In 2024, The Duke Endowment marks 100 years—inspired by the people of the Carolinas, working on solutions together and invested in a shared vision for the future.
The Duke Endowment of today supports nonprofit organizations doing vital work in the four program areas defined by James B. Duke in his Indenture of Trust. We continue to adapt to meet changing needs in tune with Mr. Duke’s love for humanity.
A century in the making, the Endowment is a product of the vision and success of Mr. Duke and his family—and the tradition of philanthropic giving they shared.
Committed to the Carolinas
For a century, The Duke Endowment has worked to improve lives in North Carolina and South Carolina. We have supported thousands of organizations under four program areas defined by James B. Duke in his 1924 Indenture of Trust. Though times and strategies have changed, we remain committed to bringing Mr. Duke’s vision to life.The Endowment has grown from $107 million in 1925 to $5 billion today.
Since its founding, The Duke Endowment has awarded approximately $4.5 billion in grants—$10.8 billion in today’s dollars.
The Endowment ranks 24th among grant-making foundations in the U.S. and is the largest by asset size in the Southeast.
“While in my opinion nothing can take the place of a home and its influences, every effort should be made to safeguard and develop these wards of society.”
“I want to see to it that adequate and convenient hospitals are assured in their respective communities, with especial reference to those who are unable to defray such expenses of their own.”
"When you have a great community growing like the Carolinas you’ve got to have five kinds of leaders whose minds are trained. The first is preachers, the second is teachers, the third is lawyers, the fourth is chemists and engineers, and the fifth is doctors.”
“My old daddy always said that if he amounted to anything in life it was due to the Methodist circuit riders. If I amount to anything in this world I owe it to my daddy and the Methodist Church.”
Child & Family Well-Being
We support public and private child- and family-serving agencies as they provide evidence-based and evidence-informed programs that prevent or alleviate child maltreatment.
Evidence-Based Child Welfare Interventions
The Endowment has committed $16 million since 2008 to help expand the use of proven, evidence-based child welfare interventions in North Carolina and South Carolina. That support has produced significant, measurable results for children and families.
Kinship Care
The Endowment supports the expansion and testing of new programs such as emerging kinship care models. These programs help family members who assume responsibility for underage relatives at risk of placement in the child welfare system.
Health Care
We work to drive improvements in the health status of Carolinians and to reduce health disparities.
Healthy People,
Healthy Carolinas
Launched in 2015, the program supports 33 regional coalitions that collectively provide more than three million people with opportunities to lead a healthier lifestyle through community health programs and policies.
Oral Health Initiative
Since 2018, the Endowment has helped students receive dental care at more than 350 schools in North Carolina and South Carolina. More than 10,000 treatment services and more than 85,000 preventive services have been provided.
Higher Education
We support the long-term success of the four schools named in Mr. Duke’s Indenture of Trust – Davidson College, Duke University, Furman University and Johnson C. Smith University – so that they may effectively serve their students and the Carolinas.
Student Financial Support
Over the past 20 years, the Endowment has awarded more than $300 million to the four schools named in the Indenture to support grants and scholarships, making it possible for thousands of deserving students to graduate with significantly less debt or no debt at all.
Building Faculty
With more than $200 million in faculty support grants during the past two decades, the Endowment has strengthened the educational experience for students in the Carolinas, helping the four schools hire, retain and develop faculty.
Rural Church
We honor and help sustain the pivotal role churches play in rural North Carolina. We support clergy and congregations so that churches can make meaningful and measurable impact in their communities, today and into the future.
Clergy Health
Since 2006, the Endowment has invested $28 million in a groundbreaking initiative to improve clergy health. A study of one intervention involving more than 1,100 United Methodist clergy in North Carolina showed improvements in weight, cholesterol and blood pressure.
Summer Literacy
The Endowment is working with rural congregations in North Carolina to prevent learning loss among elementary school students through evidence-informed summer literacy programs. Nearly 2,000 students have been served by church-based reading camps since 2013.
Early Childhood Emphasis
The Duke Endowment sees investing in early childhood as a way to produce greater impact across our grantmaking and provide better and more equitable opportunities for children and families. We believe this emphasis on children prenatal to age 8 promises a more effective approach to addressing the issues that confront our communities today.
Ready for School,
Ready for Life
In partnership with Blue Meridian Partners, the Endowment supports Greensboro, N.C.-based Ready for School, Ready for Life in a 10-plus year, $100 million strategy to improve and equalize opportunity in the community by making large, targeted investments in young children and their caregivers.
The advances we’ve supported for people and communities across the Carolinas are built on innovations that have taken shape over a century.