Name of Foundation: The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Location: New York, NY
Contact info: http://www.ddcf.org/home/
Phone: 212-974-7000
Coverage Area: Nation-wide
Subject Area: performing arts, environment, medical research, child well-being, building bridges, African health initiatives
Assets: $1.91 billion (2014)
Last Year Total Giving: $56.29 million (2014)
In a nutshell:
Doris Duke was an heiress and philanthropist who left $1.3 billion to charity when she passed away in 1993. This money is administered by her foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which has been run by an unrelated board of 12 trustees since 1996. Over the course of her lifetime, it was known as Independent Aid, Inc.
The mandates of Doris Duke’s will guide the activities of the foundation today, which reflect Doris Duke’s personal interests and investments (including journalism, dance, wildlife conservation, botanical gardens, historical restoration, travel, and child welfare). Today, it funds a wide range of projects, from maintaining Doris Duke’s three estates to medical research. Its mission is to “improve the quality of people’s lives.”
According to the foundation’s website, it “regularly evaluates and modifies its allocation of resources from the endowment to support the programs and properties and to respond to fluctuations in portfolio returns.” The foundation has made grants annually since 1997, which have totaled approximately $1.3 billion total.
One of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s main funding priorities is child well-being. The primary goals and strategies of the foundation’s grants for child well-being are to “build a repertoire of prevention strategies,” “expand capacity of existing systems,” and “develop and disseminate knowledge.”
These include grants for the following projects:
- Child Trends, Inc.
- The Nemours Foundation
- National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
- Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation also funds a fellowship for outstanding doctoral students in connection with Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. These are called the “Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child Well-Being,” and information can be found here.
Major Program Categories:
- Performing Arts
- Environment
- Medical Research
- Child Well-being
- Building Bridges
- African Health Initiative
How to Apply:
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has options for individual and organization grants in many categories, although within the child well-being category the only individual option is for the fellowships mentioned above.
Within the organization category, the foundation generally awards “multi-year” grants that range from $100,000 to $1 million.
The Foundation is not accepting unsolicited proposals for child well-being organization grants at this time (January 2016), but the foundation does give the option of submitting an inquiry about future support for these types of projects. Instructions for submitting this letter of inquiry can be found here.
Organizations interested in funding within the categories of “Performing Arts,” “Environment,” “Medical Research,” or the “African Health Initiative” can find information about the more general grant-making process here.
Recent News and Grantmaking:
The Imprint: Doris Duke Foundation Names 15 Child Abuse/Neglect Fellows