A Case forSupport
The most trusted source of solutions for Michigan's African and Caribbean families.
The GABA FoundationCreated in Inkster.
Built for Everyone.
What began as the National African Business Association evolved into GABA Foundation, deepening its roots in Michigan's African and Caribbean communities and sharpening its focus on the work that matters most.
We serve families who grew up carrying two worlds at once fully American, deeply rooted in African and Caribbean culture, and too often invisible to the systems built around them.
They are talented. They are ambitious. They are Michigan's future workforce, its next generation of business owners, its emerging civic leaders. And they have been chronically underserved by institutions that were never designed with their experience in mind.
The GABA Foundation was built for them, by people who understand exactly what they are carrying.
WE
BEGIN
She had been trying for months.
Phone calls that went unanswered. Offices that passed her along. People who listened politely and did nothing. She was navigating a system that was not designed for her without her sight, without anyone in her corner who understood both her world and the world of bureaucracy she was trying to move through.
The passport sitting in a government office was more than a document. It was her ability to travel, to plan, to move forward. And every door she knocked on stayed closed.
Then she called the GABA Foundation.
Within minutes, the right person was on the phone. Within the hour, the right conversation had happened. By the end of the day, a problem that had consumed months of her life was resolved because we have spent eleven years building the relationships, earning the trust, and staying connected across every level of this community.
That is what funders invest in when they support GABA Foundation. Not a service. Not a program. A network so deeply rooted that when one of our families hits a wall, we already know the door, we already have the key, and we do not stop until it opens.
By the Numbers
We do not ask funders to take a chance on us. We ask them to accelerate what is already working.
There is No One Else Doing This.
Michigan has thousands of nonprofits. Hundreds serve Detroit. Dozens serve immigrant communities. But there is exactly one organization that Michigan's African and Caribbean families call when they need something solved.
Not because we are the biggest. Not because we have the most programs. Because we have spent eleven years showing up, delivering results, and never letting our community down.
GABA is the option.
What does your investment actually buy? It funds the infrastructure that enables every priority. The staff who answer the calls. The relationships that open the doors.
The presence in legislative chambers, community spaces, and boardrooms ensures this community's voice is heard wherever decisions are made.
Without that infrastructure, the families we serve have no one fighting for them. With it, they have what they have never had before: a permanent, professional, trusted home base.
Two Programs.
One Ecosystem. Every Family.
Michigan's African and Caribbean business community is not short on talent, drive, or vision. What it has been short on is infrastructure. GABAWorks exists to close that gap by delivering technical assistance, capacity-building, and workforce-readiness programming that this community has never had a dedicated home for in Michigan.
Through a personalized intake process, GABAWorks builds a customized, self-paced learning pathway accessible from anywhere in Michigan. A business owner in Grand Rapids gets the same quality of support as one in Detroit on their schedule, at their level, without leaving their community.
For many families, the barrier is not the problem itself. It is knowing where to go, who to trust, and how to navigate systems that were not built with them in mind. GABA Access exists for that moment.
Through a mobile clinic model operating across Detroit, Inkster, Ypsilanti, Benton Harbor, and Grand Rapids, GABA Access delivers community resource navigation, benefits navigation, and wraparound services that meet families where they are literally, in their own neighborhoods.
Families do not leave with a pamphlet. They leave with a plan, a connection, and the relief of knowing they found the right people.
IMPACT
AREAS
Eight priorities because that is what it actually takes to help a family get stable and stay stable. Through The Legacy Agenda, we track active legislation in each area.
Michigan's Future is Already Being Built.
GABA is at the Table.
The GABA Foundation does not wait for permission. For over a decade, we have been doing the unglamorous, essential work of creating economic infrastructure, legislative presence, and community trust for one of Michigan's most economically active and chronically underinvested communities.
In November 2025, GABA co testified before the Michigan Senate Committee on Economic and Community Development in support of Senate Bill 267 legislation to create the Michigan African Caribbean Trade Commission within the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
That is not a program outcome. That is governance. That is what eleven years of relationship building, trade diplomacy, and community trust look like when they step into a legislative chamber and speak.
Advancing the African Caribbean Trade Commission Bill
Here Is What Your
Dollars Do
The Doors Are Open.Walk Through Them With Us.
Michigan's African and Caribbean families are ready. They have always been ready. GABA Foundation is the organization that has spent eleven years making sure the doors are open when they arrive. We do not ask funders to take a chance on us. We ask them to accelerate what is already working.
Partner With GABA Foundation