JOYCE FOUNDATION

Contact information:
70 West Madison Street, Suite 2750
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Phone: 312-782-2464
Fax: 312-782-4160

Website: http://www.joycefdn.org/

Type of foundation: Independent

Types of grants: Project, general operating (occasional)

Description: Founded in 1948, the Joyce Foundation supports the development of policies that improve the quality of life for people in the Great Lakes region and serve as models for the rest of the country. The Foundation’s program priorities are:

• Education: Grants seek to close the achievement gap by improving teacher quality, supporting early reading and supporting innovation in education (especially through charter schools).
• Employment: Grants support basic educational programs for adults to prepare them for the workforce, industry training partnerships, and innovation (new programs, technologies or policies that improve the quality of, expand access to, and lower the cost of education and training.)
• Environment: Grants support work that establishes the Great Lakes states as leaders in energy efficiency. They also support Great Lakes restoration work.
• Gun Violence Prevention: Grants support efforts to raise public awareness about gun violence. Grants also support projects that help law enforcement combat gun crime, as well as policy-oriented research on gun violence.
• Democracy: Grants supports work to promote campaign finance reform, promote openness and fairness in redistricting, support efficient and honest elections, and promote fair courts.
• Culture: Grants support access to the arts; small and mid-sized, community-based arts organizations; and production and commissioning of new works relevant to audiences of color and/or by artists of color. The Foundation also makes grants to seek and test new ideas emerging in the arts field that heighten digital engagement, use compelling storytelling vehicles to relay the power of art and create partnerships outside of the typical art realm leading to diverse arts audiences. Culture grantmaking is mostly limited to organizations in the Chicago metropolitan area.
• The Special Opportunities Program supports “communications-oriented projects” that enhance public understanding of the Foundation’s issues.

Sample grants:

