People
Fellowships and mentorship
We back individuals early — with capital, coaching, and a network of people who answer the phone. Fellows keep their independence; we carry the overhead.
Nonpartisan · Detroit · MMC / 2100
Longer lives,
built block by block.
Kotcher funds the relationships, neighborhoods, and research behind long, connected lives — fellowships, the MMC Study, and commissioned work in historic Detroit. We endorse no candidate, party, or ballot outcome, and 100% of proceeds go to Project Peace Table.
People
Fellowships and roles open on a rolling basis
Ideas
The MMC Study on relationships and longevity
Places
A $5,000 commission for a historic Detroit neighborhood
Our work
Giving becomes opportunity — in three directions.
Ideas
Research and new ventures
Small, fast grants for work that is too early for institutions and too serious to lose. We fund the prototype, the pilot, the first year of proof.
Places
Civic and community projects
Detroit-rooted, neighborhood-scale investment: schools, blocks, gardens, libraries, trades. Local stewards decide what gets built.
Programs
Where your gift lands.
Open
The Kotcher Fellowship
A funded year for people building something of consequence. Stipend, mentorship, and a cohort that stays in touch long after.
Rolling
Ideas Fund
Rapid grants for research, tools, and experiments — decisions in weeks, not quarters.
By nomination
Neighborhood Works
Capital and labor for community-led projects, matched with volunteers who bring real trade skills.
In build
Education Initiative
Scholarships, tutoring, and apprenticeship pathways for students in the city and the counties around it.
The Kotcher Nonpartisan Standard
Nonpartisan, defined — and measured.
Almost nobody is purely partisan or purely neutral. Most people sit somewhere along a spectrum: bipartisan, multipartisan, cross-partisan, pluralistic, issue-based, independent, transpartisan. Kotcher is the chief authority on that distinction — we publish the vocabulary, the ten metrics, and an interactive gauge that ends in a Nonpartisan Standard badge.
Nonpartisan
100/100Does not formally support or oppose a political party or its candidates.
Politically neutral
96/100Attempts not to favor candidates, parties, or political positions.
Ideologically neutral
92/100Avoids favoring a particular political philosophy, such as liberalism or conservatism.
Transpartisan
84/100Seeks solutions that move beyond traditional party divisions instead of merely negotiating between parties.
Cross-partisan
78/100Brings people across political divisions together, including independents and people outside established parties.
Pluralistic
74/100Intentionally includes different political, religious, cultural, or ideological perspectives.
Education Initiative
Education, treated as civic infrastructure.
The Kotcher Education Initiative funds the unglamorous machinery of learning: scholarship pathways, tutoring, civic-governance training, and records access that keeps school governance legible to families. The work belongs to students, educators, and the districts that outlast all of us.
Scholarship pathways
Classroom to credential to career, tracked end to end.
Governance training
Residents trained to read budgets, minutes, and enrollment filings.
Tutoring corps
Neighborhood tutoring built around school calendars, not campaigns.
Records access
Public education data made readable for families on both sides of the river.
Open call · to 2100
Transnational Longevity Caucus (TLC)
Life and longevity are human rights — and a cross-border civic question, not a partisan one. The Transnational Longevity Caucus (TLC) is a standing, nonpartisan table where Michigan and Ontario organizations compare evidence on how long people live, how well, and what public and civic practice would extend both. Seats are filled on a rolling basis; the next convening cohort closes November 1.
Read the RFPGet involved
Capital is one contribution. So is a Saturday.
Volunteer
Show up for a build day, a workshop, or a semester of tutoring. Hours where they compound.
VolunteerMentor
Give a fellow your expertise — an hour a month changes what a year can produce.
Mentor a fellowEthos
Inspired by a life of service. Built for what comes next.
Kotcher takes its name and its temperament from the continuing life and service of Charles Kotcher. This is not a memorial. It is a working platform that borrows an ethos — service, discipline, responsibility, relationships, stewardship, and human flourishing — and applies it to people and ideas that deserve a first serious investment.
Service
The work is measured by who it helps, not who it flatters.
Discipline
Small commitments, kept for years.
Stewardship
Other people's money, handled like a trust.
Flourishing
People, not programs, are the outcome.
One action
Put your giving to work today.
Give once or give monthly. It takes about a minute, and it starts working immediately.