The Henry Luce Foundation will increase its grantmaking budget by up to $25 million over the next two years, creating a pool of dedicated funds to help address the critical challenges facing democratic institutions and civil society.
The Foundation’s Board and staff recognize that the organizations with which we partner and the fields in which we work are under significant financial, legal, and political stress now. Indeed, the values we cherish as a foundation and which are essential to the realization of a just, equitable, and democratic future for all—including the freedom to teach and learn, the right and capacity of communities to define their own best futures, the sharing of knowledge across differences—these values are being questioned, undermined, and attacked beyond what we have seen in our lifetimes.
The additional funds will be used to support activities that strengthen democratic culture or that help to protect and enhance the areas that have long been the focus of our grantmaking. In making this commitment, the Luce Foundation joins many other funders that have recognized the urgency of this moment as well as the responsibility to use their charitable resources to respond.
The first two grants from this new fund have been approved. The Foundation will award $1 million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for their work defending journalists and news organizations from attacks. The Reporters Committee helps to ensure that information and opinion can be produced, circulated, and challenged freely.
The Foundation will also award $1 million to the consortium for Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asian Studies (GETSEA). This alliance of Southeast Asian Studies research centers develops innovative approaches to supporting the graduate study of the languages, history, culture, politics, and societies of Southeast Asia. Publisher Henry R. Luce, who established the Foundation, believed strongly that deep understanding of other ways of living and thinking was crucial if America and the global community of which it is a part are to thrive. This contribution to GETSEA will help to counter the effects of disinvestment in Asian studies by institutions and governments.
The Luce Foundation will continue to make grants using this special allocation of funds to address critical needs and to take advantage of promising new opportunities. We look forward to working in partnership with our grantees to pursue our shared vision of the future.
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About the Henry Luce Foundation
The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to deepen knowledge and understanding in pursuit of a more democratic and just world. We do so by nurturing knowledge communities and institutions, fostering dialogue across divides, enriching public discourse, amplifying diverse voices, and investing in leadership development.
Contact
communications@hluce.org
