OVERVIEW: The Duke Endowment is one of the largest private foundations in the United States and one of the most important institutional funders in the Carolinas.
IP TAKE: The Duke Endowment is an powerhouse source of health funding for the American Southeast. It makes hundreds of grants each year with plenty of room for new grantees despite its multiyear commitments. The Duke Endowment is much more approachable than its size and institutional profile might suggest. The key is knowing which door is actually open. Child & Family Well-Being, Health Care and Rural Church all accept public pre-applications, while Higher Education is restricted to four named institutions and Zero to Eight place-based work is invitation-only.
Prospects shouldn’t treat Duke as a broad, regional generalist. Its programs are clearly defined, and successful applicants are likely to be deeply embedded in North Carolina or South Carolina systems — child welfare agencies, health coalitions, rural church networks, early-childhood partnerships and other established regional infrastructure. The foundation also favors work that can demonstrate evidence, strong implementation and potential for durable systems change.
The upside is substantial. Duke has announced plans to distribute up to $5 billion over 15 years, suggesting unusually strong opportunity for organizations that fit its existing charter priorities. For a well-aligned Carolinas nonprofit, this is a funder worth serious cultivation.
PROFILE: Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Duke Endowment was established in 1924 by James Buchanan Duke, a tobacco and electric power magnate of the early 20th century. In its early years, the endowment supported North Carolina’s Trinity College, which was eventually renamed Duke University, in honor of James Buchanan Duke’s father, the industrialist Washington Duke.
Its grantmaking is rooted in Duke’s Indenture of Trust and remains concentrated in four areas: Child & Family Well-Being, Health Care, Higher Education and Rural Church. The foundation also makes grants through an Additional Focus portfolio addressing early childhood, disaster response and selected emerging needs.
The Endowment works almost entirely in North Carolina and South Carolina. Its own eligibility guidance says that grants must ultimately support lives and communities in the two states, even when a grantee or intermediary is headquartered elsewhere.
Grants for Health
The Health Care program seeks to improve health and reduce disparities across North Carolina and South Carolina. In 2026, the Endowment reorganized most of this grantmaking around two broad strategies: Build Community Coalitions, which brings together health systems, public health agencies and community organizations around programs and policies promoting health, and Advance Innovation, which backs the development and testing of approaches with potential for long-term scale and sustainability.
- Within that framework, current funding priorities include access to care for vulnerable populations, maternal and infant health, mental health, oral health, population health and workforce development. Duke has shown particular interest in approaches that connect medical care with community-based services, reduce disparities, generate strong evidence and can ultimately be sustained or scaled.
- Access-to-care work includes support for low-income, uninsured and underserved residents. Duke also supports a network of AccessHealth partnerships, although that component is invitation-only. Mental health funding currently places particular emphasis on pediatric mental health, while maternal and infant health funding supports evidence-based approaches aimed at improving outcomes and reducing disparities. Oral health funding includes school-based approaches and policy work; expansion of its school-based oral-health initiative is also invitation-only. Population-health work includes regional coalitions addressing chronic disease and social determinants of health, while workforce investments have included community health workers and other community-based health roles.
- Health Care was the Endowment’s largest core program by new commitments in 2024, when it approved about $79.4 million across 122 grants. Recent work highlighted by the foundation includes Prisma Health’s collaborative-care efforts around mental health and other initiatives connecting health systems with community partners.
- Contrary to the impression that Duke is entirely invitation-only, Health Care has a public pre-application process. Pre-applications are due May 15 and November 15, with invited full applications due June 15 and December 15. Some individual initiatives remain invitation-only.
Grants for Higher Education
The Endowment’s Higher Education program is unique because eligibility is established by James B. Duke’s original Indenture of Trust. Funding is limited to just four institutions: Davidson College, Duke University, Furman University and Johnson C. Smith University. No other college or university is eligible for direct support through this program.
- The Endowment works closely with leaders at the four schools rather than imposing a single set of institutional priorities. Its current strategic framework consists of Support Institutional Priorities and Promote Learning and Pursue Shared Opportunities. Application guidance identifies academic excellence, educational access and success, and community and campus engagement as major areas of activity. Grants have supported faculty recruitment and retention, campus infrastructure, curricular initiatives, scholarships and financial aid, student retention and graduation, and collaborative projects involving the four institutions.
- In 2024, the Endowment approved about $55.3 million in new Higher Education commitments across 11 grants. Nearly all of that funding supported institutional priorities, with a smaller amount directed toward shared learning and collaborative opportunities.
