Inside Philanthropy

Go beyond 990s.

Doris Duke Foundation

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OVERVIEW: The Doris Duke Foundation is a large national funder working across the arts, environmental conservation, child and family well-being, storytelling and medical research. The foundation is based in New York and had approximately $2.2 billion in assets at the end of 2024.

IP TAKE: The Doris Duke Foundation is a major national funder with deep pockets and a distinct way of working: It zeroes in on specific fieldwide problems, then builds networks of grantees, researchers and partners to test solutions. Convenings, research, policy development and calculated risk-taking are central to its approach, as IP’s Michael Kavate has reported.

Doris Duke is largely proactive, and many grants grow out of foundation-designed initiatives or longstanding relationships. Still, it occasionally runs open competitions and award programs, which it posts on its website. U.S. 501(c)(3) organizations may also submit unsolicited LOIs at any time, though the foundation is candid that very few grants begin this way.

A generic pitch is unlikely to travel far. Strong prospects will align closely with a current strategy—artist labor, performing-arts technology, U.S. Muslim storytelling, preventive child welfare, climate-smart forests, Indigenous-led conservation or health-equity research—and bring credible partners, field standing and potential for influence beyond one organization. The best route is usually through a current initiative, intermediary, coalition or grantee network. Monitor Doris Duke’s opportunities page and email updates; this funder’s priorities and openings can shift quickly.

PROFILE: The Doris Duke Foundation, formerly the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, was established in 1996 and is based in New York City. The foundation reflects the work and interests of the late philanthropist Doris Duke. Duke was the daughter of James Buchanan Duke, the founder of the American Tobacco and Duke Energy Companies, and she was a billionaire during her lifetime. She was a longtime supporter of the performing arts, an environmentalist and, in addition to her charitable foundation, established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has overseen the preservation and maintenance of 18th century architecture in Newport, Rhode Island.

Today the Doris Duke Foundation aims “to build a more creative, equitable and sustainable future.” The funder now organizes its work under three broad umbrellas—Arts & Culture, Nature, and Health & Well-being—but maintains five national grantmaking programs: Arts, Building Bridges, Child Well-being, Environment and Medical Research.

Grants for Arts and Culture

The foundation’s Arts program primarily supports contemporary dance, jazz and theater. In her lifetime, Duke was a steadfast supporter of contemporary performing arts. Its current strategy centers on two ideas: Creative Labor, Creative Conditions and Technologies and the Performing Arts.

Creative Labor, Creative Conditions aims to improve the economic and professional circumstances in which performing artists work.

  • Recent grants have supported artist protections, revenue-sharing systems, cultural-worker networks, rights governance, advocacy and organizations building stronger infrastructure for artists.
  • In 2026, the foundation awarded more than $1 million to six organizations working in this area, including Artistic Freedom Initiative, Artist Corporations Foundation, Pollinator.coop, SOZO Impact, Starfish Accelerator Foundation and Pangea World Theater.

The foundation is also investing heavily in the relationship between performing artists and technology. Its earlier Performing Arts Technologies Lab has evolved into Artists Make Technology, a broader initiative developed with Mozilla and supported by the Ford and Hewlett foundations.

  • The 2026 AMT Lab offered an open application process, although that round is now closed. Doris Duke and Ford have also committed more than $4 million to organizations strengthening technology infrastructure in the performing arts.

The Doris Duke Artist Awards provide unusually large, flexible support to established artists in contemporary dance, jazz and theater. The foundation generally names up to six artists annually:

  • Each award includes $525,000 in unrestricted support distributed over seven years, along with an incentive of up to $25,000 for retirement savings, financial planning and related professional services.
  • These awards should not be treated as an ordinary open grant opportunity. The foundation’s general letter-of-inquiry process is limited to nonprofit organizations and is not a route for individual artists. Artists should monitor the award page and related field organizations for information about future selection processes.

The Building Bridges program supports U.S. Muslim storytellers and seeks to expand the range of Muslim experiences represented in film, television, documentary media and popular culture. Doris Duke is investing in storytellers, creative networks and entertainment-industry pathways that can strengthen Muslim representation and counter dehumanizing narratives. Much of this work operates through intermediaries and cultural partners.

  • The Building Bridges Fellowship, developed with the Islamic Scholarship Fund and Sundance Institute, supports emerging filmmakers telling U.S. Muslim stories. Fellows have received unrestricted grants, mentorship, professional-development services and access to Sundance programming.
  • The Building Bridges Documentary Fund, administered by the Center for Asian American Media, supports nonfiction film projects involving Muslim stories and communities.
  • The program has also supported The Muslim House, a convening and networking platform created with the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Hollywood Bureau. The Muslim House has operated at major festivals and industry gatherings, including Sundance, Tribeca and SXSW.

Grants for Children and Human Services

The Child Well-being program focuses on preventing unnecessary family involvement with child protective systems. Its current strategy, Prevention-oriented Child Welfare, supports community-led approaches that provide families with financial, material and social assistance before a crisis leads to deeper government intervention.

