News File Photo The lighthouse on Thunder Bay Island is seen from the deck of the Lady Michigan in this 2020 News archive photo.

The Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan (CFNEM) established the Lake Huron Fund in 2025 with a community gift of $25,000 to support the health of Lake Huron, and in turn, the health of our communities.

This permanently endowed fund provides grants to nonprofit organizations with initiatives that aim to protect, preserve, and enhance Lake Huron’s health through CFNEM and its affiliate foundation service areas.

Donations from individuals and businesses will help fund projects like rain gardens, storm runoff management, wildlife management, and invasive species removal across the Lake Huron shoreline, and watersheds that support our lake’s vitality.

Why Support the Lake Huron Fund?

Lake Huron is one of the world’s greatest treasures–vast, beautiful, and vital to the people, wildlife, and communities that depend on it, including in northeast Michigan. By giving to the Lake Huron Fund at the Community Foundation, you are helping to protect lakes, rivers, and groundwater from pollution and overuse, safeguard wildlife habitats, and ensure this incredible natural resource remains healthy and vibrant for future generations. Every drop matters–and so does every gift. Lake Huron gives us so much–let’s give back.

Donate to the Lake Huron Fund:

In a press release, the foundation says Lake Huron is more than just a body of water. It provides drinking water for more than 3 million people, supports fisheries, and water-based recreation, and is a key component of our regional economy.

The Lake Huron Fund was created so the foundation and the community can build a permanent resource to ensure that we can preserve, protect, and enhance Lake Huron and its watershed, and do our collective part in northeast Michigan to sustain this precious natural resource.

CFNEM has been proud to be part of the Lake Huron Forever initiative since it launched in 2019, having been part of the planning, promotion, and granting, and now through this endowed fund. Through this partnership, CFNEM says it is honored to play a role in protecting the shared waters of Lake Huron, and is encouraged by the number of communities, both in Michigan and Ontario, Canada, that have stepped up to take an active role in its protection.