Our Journey

The Irving Harris Foundation is a small, private family foundation founded in 1946 and based in Chicago. To realize our vision of a more just world for every baby, family, and community, we partner and fund in five primary focus areas: Reproductive Health and Justice, Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health, Early Childhood, Jewish Values, and Arts and Culture.

Inspired by our founder, Irving Harris, who believed all people should have the right to thrive, the Foundation has always aimed to tackle social injustice at its roots. In recent years we’ve become even more intentional about naming systemic racism, gender discrimination, and oppression as root causes of the issues we seek to address.

To ensure our efforts are contributing to the creation of real, lasting, community-driven change, the Foundation has embarked on a journey to center intersectional racial equity in everything we do, from grantmaking to operations.

This journey is ongoing, and we may not always get it right. In fact, we recognize that throughout our history, the Foundation has sometimes inadvertently contributed to the harms we are seeking to repair. But we stand firm in our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging and know there is much more we will continue to learn—with and from our partners.

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