Prosperity that works for St. Louis
Photo by Michael Thomas
We’ve always called St. Louis home.
Now, it is our sole focus.
The James S. McDonnell Foundation (JSMF) envisions a thriving St. Louis region where inclusive growth elevates shared prosperity and quality of life.
Our mission is to invest in organizations and initiatives working to improve economic mobility for St. Louisans facing the starkest disparities.
We are focusing our efforts on four essential areas.
Workforce
Small and Midsize Businesses
Wealth Building and Protection
Civic Infrastructure
JSMF Grant-Making and Impact Investing
Photo Courtesy of LSEM/HRN
Protecting the Value of Home Ownership
In the St. Louis region, too many homeowners in historically underinvested neighborhoods have been excluded from the tools needed to protect the value of their homes.
That’s why Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM) is partnering with the St. Louis Home Repair Network (HRN) to help people repair and protect their homes. It’s a newly formed, first-of-its-kind partnership between attorneys and contractors that is working to stabilize the physical structure and wealth-building potential of homes in disinvested St. Louis neighborhoods.
Support from JSMF is helping LSEM and HRN collaborate to offer estate planning and home repair services simultaneously.
Photo Courtesy of STLAAN
Expanding Employment and Small Business Opportunities
The St. Louis Anchor Action Network (STLAAN) combines the resources of the region’s institutions in healthcare, education, and the public and private sectors to create a new model for overcoming the systemic impact of racism and disinvestment. STLAAN is focused on increasing employment opportunities and expanding contracts with local business owners.
Over the past two years, the STLAAN — co-led by the University of Missouri–St. Louis and Edward Jones — has engaged with community members to develop an action plan, held career and hiring expos, and helped connect small businesses with network members.
JSMF has awarded the University of Missouri-St. Louis and STLAAN a $2.4 million grant over the next three years that will support additional staffing and programming.
Photo by Lance Omar Thurman
Advancing a New Vision for St. Louis Neighborhoods
Invest STL is on an ambitious mission to transform how St. Louis invests in neighborhoods still enduring “the legacy of systemic anti-Black racism.”
Invest STL is building innovative tools to facilitate neighborhood-level investing, creating new systems like resident-led neighborhood planning, and piloting new models for restorative home valuation and neighborhood-based collective real estate ownership.
The goal is for people to prosper as their neighborhoods prosper.
JSMF’s support will help Invest STL grow its staff and increase its capacity to aggregate and deploy investments in neighborhoods.
It will also help Invest STL pilot and implement new initiatives, evaluate them, and drive education and advocacy around them.