The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners is expected to consider on July 7 whether to establish a long-term funding mechanism dedicated to gun violence prevention, and what form that fund should take.
The decision comes after months of work by the board’s ad hoc committee on gun violence. County Administrator Dr. Kevin Catlin outlined the committee’s recommendation and the options under consideration at the board’s June 16 regular business meeting, the same day the board heard a separate update on the Blueprint for Peace from Dr. Kenlana Ferguson, Executive Director of Michigan Transformation Collective.
What the fund would do
Whatever structure the board chooses, the purpose is the same: create a dedicated, lasting source of funding to support gun violence prevention, intervention, community healing, victim support, and outreach across Kalamazoo County. The goal is a mechanism that can outlast any single grant cycle or administration, one that ensures resources remain available as community needs evolve over time.
The committee’s work has been guided in part by the Blueprint for Peace, which coordinates more than 120 implementation partners across the county and has emphasized that sustained, long-term investment is essential to the work. Dr. Ferguson told commissioners Monday that a meaningful impact assessment of the blueprint’s work won’t be available for at least five years, precisely because this kind of prevention work operates on a long horizon. A permanent fund is designed to match that reality.
The three options
The committee’s preferred recommendation is an endowed field of interest fund held at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. An endowed fund is designed to exist in perpetuity — the principal is invested, and distributions come from the earnings. This structure keeps the fund independent of the annual county budget process, meaning it can continue supporting programs even if county priorities or administrations change. It also opens the door to outside donors — individuals, businesses, and foundations — contributing to the same fund. A field of interest designation means grants can flow to a range of programs and organizations working on gun violence prevention, not just a single designated recipient.
The second option under consideration is a donor-advised fund (DAF), also held at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. A DAF gives the county more direct control over annual grant decisions — the county would regularly determine which organizations and programs receive funding. The tradeoff is that this places ongoing responsibility back on the county to manage the grantmaking process, and it may be harder to maintain a consistent long-term focus on gun violence prevention across changing administrations without specific governance structures in place.
The third option is using an existing fund — specifically the Community Urgent Relief Fund, a joint fund administered by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the United Way of South Central Michigan. This would avoid the need to create a new structure entirely. The challenge, as Dr. Catlin noted, is that the Community Urgent Relief Fund is designed for emergency and urgent community needs, and many gun violence prevention strategies require sustained, long-term investment that may not fit neatly within that framework.
What happens next
Dr. Catlin said a formal report on the options will be prepared for the board ahead of the July 7 meeting. The board will then decide whether to move forward with establishing a fund and, if so, which structure to adopt.
Residents who want to weigh in before that decision can attend the July 7 Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners meeting or contact commissioners directly through the county’s website at kalcounty.gov.
