Mission:
To improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, wildlife conservation, medical research, and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties.

Background:
Doris Duke was born in New York City in 1912, the only child of James Buchanan Duke, a founder of the American Tobacco Company and the Duke Energy Company. When her father died, she became "the richest woman in the world" — at age twelve. During her lifetime, Duke pursued diverse interests that included travel, art collecting, historic preservation, conservation, wildlife, and horticulture; she supported the performing arts, medical research, and nearly eighty-five child welfare organizations; and she gave away more than $400 million, often as anonymous contributions. When she died in 1993 at age eighty, Duke endowed the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with assets that now total approximately $1.5 billion. The foundation supports four national grantmaking programs and oversees three properties; it is governed by an eight-member board of trustees.

Outstanding Features:
The DDCF Web site provides information about the initiatives, strategies, and funding opportunities for the foundation's grantmaking programs: arts, environment, medical research, and child abuse prevention. It details DDCF's grantmaking process and lists the grants awarded by year since 1997. The Web site also describes Doris Duke's three properties that are open to the public and offer educational programs: Duke Farms, a 700-acre park with greenhouse display gardens, in Hillsborough, New Jersey; Rough Point, the Duke family mansion, now a public museum, housing extensive collections of European fine and decorative arts, in Newport, Rhode Island; and Shangri La, one of Hawaii's most significant architectural buildings, home to Duke's large collection of Islamic art, in Honolulu.