The Duke Endowment
A Century-Old Mission and a Modern Solution: How The Duke Endowment Streamlines Grantmaking
The Duke Endowment has awarded billions of dollars to nurture children, promote health, educate minds, and enrich spirits across the Carolinas. The Endowment’s team knew that, in order to make the biggest impact, it needed a grantmaking solution that tracks trends and outcomes seamlessly.
For nearly 100 years, The Duke Endowment has maintained the legacy of James Buchanan Duke, a visionary North Carolina philanthropist. With four focus areas in the Carolinas—healthcare, child care, higher education, and rural Methodist churches—The Duke Endowment has awarded over $3.7 billion.
“We are very tightly focused on Mr. Duke’s original mission that he set out for us,” explained Senior Accountant Natalie Smith, CPA. “We try to balance that mission with current trends in philanthropy.”
The Endowment began working with a paper grantmaking system but partnered with Blackbaud in the late ‘90s. In the past few years, the Endowment has committed to training grantmaking staff to use Blackbaud Grantmaking for all elements of their work, ensuring a single data source.
"We really like how it transformed our grants process,” Smith said. “(Blackbaud Grantmaking) made it a lot more streamlined and easier for us and our grantees to use, so it’s really been helpful to see that more of our staff are becoming engaged in the product.”
