Our Mission
To serve the communities that Jessie Ball duPont knew and loved. We envision a world in which every member of those communities feels they belong.
Our Values
With belonging comes power.
People contribute when and where they feel they belong. Belonging is easy when similarities bring us together. But our differences make us stronger, and lasting solutions are the result of creativity sparked by our differences.
Do better. Always.
We hold ourselves and our partners to the highest standards and take seriously our responsibility to do much with the abundant resources we have been given. And there is always room to improve.
Listen, act, learn. Repeat.
We listen with open minds and hearts. We learn from our mistakes and triumphs. We make hard choices. We try, we fail, we try again. We move fast, and we are wrong sometimes. We experiment so others don’t have to. We crave feedback and input. We believe we can learn new things and do better next time.
In it together.
We know collaboration and partnership make better, stronger, healthier communities than going it alone. We don’t have all the answers. We build bridges and span divides. We are stewards of community needs and wants.
A Complicated Legacy
The duPont Fund was established through Jessie Ball DuPont’s will. A teacher and philanthropist, Jessie funded hundreds of scholarships for college students, and supported charities, religious organizations, children’s homes, hospitals, historic buildings, libraries, and art museums. But her legacy is a complicated one: while Jessie funded HBCUs and Black institutions, she also held an explicit and unchanging support for racial segregation – even withdrawing funding from organizations that ended the practice. Jessie’s story calls us to live in the spirit of her generosity, while ensuring that generosity benefits all families in our community – and that we make amends by repairing the impact of her beliefs and actively breaking down barriers today.