As a great-grandson of Mary Duke Biddle, I am honored to serve on the Board of Trustees of her foundation, first as a trustee and now as its chair. Over the past five years, I have been energized by and proud of the foundation’s adoption of trust-based philanthropy—an approach that views our relationships with nonprofits as an ongoing partnership rather than a one-time transaction.
When I began my first term in January 2020, the foundation was piloting a limited number of invitational, multiyear grants in addition to our open-application, one-year grants. We were educating ourselves about operating support grants, which would be a significant change from our long-standing practice of project-based awards. Just a few months later, the pandemic made clear nonprofits’ need for flexible funding. In response, we converted 2020’s project-based grants to unrestricted funding, followed by a new approach in 2021 of two-year operating support grants. We also replaced written grant reports with check-in meetings to take some of the burden off nonprofits.
In 2024 we took the next step, making larger and longer operating support grants. More substantial resources allow nonprofits to plan over several years and reduce time spent on fundraising. We created staff and trustee teams for each grant to deepen our understanding about specific goals of individual organizations and the environments they work within.
These conversations have inspired us to find ways to support nonprofits beyond the grant, starting with communications assistance to help them convey the impact of their work. We also implemented a one-year grant program as a means of getting to know organizations new to MDBF and creating a pathway toward multiyear grant eligibility. We continue all of these efforts in 2025 and look forward to working alongside our nonprofit partners.
Duke University is an important part of my family’s history, and Mary Duke Biddle directed that half of the foundation’s grants be awarded to the university. Her daughter and the foundation’s driving force for more than half a century, Mary D.B.T. Semans, established a practice of supporting Duke’s exceptional arts programs. The foundation continues this focus, and is increasingly working with the university to bring those resources into the Durham community.
All of this work depends on committed, active board members, and I appreciate our board for dedicating their time and expertise to governance, engaging with non-profits and thoughtful grantmaking.
In January 2024, we welcomed Jacqueline Looney and E’Vonne Coleman as trustees, who quickly contributed their extensive knowledge of arts and education to our work.
Former trustees Lois Deloatch and Allison Haltom gave us an additional year of service on the Allocation Committee to help implement the new multiyear grant program.
We thank the MDBF staff—Mimi O’Brien, Kathleen Collier, and Kathy Harrison—who guide our efforts and embody the principles of approachability, transparency, and clarity.
And I offer my special thanks to my cousin and fellow trustee, Ben Jones, who served as our chair from July 2020 through September 2023 and to longtime trustee, Russell Bryan, who stepped in to serve as our interim chair from October 2023 through June 2024 during Ben’s leave of absence. We are grateful for their service and leadership.
Finally, all of us thank the staff, boards, and volunteers of the nonprofits who work every day to help people in the Triangle live better lives. It is our privilege to help you achieve your missions.
Trustees Joe Lucas, Chair | Russell Bryan, Vice Chair | Yomi Adigun, Treasurer | Jacqueline Looney, Secretary
George Biddle, Trustee | E’Vonne Coleman, Trustee | Ben Jones, Trustee
Staff Mimi O’Brien, Executive Director | Kathleen Collier, Program Associate | Kathy L. Harrison, Executive Assistant
Cover: 50 Years of Biddle Celebration, Bill Snead, Duke University Communications
Jacqueline Looney and E’Vonne Coleman
Grantmaking Overview
MDBF awards most of our grants through four funding areas: Duke University, the Arts, Arts Education, and Student Academic Success. Mrs. Biddle directed that at least half of grant funds be given to Duke University, which we do through an annual proposal process. For decades, most of the Duke awards have gone to the Arts. In addition, we have long made an annual grant for scholarships in the School of Medicine. In 2024, we continued support for Duke’s preK-12 tutoring programs in Durham, through the Office of Duke Community Affairs.
In 2024, we launched a new grant framework focused on capacity building, described later in this report. We also made a number of one-year grants in our key funding areas and to a few broader nonprofit sector interests, as listed in the following pages. MDBF continues to support five arts organizations with which the family has historical relationships and three churches Mrs. Biddle attended.
We looked also at our grantmaking by funding area—the Arts, Arts Education, Student Academic Success, and Other. The graphic below depicts Duke’s share of the total funding in each area. Because most of the Duke grants are for the Arts (the Nasher Museum of Art, Duke Performances, Arts and Health at Duke, the Duke Gardens, and five Arts departments within Trinity College), the Arts are MDBF’s largest grant focus.
2024 Grants Approved by Area, Totaling $1,889,995
Love and Anarchy exhibit at the Nasher Museum of Art.
Photo courtesy Hayti Heritage Center
Capacity-Building Grants
In 2024, MDBF implemented a new grant approach intended to help nonprofits working in the Arts, Arts Education, and Student Academic Success build their organizational capacity and effectiveness in ways that lead to long-term sustainability. To support organizations’ ability to build and strengthen capacity, we make operating support grants that provide flexible funding nonprofits can use as needed to achieve their missions.
Over the past several years, we’ve recounted in the Chairs’ messages the process we undertook to develop this new framework. A key part of this work has been—and continues to be—listening attentively to grantees and other nonprofit
Shaleigh Dance Works’ enVision Series presents a multisensory experience of dance and theater.
partners. Nonprofit organizations have made it clear that they need meaningful collaboration, sustained funding, and encouragement to be innovative as they build a better future for the Triangle region.
Biddle offers two grant programs each year. Multiyear grants paid over three years are available to organizations that MDBF has supported in the past five years. One-year grants provide a pathway to reconnect with nonprofits or to get to know those new to us.
MDBF will add one cohort of multiyear grants each year through 2026, as we build to full budget capacity. As a result, we had funds available in 2024 that allowed us to make a number of onetime grants that fall within our funding interests of Arts, Arts Education, and Student Academic Success. These grants were initiated by the foundation.
