ALPENA – The First Federal of Northern Michigan Board of Directors has decided to close the First Federal of Northern Michigan Legacy Foundation, which has provided grant funds to many causes and projects in the Alpena area for many years.

The move was made after the bank changed hands several times. Before doing so, however, the board of the foundation exhausted the remaining funds with many allocations for large and small needs that will have a lasting impact on the area.

In 2018, First Federal sold out to mBank, but the focus for the foundation remained the same which was to support the communities that were core to First Federal of Northern Michigan prior to the sale.

Then mBank sold to Nicolet Bank in 2020, which pushed First Federal a step further removed from the communities once served.

In 2020, the foundation board began discussions about winding down the foundation. The original plan was to disburse all assets by the end of 2024.

With the plan for eventual dissolution underway, the board elected to pursue larger, more impactful grants for the benefit of the Alpena community.

With that mindset, the board offered support for the Culligan Plaza refresh project, slated for next year, in the amount of $100,000, and also donated $85,000 to support the new Boys and Girls Club. Other large-scale gifts include one to the Thunder Bay Theatre to help rebuild it from fire and smoke damage it suffered from a neighboring blaze. An allocation was also made to the First Federal endowed scholarship fund at the Community Foundation of Northeast Michigan which will provide a pair of $1,000 scholarships annually into perpetuity.

Midway through this year, the assets were reduced to a level where dissolution made more sense this year than in 2024.

In the final meeting earlier this month, the board disbursed $52,000 in grants to Lydia’s Gate Women’s Shelter, the Alpena Youth Center to allow for the expansion of daycare services.

In the final four years of existence, the foundation made donations in the amount of $482,857. Many of these gifts were centered around Alpena where the bank held its headquarters for 60 years.

Since the formation of the foundation in 2005, the foundation has donated $918,564 to local charities including everything from food pantries to schools, to stocking brown trout in Lake Huron.