Dan Austin, the 45-year-old founder of HistoricDetroit.org, is trying to make sure his life’s work does not disappear when he no longer can maintain it. He has launched the Austin Past & Future Fund, an endowment aimed at keeping his sprawling Detroit history archive online while also seeding scholarships for city youth. Austin announced the nonprofit while continuing treatment for stage-4 colorectal cancer, describing the fund as a way to ensure the project outlives him and stays free for anyone who wants to dig into Detroit’s past.
Organizers say donations will cover web hosting and day-to-day operating costs and will build a lasting scholarship pool. A formal donation page and nonprofit paperwork are already in place, according to Austin Past & Future Fund.
Why Austin Is Racing the Clock
Austin has publicly shared that he was diagnosed with stage-4 colorectal cancer in August 2024 and has repeatedly pressed people with risk factors to get checked. “Get your cancer screenings,” he wrote in updates on his site, calling the fund both practical and deeply personal, according to HistoricDetroit.org. He has framed the nonprofit as a way to protect the work, and the memory of Detroit places he has documented for years.
Scholarships For Detroit Youth
The fund plans to award scholarships to Detroit residents ages 16 to 25 for tuition, books, supplies or room and board, with recipients required to show proof that they live in the city, according to the fund’s scholarship page. In a Patreon post, Austin added that the group has opened an endowment with Fidelity and hopes to begin awarding scholarships in 2027, and that the awards will be aimed at careers that directly serve Detroit, including teachers, urban planners, social workers and architects. The total number of scholarships and the dollar amount of each one will depend on how much money the fund ultimately raises.
A Living Archive With Reach
HistoricDetroit.org is far more than a casual side project. The site now documents more than 1,000 buildings and hosts roughly 16,000 to 17,000 photos, many of them contributed or shot by director of photography Helmut Ziewers. The site reports that it drew about 1.5 million page views from roughly 504,000 unique visitors last year, which supporters say gives the new fund a built-in audience that can help sustain donations and attention. These figures are detailed on HistoricDetroit.org.
Backers, Board And Next Steps
The rollout is already drawing political and civic support. Coverage of the launch notes endorsements from Mayor Mary Sheffield and former Mayor Mike Duggan, and reports that local public relations veteran Colleen Robar is helping with the fund’s debut pro bono. That reporting also says donations are being routed through HistoricDetroit’s Substack and Patreon accounts while the fund’s standalone site and bank accounts are finalized, as reported by the Detroit Free Press.
What’s Next
Organizers are still building out the board of directors and tightening up the bookkeeping. Austin has also said he plans additional fundraising moves that include an auction of his record collection in summer 2026, and supporters point out that creating the endowment now should allow for modest but steady scholarship awards as the principal grows. For donors, Patreon posts say that monthly contributions will become tax-deductible beginning in March and that the fund will release application details and timelines once it hits key operational milestones, according to Patreon.
