The Song Foundation, founded by Dug and Linh Song, was launched today as a virtual organization serving metro Detroit. A formal office arrangement in the region will be established in the near future.
In the lead up to the launch, the foundation has refined its mission, vision, and investment priorities in an effort to help make metro Detroit more equitable, powerful, and prosperous.
The Song Foundation states it will achieve its mission by supporting efforts to increase opportunity for youth and emerging leaders, using technology to improve the lives of others and create generational wealth, and helping to make Michigan a more just and inclusive state for all people and communities.
Khalilah Burt Gaston, the first Executive Director of Song Foundation, will steer the organization, using her 20 years of experience working with leaders in government, philanthropy, and the private sector, to advance the foundation’s goals, create key partnerships, and build the foundation’s culture of trust-based philanthropy.
“Although the foundation has been grantmaking since 2019, I am excited to transition to a more public-facing phase in the life of our organization. We’ve been learning from our peers, listening to community leaders and engaging in deep conversations with our Board over the past 12 months. Where we’ve landed is directly tied to our collective desire to make our region and state stronger and more equitable,” says Gaston.
“We’re here to invest — beyond a check — in the ideas, people, and movements currently engaged in work that’s aligned with our priorities and those who are ready to join us on this journey to reshape our region.”
The Song Foundation will support individuals and organizations contributing to an inclusive, diverse, and equitable high-growth, high-tech ecosystem in metro Detroit.
“When I think about our region, I envision it as one the most inclusive and diverse tech ecosystems in the country. This isn’t possible without a statewide economic development strategy that centers innovation in order to increase wages, job growth, and, ultimately, ownership opportunities.” says Dug Song. “In the short-term this means helping build strong coalitions around upcoming federal funding opportunities which is a must if we plan to compete with states like Ohio.”
Other priorities for the foundation include building a leadership pipeline for children, youth, and emergent leaders to shape their local communities through civic engagement, public service, and grassroots organizing.
“We believe it’s time to increase investment in identifying and supporting the next wave of leadership within our communities. For far too long, power has been concentrated among a select few,” says Linh Song. “We are committed to supporting those who are ready to shift the status quo and increase the social and political capital of Black, Brown, and immigrant leaders. It’s time to amplify the voices of those most affected by the challenges we face and center their strategies and solutions.”
Below is a list of the selected grantees supported by Song Foundation in 2022:
- ACLU Fund of Michigan
- African American Endowment Fund
- Community Action Network
- Detroit Justice Center
- Force Detroit
- Green Light Fund
- Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center (ISAIC)
- Jewish Family Services of Metro Detroit Michigan Founders Fund
- Michigan League of Conservation Voters Ed Outlier Media
- ProPublica
- Project Clean Slate
- Student Advocacy Center of Michigan
- Washtenaw Justice Project
- Youth Arts Alliance
With a background in cybersecurity, Dug Song and Jon Oberheide co-founded DuoSecurity in Ann Arbor in 2010. The epiphany for computer-security experts Song and Oberheide was the recognition that “democratizing security would be useful in a world that’s increasingly connected and heterogeneous,” Song says.
The duo started by building “second-factor authentication” security for so-called native-cloud operations. For inspiration, they looked to pioneers with Salesforce, which created a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for customer-relationship management.
DuoSecurity blossomed and was preparing to go public in 2018 when networking-hardware giant Cisco approached the company, eventually offering nearly $2.4 billion in cash to buy the outfit and accelerate its growth.
For more information about the Song Foundation, visit song.foundation.
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