A century-old gift
When The Duke Endowment turned 100 in December, the investment fund marked the milestone by pledging to donate $5 billion over the next 15 years, around the same amount it gave away in its first century.
The move is a nod to the Charlotte-based endowment’s history. Industrialist J.B. Duke created the endowment to improve lives and support communities in North Carolina and South Carolina or, in his words, do “big things for God and humanity” through philanthropy.
The $5 billion “stretch goal” represents about $1 billion more than its current projected philanthropy, says board Chair Charles Lucas III, the great-great-grandson of Duke’s older brother, Benjamin. The endowment derives income through investment proceeds.
“We wanted to do something special,” he says. “This will allow us to invest more money faster to try and solve problems and make lives for citizens in the Carolinas better. We will accelerate our giving and make bigger gifts faster.”
Duke lived from 1856 to 1925, becoming one of the world’s richest men through investments in what became American Tobacco and the Southern Power hydroelectric operation on the Catawba River. (It was a predecessor to Duke Energy.)
Duke may not have been able to envision how the world would change. But he was a stickler in wanting his wealth to benefit the four areas where he felt it would do the most good: higher education, healthcare, child and family well-being and in support of rural Methodist churches in North Carolina, says Rhett Mabry, who joined the endowment in 1992 and became its president in 2016.
“He knew where he wanted to give his money and how he wanted to give it and even how he wanted to apportion it,” says Mabry. To help ensure those over the endowment follow his plan, Duke requested his original indenture be read annually at a meeting of trustees.
“We are an endowment that takes our donor’s intent seriously,” says Mabry. He adds the fund does not take in other money so as not to dilute Duke’s vision.
Trustees also want to be data-driven in order to do the most good, says Mabry. When research indicated the importance of a child’s early years – such as having appropriate reading and math skills by the third grade – trustees voted in 2017 to place an emphasis on funding programs to help children from “zero to 8.”
“We see early childhood (intervention) as a way to invest in the ends that Mr. Duke wanted to achieve,” says Mabry. “If we do a better job with children and families, and get them off to a better start, we should have fewer children in the child welfare system.”
That also takes the long view to helping end poverty and bringing about racial equity to ensure “everyone has an opportunity to live up to their potential,” he says.
Duke’s indenture sets out his belief that the endowment should have limits, and that trying to do too much may be less productive. Mabry says that’s a lesson trustees try to follow. The endowment is meant to help good ideas and practices scale up faster, he says.
The secret, he says, is to listen to those in the community.
“None of this works without our grantees who are on the ground in their communities, who wake up every day to help children, to help families, to help people with healthcare needs, to educate children,” says Mabry. “Those are the folks who inspire us and force us to try and continue to improve.” ■
