The John A. James Foundation.
Empowering Detroit's youth through education and philanthropy
Our Mission
The John A. James Foundation aims to provide promising high-school students the assistance they need to succeed in college and navigate life.
Unlocking Potential, Building Community
The John A. James Foundation was founded in late 2019 By Keri James, daughter of John James in order to magnify her father’s decades-long philanthropic presence in Detroit. She does this by engineering new ways of giving, making charitable outreach more robust, and streamlining incoming donations. Ms. James hopes that although he still very much active in the city of Detroit, John James’ legacy of generosity will live on to touch the lives of everyone who cares about education. He especially wants to inspire youth who may find that they are just like him; a regular kid from humble beginnings who dreamt big.
‘Life Plan’ Program
Detroit’s youth are promising. They are talented, intelligent, and ready to make a difference in their city and in the world. In this day and age it has never been more important to engage students personally. Most have spent one or two years stuck behind a screen trying to learn complicated concepts over Zoom or Teams.