- There is no open application process for outside organizations. Duke staff work with designated contacts at each eligible institution, and organizations or researchers interested in a Duke Endowment-supported project must work through the institution’s grant administration office. The Endowment does not make Higher Education grants to individuals, including graduate students and individual researchers.
Grants for Rural Churches and Civic Engagement
The Rural Church program reflects James B. Duke’s belief that churches and pastors were essential civic institutions in rural North Carolina. Direct church grants are limited to eligible United Methodist churches in North Carolina; other Methodist denominations, including African Methodist Episcopal and Evangelical Methodist churches, are not eligible for these church grants.
- -Current Rural Church strategies are Cultivate and Support Pastoral Leaders, Reimagine Church Real Estate, Build Congregational Capacity, and Identify and Test Selected Programs. Funding supports clergy recruitment and development, stronger connections between congregations and their communities, productive reuse of church real estate, congregational capacity and selected programs with demonstrated outcomes, particularly those serving children. The last strategy is available only to organizations Duke has already directed to apply.
- Eligibility is determined partly by geography. Churches generally qualify if they are located in communities with populations of 1,500 or fewer or in areas considered rural under an approved Rural-Urban Commuting Area definition. The Endowment periodically updates its list of eligible churches following federal census data.
- Although direct grants to churches are restricted to eligible United Methodist congregations, Duke also works with selected nonprofits, institutions and intermediaries that strengthen rural churches and the communities around them. Accordingly, nonprofit organizations may occasionally appear among Rural Church grantees even though they are not themselves congregations.
- The Endowment approved about $18.1 million across 30 Rural Church grants in 2024. The largest portions supported pastoral leadership and congregational capacity.
- Rural Church uses a public pre-application process, with deadlines of May 10 and October 3. Successful pre-applicants are invited to submit full proposals. Annual pension grants for eligible retired United Methodist pastors and families are handled through the North Carolina and Western North Carolina Conferences; individuals do not apply to the Endowment directly.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
- Beyond its four charter-based programs, The Duke Endowment makes grants through Additional Focus, which gives the foundation some flexibility to respond to emerging needs in the Carolinas. In 2024, Additional Focus accounted for approximately $76.5 million in new commitments, including $52.7 million for Zero to Eight place-based work, $14.55 million for disaster response and $9.26 million categorized as other investments.
- A major component is Zero to Eight, the Endowment’s early-childhood emphasis. Approved by trustees in 2017, Zero to Eight focuses on the prenatal period through age eight and uses a whole-child framework spanning physical health, cognitive development and social-emotional well-being. The strategy operates through both the Endowment’s four established program areas and selected place-based initiatives.
- Program-based Zero to Eight work includes child-welfare interventions, maternal and infant health, oral health, vision screening, early-childhood research and church-based literacy initiatives.
- Organizations seeking support for this work generally enter through the relevant core program rather than through a separate Zero to Eight application.
- The Endowment also makes large, systems-oriented Zero to Eight place-based investments. Its largest effort is in Guilford County, North Carolina, where it supports Ready for School, Ready for Life and a broader effort to better coordinate services for young children and caregivers. Duke has also backed place-based work in Charlotte and Spartanburg. The place-based Zero to Eight strategy does not accept unsolicited applications and is working with existing partners.
- Disaster response is another significant Additional Focus activity. The Endowment provides assistance to Carolinas communities after major natural disasters, often working through established regional organizations and intermediaries rather than operating a standing open rapid-response competition. The foundation does not currently advertise a general disaster-relief application process.
Important Grant Details:
The Duke Endowment has awarded roughly $5.1 billion since its founding and reported assets of about $5 billion at the end of 2024. In 2024, trustees approved $252.9 million in new grant commitments and distributed more than $248 million through 376 grants. The foundation has also announced plans to invest up to another $5 billion across the Carolinas over 15 years, an acceleration of its historical rate of grantmaking rather than an expansion into new geographic areas.
- The Duke Endowment is best understood as a Carolinas-focused institutional funder, not a national foundation. Organizations headquartered elsewhere occasionally receive grants, but the Endowment’s own guidance says its funding must ultimately benefit North Carolina or South Carolina communities.
- The endowment provides information about its past grants at the Grants Overview page.
- While the endowment does accept applications for funding, eligibility requirements and due dates vary by program.
- Potential grantees should demonstrate some involvement or benefit to populations of North or South Carolina.
- Additional grant guidelines, program contacts and application links are available through the Endowment’s grants portal.
- General inquiries may be addressed to staff members via email or to via the endowment’s contact form.
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