As we begin this chapter, we are leaning into the values set by our founder, Irving Harris, of justice, partnership, and equity.
Our decision to sunset builds on the Foundation’s commitment to more deeply center intersectional racial equity – and our aspiration to further shift and share power. Spending down all of our assets over a shorter period of time will put these resources more quickly where we feel they belong: in the hands of the communities we work to support.
As we move into sunsetting, we intend to listen deeply to grantee and community voices, communicate openly and honestly, and co-create meaningful new possibilities with our collective resources and creativity.
We are excited to learn together and to cultivate new possibilities that Irving would have loved.
The Foundation will spend down all our remaining financial assets over the next nine years and sunset in 2032.
We don’t have all the answers just yet about what this transition will look like. However, out of the deep respect we hold for our partners, we wanted to begin sharing the news at the earliest opportunity. Over the next several years we’ll be creating space for members of our community to process, reflect, surface key questions, and imagine what this next chapter could look like.
The Foundation has always been committed to working collaboratively with others to address the root causes of injustice—and in recent years we’ve become even more intentional about centering intersectional racial equity across our work.
We see sunsetting as a natural next step that allows the Foundation to lean even deeper into our values. By spending down we can provide more meaningful support for communities here and now—and shift even more power and resources back to those most impacted by oppressive systems.
Yes, Irving recognized that the Foundation might not go on forever. He affirmed his belief in “giving good gifts now,” and that’s exactly what our sunsetting will do.
Mindful of Irving’s beliefs, the Foundation has for many years given more from our endowment than the 5% annual payout required by the IRS, knowing this will reduce the endowment at a faster pace. So in essence, we have already been passively sunsetting for some time. This news simply means we’ll now begin to sunset more actively and intentionally.
First and foremost, we intend to be present and available for our grantee partners in ways that are useful and meaningful to them. We won’t be able to answer every question just yet, but we will work to get the answers as soon as we can.
Second, this news doesn’t change our commitment to building real, trust-based relationships with our partners. We will continue to engage closely with them and seek their wisdom, especially as we start to think about what our sunsetting could mean for the future of our shared priorities.
We acknowledge that this transition places us, as Foundation staff, in a position of privilege as people who hold decision making power over the Foundation’s resources and who have access to policymakers, donors and tables our grant partners do not have. We will hold ourselves accountable to sharing power and using our privilege in service of our grantees and the communities we seek to serve.
While our grantmaking resources will eventually be spent down, the specifics have yet to be determined. Understandably, that news may create some concern or anxiety for many of our grantee partners.
We are deeply mindful of our partners’ sustainability. We will work with them to intentionally scale down funding over time to avoid the impact of a sudden loss. As we move into sunsetting, we will also be engaging our grantees to learn more about how we can be most helpful to them in thriving through this change.
We expect to continue to seed connections that help our partners build the networks and relationships needed to move their work forward. This is something the Foundation has always done, and it’s a way we feel we can be of service.
We don’t have a plan yet, but we intend to stay the course we embarked on several years ago to allocate more of our funding to BIPOC-led organizations.
While we don’t expect significant changes right now, we may adapt our processes as needed to best serve our grantees, just as we’ve always done.
Broadly, we know that we will continue to work within our focus areas: Reproductive Health & Justice, Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health, Early Childhood, Jewish Values, and Arts & Culture. Going deeper requires being more intentional, so some areas may sunset before others. Our teams will continue to work with our grantees and partners to refine the strategies. It’s still very early in this journey, and we still have a lot of listening and learning to do.
The Foundation has long supported artistic and cultural expression as a building block of healthy, strong, and vibrant communities. Historically, all grant decisions for Arts & Culture have been made at the discretion of Joan W. Harris, and we expect that process will continue. No further timeline has been established. We will keep our artistic and cultural grantee partners informed as we know more.
We don’t know yet. We still have a lot of listening, learning, and reflecting to do as we consider which Foundation initiatives (or which components of them) will continue. The path forward could look different for each initiative.
This work will continue. Not only is it very meaningful, but it may now be more important than ever, as the insights and learnings will likely inform our plans. We also hope to use our voice differently in service of the field—by being bold, acting courageously, and communicating directly in service of racial and gender justice, disrupting power dynamics and philanthropy, and ultimately the greater good.
Right now we are reaching out to grantees and partners to ensure everyone has a chance to hear the news directly from us. We are creating space for people to process, listen, reflect, and begin to consider the possibilities. We intend to continue working with our partners in the same ways as ever and remain committed to communicating openly and honestly in the years ahead.