Douglas Stewart

Douglas Bitonti Stewart is Executive Director of the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, a Southfield, Michigan-based family foundation whose mission is to enrich humanity by strengthening and empowering children and families in need. He became the foundation’s first Executive Director in early 2007.

Before joining the Fisher Foundation, Stewart spent nearly 28 years in philanthropy and development roles. His prior affiliations include Michigan State University, Michigan Nonprofit Management Institute, the Arthritis Foundation, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and the University of Michigan Health System, where he served as Director of Development for Children’s and Women’s Health.

Stewart has served on or with several philanthropic and civic organizations, including the Jewish Funders Network, Excellent Schools Detroit, The League Michigan, the American Express NGen Leadership Award Selection Committees, the National Center for Family Philanthropy as a Fellow, and the Council of Michigan Foundations’ diversity and inclusion committee. He has also served on the University of Michigan Development Summer Internship Advisory Board and as a guest lecturer in the university’s Organizational Studies program.

He earned an undergraduate degree in Finance from Michigan State University. In 2014, he completed an MBA summa cum laude from the Max M. Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.

• The foundation’s impact investing work is intended to ensure “organizations focused on social and environmental impact have access to growth capital” to expand innovation, capacity, and sustainability.
• The foundation says it invests alongside others in individual deals, participates in collaborative investments with seasoned impact investors, creates on-ramps for new impact investors, and aligns foundation assets with mission.
• For social-enterprise loans, the foundation has targeted southeast Michigan organizations that align with its mission and at least one long-term impact priority, enhance existing work or pilot new ideas, and show a clear ability to repay.
• The foundation’s RFA specified low-interest, flexible debt rather than equity, with repayment expected.
• Stewart’s own philanthropy Q&A emphasizes durable motivation and learning: he advises people entering philanthropy to understand what drives them and to keep “the heart of a student.”