  • This is not primarily a conventional child-services grant program. Doris Duke is particularly interested in changing the systems surrounding child welfare, testing alternatives to traditional investigations and removals, and incorporating the expertise of families and communities directly affected by the system.
  • A major current initiative is OPT-In for Families, short for the Opportunities for Prevention and Transformation Initiative. Doris Duke, the Duke Endowment and the Aviv Foundation committed $33 million to test new approaches in four sites: Kentucky, Oregon, South Carolina and Washington, D.C.
  • The initiative combines flexible support for families, government systems reform, research, technology, staffing and technical assistance. Participating partners include the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab, Foster America, Think of Us and Chapin Hall.
  • Strong prospects in this program will generally be working on child-welfare prevention, economic security, family support, government reform, evaluation or community-led alternatives to traditional child protective services.

Grants for the Environment and Climate

The foundation’s environmental program is now called Environment, sitting within the foundation’s broader Nature portfolio. The program currently centers on two ideas: Climate-smart forests and Indigenous-led conservation.

Climate-smart forests supports efforts to improve forest restoration, management and climate resilience.

  • Its grantmaking includes research, policy development, technical assistance, conservation finance, certification systems and tools that help landowners and communities manage forests more effectively.
  • Recent partners have included American Forests, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Bipartisan Policy Center, Trust for Public Land and organizations participating in the Forest Innovation Platform.
  • Doris Duke often favors work that combines scientific research with practical implementation. A nonprofit offering a stand-alone local tree-planting program is likely to be less competitive than one developing replicable management practices, conservation-finance models, policy tools or technical infrastructure.

The foundation also supports Tribal Nations and Indigenous organizations working to protect land, strengthen sovereignty and expand community control over conservation decisions.

  • Its funding has backed Indigenous land stewardship, rematriation, governance, technical capacity, policy advocacy and philanthropic coordination.
  • Recent grantees and partners have included Native Americans in Philanthropy, the National Congress of American Indians Fund, Native Land Conservancy and the Ramapo Munsee Land Alliance.
  • A central field-building mechanism is the Tribal Nations Conservation Pledge and Funding Collaborative, led by Native Americans in Philanthropy. This effort seeks to increase philanthropic funding that flows directly to Tribal Nations and Indigenous-led conservation organizations.

Doris Duke also supports intermediaries and pooled efforts involving the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity, Amalgamated Charitable Foundation and other conservation networks. These relationships may create indirect opportunities, but grantseekers should not assume that every collaborative or intermediary operates an open regranting program.

Grants for Medical Research and Racial Equity

The Medical Research program currently focuses on two major ideas: Racial Equity in Clinical Equations and New Pathways for Health Innovation. This work examines the use of race in medical algorithms, clinical equations and decision-making tools. The foundation supports medical associations, research institutions and coordinating bodies working to identify potentially harmful race adjustments and replace them with more scientifically and ethically appropriate approaches.

The foundation recently committed to support Racial Equity in Clinical Equations through targeted support for initiatives that address research and methodological biases. Grantees include the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Encoding Equity Alliance, a public health organization that is focused on “changing the way in which race is considered in research design and ensuring that all patients experience the best possible health outcomes.” 

The foundation also supports New Pathways for Health Innovation through its signature Collective to Strengthen Pathways for Health Research, which convened a series of 18 “conversations” at universities and institutes around the country focused on how medical research can better achieve “transformative gains in health outcomes.”

Important Grant Details:

The Doris Duke Foundation reported approximately $90.3 million in charitable grant disbursements for 2024 with a median award of $100,000.

Grant sizes vary substantially. Many grants to external nonprofits fall in the low- to mid-six figures, while major multiyear initiatives can reach seven figures. The largest entries in the foundation’s tax return include transfers to related institutions such as the Duke Farms Foundation and should not be treated as representative competitive grants.

  • The foundation maintains an online grant-recipient database, but the database does not necessarily contain every payment appearing in its tax filings.
  • How to Apply:
    • The Doris Duke Foundation is primarily an invitation-based funder, but it is not entirely closed.
    • According to its grantmaking FAQ, U.S.-based organizations recognized as public charities under Section 501(c)(3) may submit an unsolicited letter of inquiry. However, the foundation is candid that very few grants result from this route.
    • The foundation does not make equivalency determinations for non-U.S. organizations. Its general LOI process is also not available to individuals.
    • Doris Duke periodically runs open competitions or supports open opportunities through partner organizations. These openings tend to be highly specific and time-limited. The foundation’s grant resources page should be checked regularly for current competitions.
  • Although they are not typically funded, grantseekers may submit letters of inquiry at any time here. 
  • The foundation supports both large national institutions and smaller artist-led, community-led and Indigenous organizations. It does not publish a minimum organizational budget. Smaller organizations are most competitive when they bring specialized expertise, credible partnerships and a clear role within a larger strategy. Doris Duke is less likely to fund routine local programming that has no apparent connection to research, demonstration, systems change, field learning or replication.
  • Organizations with weak prospects include those working outside the foundation’s five national programs, non-U.S. nonprofits seeking direct support, individual applicants using the general LOI and groups pursuing projects with only a loose connection to a current Doris Duke strategy.
  • For medical research, the Doris Duke Foundation does not fund institutions outside the United States or research that uses animals as per Doris Duke’s will.
  • The foundation can be reached via telephone at (212) 974-7590.
  • Email addresses for various departments and programs are available here and the foundation maintains a LinkedIn site. Sign up for email updates at the bottom of the website. 

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