Mission & Values

Our mission is rooted in the beliefs and vision of our founders, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley. ​

Mission & Values

Our Mission

We support land conservation, artistic vitality, and broadening narratives in the Chicago region and the Lowcountry of South Carolina. We are deeply committed to building lasting partnerships, practicing trust-based philanthropy, promoting equity, and fostering lasting impact.

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Trust-based Philanthropy

Trust-based philanthropy guides our work. We build genuine partnerships and relationships with grantees. We focus on transparency, collaboration, and trust. We respect our grantee partners’ expertise and understanding of their fields and communities’ needs. Trust-based philanthropy creates a more equitable charitable landscape by fostering open communication and prioritizing long-term impact.

Read more about trust-based philanthropy

Our Values

Place-Based

We are dedicated to supporting the communities where we live and work. We focus on the Chicago region and South Carolina’s Lowcountry.

Flexible Support

We provide a wide array of support, including multi-year, general operating grants, because we trust organizations to allocate resources to achieve their missions. We supply more than funding; we connect people and provide training and other resources that further our mission.

Collaboration, Learning & Partnership

We convene grantees and partners, recognizing them as field experts, to foster learning, build relationships, and encourage collaborative action. Relationships are at the heart of our philanthropy.

Equity

We understand that the structure and institution of philanthropy have contributed to systemic inequities. To achieve equity in our regions, we use our resources to shift power to those most impacted. Inequality is systemic and so the work must be as well. Our equity work is embedded into every area of the Foundation—program, finance, governance, and operations. The work of equity is never finished, and we are working to continuously evolve our knowledge and practices.

Honoring Native People and Communities

We acknowledge that in the Chicago region we are on the ancestral homelands of the Council of Three Fires: the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Odawa nations. This land was a significant gathering place for Indigenous peoples and remains a vital part of the cultural heritage and history of Native communities. The Lowcountry was home to the Muskogean Nation, made up of the tribes of the Ashepoo, Bohicket, Cofitachiqui, Combahee, Coosa, Cusabo, Cusso, Edisto, Escamacu, Etiwan, Kiawah, Kusso-Natchez, Stono, Wando, Wimbee, and Yamassee, and the Siouan tribes of Chicora, Pee Dee, Sampit, Santee, Sewee, Waccamaw, and Winyah. These people shaped and stewarded the land and culture of the Lowcountry for centuries. The region is home to the Catawba, Edisto, Wassamasaw, Santee, and Waccamaw today. We continue to find ways to support and partner with Native communities and organizations in both our regions.

Our Commitment to Accessibility

Understanding that ableism is a key barrier to equity and inclusion, we’re proud to be a signatory of the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy’s Disability Inclusion Pledge. We invite you to join us and 50+ other funders in our commitment to learning and growing together through 2023 and beyond.

Operationalizing our values

When selecting vendors – from catering to communications – we choose local businesses or independent contractors whenever possible and give preference to those led and/or owned by those from the Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, and/or LGBTQIA+ communities, people with disabilities, and/or women. We choose B Corp certified when possible.
We have intentionally recruited for board and staff positions in communities underrepresented in philanthropy.

In choosing locations for meetings, we ensure the space is accessible to those with mobility issues and offer CART and ASL upon request.

Programs

In our program areas, we proactively seek groups that are led by and serve those communities most impacted by inequitable philanthropy. Our newest strategies – Broadening Narratives in Collections and both of our Land Conservation strategies – were updated specifically to codify the equity lens. Given the nature of the arts, those portfolios have lent themselves to more risk and experimentation, but each of those strategies will be evaluated and the equity lens codified in 2022.

GDDF has launched a Lowcountry BIPOC-Led Arts Capacity Building Pool to help support and strengthen BIPOC/BIPOC-led organizations. The pool will be available over the next three years (2023-2025) to GDDF’s BIPOC arts grantees in the form of grants and technical assistance. For more information, please contact Ame Holcombe, Lowcountry Program Associate, at amelia@gddf.org.

Investments

After incorporating a diversity lens into our investment policy, we identified new diverse managers for our endowment portfolio. In 2021, we invested eight figures in Matis US Equity Index Strategy, led by Machel Allen, an African-American woman, and made a multi-million dollar allocation to Base 10 HBCU Advancement Initiative, a venture capital firm supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

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