• $450,000 
to Fresh Energy (St. Paul, MN) to expand the reach and impact of Midwest Energy News and strengthen the communications efforts of RE-AMP member organizations (2012).
• $300,000 
to National Public Radio for support of NPR's coverage of education, energy, and employment issues in the Midwest, as well as for two reporter trainings (2012).
• $300,000 
to Great Lakes Commission (Ann Arbor, MI) to support the advancement of separation in the Chicago waterway system; publicize separation options; maintain stakeholder forum; build support among decision-makers and identify financing options (2012).
• $250,000 
to Chicago Public Media to support Front & Center series-in-depth coverage of regional news and issues affecting the six-state region surrounding the Great Lakes (2012).
• $250,000 to Editorial Projects in Education (Washington, DC) 
to support coverage in Education Week and on edweek.org on state policies that aim to improve the teaching profession (2012).
• $225,000 to StoryCorps 
to launch and maintain a StoryBooth within the Chicago Cultural Center, establishing the site as StoryCorps' Midwestern hub of operations (2012).
• $225,000 to Education Writers Association (Washington, DC)
 to support the improvement of media coverage in the Midwest and nationally of efforts to raise the caliber of the nation's education workforce, including the charter sector (2012).
• $250,000 to Chicago Public Media for Front and Center series in-depth coverage of regional news and issues affecting the six-state region surrounding the Great Lakes (2011).
• $250,000 to Window to the World Communications (Chicago, IL) for a series of local and national on-air and online news reports on important policy issues facing the Great Lakes region (2011).
• $250,000 over two years to WisconsinEye Public Affairs Network to develop the first privately funded, independent and non-governmental state public affairs television network (2005).
• $200,000 
to Bellwether Education Partners (Wellesley, MA) to support its efforts to advance the national conversation on the sustainability and reform of educator pensions through engaging relevant stakeholder audiences (2012).
• $200,000 
to Public Impact (Chapel Hill, NC) to develop and disseminate resources to help policy makers in Great Lakes states and beyond to create an Opportunity Culture and extend the reach of excellent teachers (2012).
• $200,000 to Window to the World Communications (Chicago, IL) 
for support of collaborative Great Lakes reporting between Chicago Tonight and The PBS NewsHour, Chicago Tonight's local news coverage, and expansion of Chicago Tonight's website (2012).
• $200,000 to StoryCorps to capture the stories of 125 highly effective teachers in the Great Lakes region (2011).
• $200,000 over two years to University of Michigan Great Lakes Radio Consortium for continued support of the Great Lakes Radio Consortium's coverage in the region (2006).
• $150,000 
to National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago, IL) for capacity building and to strengthen audience engagement and participation (2012).
• $135,000 to Chicago Public Media for a reporter to cover Springfield for both WBEZ and the Chicago News Cooperative (2012).
• $135,000 to Chicago Public Media for a reporter to cover Springfield for both WBEZ and the Chicago News Cooperative (2011).
• $107,500
 to New Organizing Institute Education Fund (Washington, DC) to provide training and technical assistance to public engagement grantees in the Education and Gun Violence programs, with a goal of expanding their capacity to use new media tools to organize around policy reform (2012).
• $100,000
 to Innovation Foundation to support Chicago Ideas Week 2012, a week-long series of public presentations, events, lectures, and workshops presented by scholars, artists, educators, scientists, writers, and other thought leaders from around the world in Chicago in October 2012 (2012).
• $100,000 
to Black Women Playwrights’ Group (Chicago, IL) for continued support of a digital media project designed to connect live theater with online audiences (2012).
• $100,000
 to New Voice Strategies (Chicago, IL) to operate inter-related VIVA Minnesota Teachers' Idea Exchanges-online collaborations-open to any teacher in the state (2012).
• $100,000 to Chicago Public Media for continued support of three neighborhood satellite bureaus in Englewood, Humboldt Park, and Rogers Park (2011).
• $100,000 to the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources to train young and mid-career newspaper, magazine, radio, television and online journalists (2009).
• $90,000
 to Community Renewal Society (Chicago, IL) for continued funding for the general operations, reporting, and analysis of Catalyst Chicago (2012).
• $85,000
 to Common Cause Education Fund (Washington, DC) for research, public education, public education, media outreach, and coalition building by Common Cause Wisconsin to promote reforms, including judicial independence, public financing of elections, and redistricting (2012).
• $75,000 to National Public Radio for coverage of news and issues affecting the Great Lakes region (2009).
• $50,000 
to Chicago Public Media for renewed and final support of the Community News Bureaus (2012).
• $50,000 
to Detroit Educational Television Foundation (Detroit, MI) to support Great Lakes Now 2012, a community education project which will allow people from the Great lakes basin and beyond to virtually attend the Great Lakes Week conferences in Cleveland, Ohio (2012).
• $50,000 
to League of Women Voters of Illinois Education Fund to improve Illinois's election administration, build public awareness of the need to safeguard judicial independence, and build public support for redistricting reform (2012).
• $50,000
 to International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago to support the seventh annual Latino Music Festival (2012).
• $49,969 to Georgetown University for journalistic exploration of the impact of job dislocation spurred by the Great Recession (2011).
• $42,000
 to Ohio State Foundation (Columbus, OH) to support funding for educational efforts of lawmakers, science writers and media as well as coordination of work and project development (2012).
• $30,000 to WETA to support television broadcast and online reporting of public policy issues (2009).
• $25,000 to Women Employed Institute (Chicago, IL) 
to support new media capacity-building projects that advance the policy agenda of the organization (2012).
• $10,000 to Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action For American Prospect efforts to promote independent, non-profit journalism in the public interest (2011).

Fit for public broadcasting: The Foundation has a strong history of support for media (including public media) initiatives that connect with its priority issues and region (Great Lakes region). The Foundation has a strong interest in driving policy debates and discussions around its priority issues. Raising public awareness, and educating those who shape policy, are of interest to the Foundation. The Foundation will fund national media initiatives that have bearing on the Great Lakes region.

Eligibility: Funding is limited to projects that impact the Great Lakes region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin). The Foundation supports national organizations for projects that promise to have a significant impact on public policies affecting the Great Lakes region. The Foundation does not generally support capital requests, endowments, religious activities, commercial ventures, direct service programs or scholarships.

Deadline: Inquiries are accepted at any time. There are four proposal deadlines per year.

How to apply: Initial approach is by 2- to 3-page letter of inquiry sent to the appropriate program officer. The Foundation will invite a proposal, if interested. A list of required proposal components is available here. Applicants are encouraged to time their requests for the April or July board meetings, as that is when most grants are distributed.

Giving range: Most grants are below $500,000, but some exceed $1 million. In 2011, the average grant size was $135,000.

Assets: $752,688,156 (year end 2012).

Total giving: $32,115,772 (2012).

View 2011 Annual Report here.