Arts
Big Night In for the Arts 2024
Chatham County Arts Council, Pittsboro .........................................................
$10,000
Durham Arts Council, Durham ............... $10,000
Orange County Arts Commission, Hillsborough $10,000 United Arts Wake County, Raleigh ........... $5,000
American Dance Festival, Durham, “Made in NC” program
$30,000 Artspace, Raleigh $15,000
Biscuits & Banjos Festival, Durham $10,000 Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Durham, Durham Fellows program................. $25,000
Chatham County Arts Council, Pittsboro.......... $2,500 Durham Art Guild, Durham $10,000
Paperhand Puppet Project, Graham $15,000
Hungry River Collective, Raleigh $5,000
United Arts Wake County, Raleigh, IDEAL program......................................................... $10,000
Total $157,500
Above: Ballet Hispánico at American Dance Festival. Below: Student U empowers every student to grow.
Arts Education
Circle City Theatre Company, Pittsboro, (Honoring James D. Semans)................................ $5,000
TheGifted Arts, Raleigh ....................................... $15,000 Total $20,000
Student Academic Success Student U, Durham .............................................. $20,000
Leadership Transition Grants
Hillsborough Arts Council, Hillsborough $15,000 Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh $15,000
Southern Documentary Fund, Durham $15,000
The ArtsCenter, Carrboro.................................... $15,000
Rhiannon Giddens, founder of Biscuits and Banjos Festival.
Historical Relationships
Mary Duke Biddle developed an appreciation of philanthropy from her father, Benjamin N. Duke, who was the guiding hand behind many of the Duke family’s charitable activities in Durham and the state. Her daughter, Mary D.B.T. Semans and her husband Dr. James H. Semans, during their 50 years on MDBF’s board, extended the family’s philanthropic tradition, in particular championing
several organizations through personal involvement as well as financial support. MDBF, as a family foundation, honors the family’s legacy by providing regular support to a few specific nonprofits that carry those relationships forward. In 2024, the foundation’s trustees added the Hayti Heritage Center to this group. Washington Duke, James Buchanan Duke, and Benjamin Duke had strong relationships with John Merrick, a Hayti “Founding Father” and supported organizations in the Hayti neighborhood.
Mrs. Biddle attended three churches during her lifetime, and the foundation continues to provide annual support in her honor.
American Dance Festival, Durham ................. $20,000
Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Durham $20,000
Durham Arts Council, Durham, Emerging Artists Program ................................. $25,000
Hayti Heritage Center, Durham ....................... $20,000
University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem $70,000
Christ Church United Methodist, New York, NY ............................................................ $5,000
Duke Memorial United Methodist Church, Durham $5,000
Irvington Presbyterian, Irvington, NY $5,000
Total ........................................................................ $170,000
Above: Students performing at Hayti Heritage Center. Below: Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Durham Fellows.
Grants to Duke University
“There will be more celebrations, but in my view, none more important than this one.”
These were the words spoken by Mary D.B.T. Semans at the dedication of the Mary Duke Biddle Music Building on October 19, 1974. Her words still resonated a half-century later when the Department of Music gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Biddle Music Building.
The building was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone, who was at the height of his fame. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., designed by Stone, opened in 1971. Other credits in the architect’s lengthy career included Radio City Music Hall (1932) and the North Carolina State Legislative Building in Raleigh (1960).
Students, faculty, alumni, staff, and aficionados honored five decades of music-making at Duke with a commemorative concert in Baldwin Auditorium on September 21, 2024. The gala event showcased a collaboration of performances by students, faculty, and alumni, along with the unveiling of a mural celebrating 50 years of Biddle by Natalie Robinson and the premiere of a documentary created by Rodrigo Dorfman.
Other Grants
$275,000 Total $714,995
Grants are made to support the nonprofit community in North Carolina and to respond to exceptional opportunities.
Community Foundation of Western NC, Asheville (for Hurricane Helene relief) $50,000 echo, Durham $2,500 North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, Raleigh ........................................................................ $5,000 Penland School of Craft, Bakersville (for Hurricane Helene relief) $5,000 The Stagville Memorial Project, Durham $5,000 Triangle Capacity Building Network, Durham .................................................................... $25,000 Total $92,500
Natalie Robinson painting mural for the 50 years of Biddle celebration.
Rebuilding the Penland School of Craft.
Bill Snead, Duke University Communications
MissionPost, PMB #101
318 Blackwell Street Suite 130 Durham, NC 27701
919.493.5591 | www.mdbf.org
Our History
M ary Lillian Duke Biddle (1887-1960) was born in Durham, NC, the daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Duke. She graduated from Trinity College, later named Duke University in honor of her grandfather, Washington Duke. Mrs. Biddle developed an appreciation for the importance of philanthropy from her father, who was the guiding hand behind many of the Duke family’s charitable activities. Duke University, in particular, flourished in its early days thanks to the financial backing of her grandfather, father, and Uncle James B. Duke, who were successful entrepreneurs as well as philanthropists.
In September 1956, she established The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation. Mrs. Biddle directed that at least onehalf of the foundation’s grants be made to Duke University and identified three churches as institutions important to her. Otherwise, she was intentionally broad in her directions to future trustees on how and where to distribute grants.
Mrs. Biddle valued the input and wisdom of her friends and trusted advisors, and, from the beginning, the foundation’s Board of Trustees has included family and non-family members. The foundation continues her practice of actively engaging members of the community to serve as trustees. Currently, the board is comprised of three family and four non-family members.
Portrait of Mary Lillian Duke Biddle from the Duke Archives. All photos provided courtesy of their respective organizations.
