A Woman's Will: A project is geared to help women reach their dreams of entrepreneurship by helping build their business from concept to completion
NEEDS: $5,020 of 5,150 -
Create More Together
Mint Artists Guild wants to create more youth jobs, community art and fun, free arts and crafts this summer. Please give today so we can!
NEEDS: $95 of 4,755 + Volunteers -
Youth Self Care
Providing resources and activities for social and emotional support for children and families.
NEEDS: $0 of 2,012 + Volunteers -
Mcdougall-Hunt Beautification Day
Help make our neighborhood shine. We've got an army of volunteers who want to lend a hand to McDougall-Hunt residents to help beautify our neighborhood and complete small outdoor home repair projects.
NEEDS: $0 of 7,514 + Volunteers -
Deconstructing the Complex
Providing a platform for those harmed by the nonprofit industrial complex
NEEDS: $0 of 3,901 -
Sofa Stories: OUTside
A community arts project using live theatre and digital media to amplify the stories of young LGBTQ+ Detroiters who have experienced homelessness or housing insecurity.
NEEDS: $5,374 of 9,644 + Volunteers
Browse all ioby projects currently fundraising across the country
Watch the recording!
In times of difficulty, research consistently shows that our neighbors are the people that we turn to most for support. It makes sense! A familiar, friendly face can make all the difference in the world in challenging times. Today, one powerful way Detroiters are showing up for each other is with care packages. Their packages "feed the soul," like Love Letters to Black Folk, and they nourish the body, like care packages of food. It’s a powerful way to share health and healing and to remind us that we've got each other’s back.
Start a project in Detroit
What would you do to improve your neighborhood? Tell us your idea below our team will follow up with you with tailored fundraising resources that will help turn your idea into a reality.
Resources for working in Detroit
We know that the best community projects are not solo endeavors—real change means collaboration, coordination, and teamwork. But we also know how daunting it can feel to work with city government for the first time. That’s why we developed this free guide, to make it easier to connect and work with city officials to make our neighborhoods safer, greener, more livable and more fun!
Also, check out our resources page and our blog for stories and lessons from our nationwide community of local leaders.
Press and Partners
Detroit Free Press: Michigan Avenue billboards turned into public art
Model D: Bagley residents lead grassroots effort to build pocket park
ioby Detroit is made possible thanks to generous support from the Ford Foundation and The Kresge Foundation.
For more information on how ioby chooses the places where we work, and how we chose Detroit, please read our blog posts:
"ioby in Detroit: The Why and How"
"That Wonky Stuff: What's Phase 0?"