Though Arthur Dean Family Foundation was officially founded in 2016, 2021 was the year we became truly established with a clear direction, purposeful intention, and the adoption of an organizational structure to implement our plans. Centering relationships from board to staff to grantee partners to the community became the power that decided our direction. A Trust-Based Philanthropy approach became Our Foundation’s playbook as we worked to establish our culture, improve our grantmaking, streamline our processes, and questioned traditional philanthropy assumptions.
We invested in 36 grantee partners who shared our vision of developing deep relationships with youth. As we move forward, we hope to lift up our grantee partners, learn from them and support their expertise as they work in our neighborhoods and communities supporting youth and families.
I could not be more grateful to the generous family that makes this all possible. It is their legacy that we are creating. I am honored to work alongside my talented team, building a unique community asset that will change the face of the community and philanthropy for years to come.
I can’t wait to see where we go!
Ruthie Purcell-Jones
Executive Director
Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of working for a fledgling family foundation is managing an evolutionary, exploratory grants program that seeks to positively impact the lives of children, youth and families while aligning with the philanthropic hopes and aspirations of our Board.
In addition to providing nearly $3 million in grant support, ADFF also joined the Summer Youth Program Fund funding collaborative, the Indianapolis Education Funders group, the national Trust-Based Philanthropy Collaborative, and other groups dedicated to striving to continuously improve their grantmaking, stewardship, and support of the communities in which we serve.
Through these experiences, we learned a great deal about developing and refining our own priorities, better understanding the unique role of Arthur Dean in the local philanthropic landscape, and evaluating the role of relationships and trust-based philanthropy in our day-to-day work. These learnings led to a grants portfolio focused on the areas of Education, Youth Development, and Youth Employment/Career Exploration. Several grant highlights from this year include:
As we head into 2022, we look forward to another year of growth, relationship development, and community partnership.
Drew Black
Director of Grantmaking & Community Impact
2021 was a year of listening and learning for the foundation. The consistent conversations and honest relationships with our grantee partners helped us understand how to support their work in meaningful ways. These conversations have prompted us to continue pursuing an Equitable Evaluation Framework, Emergent Learning Principles, and the Trust Based Philanthropy approach.
This next year, you’ll find us reimagining evaluation and exploring new ways of learning. We see evaluation as an opportunity to learn and evolve as stewards and partners, rather than taking on the narrow – and virtually impossible – task of proving that limited grants make a measurable impact on longstanding, complex social issues. We’re committed to making our thinking and assumptions visible to others in pursuit of constant learning and assessment. Asking questions of ourselves, grantee partners, and colleagues in the field allows us to continuously examine these early iterations of our work for ongoing improvement. We know that we don’t have the “right” answer, strategy, or approach. Instead, we offer up our best current thinking so we can learn and deepen impact alongside our grantee partners.
We are also looking forward to providing support for our grantee partners in ways that extend “beyond the check.” By embracing a “yes, and” model where we provide support through grants and resources that bolster grantees’ impact and strengthen the fields of education, youth development, and youth employment and career pathways. Our hope is that these resources will provide grantee partners with greater access to technical assistance; networking with other ADFF partners; capacity building; peer-to-peer learning; and national knowledge and insight. We sincerely appreciate the open dialogue and candid conversations we’ve had with our partners over the past year about this program.
River Sturdivant
Director of Learning and Impact
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In 2021, our grantmaking was focused in four areas: Youth Development, Education, Youth Employment & Career Exploration, and Family Success. The majority of our grantee partners were in Marion County (82%), followed by Whitley County (13%) and then Hamilton County (3%).
The mission of the Asante Art Institute of Indianapolis is to cultivate global citizens through the arts.
In 1990, the Asante Children’s Theatre (ACT) was birthed as a place where youth (ages 10-18-year-olds) could achieve self-confidence with cultural pride. After 31 years, we are now the Asante Art Institute of Indianapolis, Inc. under which ACT continues and where two other branches now exist. They embody what has occurred organically throughout the life of the organization. The Artreprenuerial Incubator is where, through our existing College Connection initiative, we intentionally reexamine the intersectionality of theatre and other industries. It is a system for youth and adults to develop the essential skills and knowledge necessary to be change agents and leaders as global citizens. The Community Connection program is where we preserve and promote African-centered sacred art, create intergenerational scholarship, and arrange community gatherings that foster change in thought and deed for tackling pertinent societal issues. Our mission is to cultivate global citizens through the arts.
The mission of the Center for Leadership Development is to foster the advancement of minority youth in Central Indiana as future professional, business and community leaders by providing experiences that encourage personal and educational attainment.
For 45 years, CLD has increased educational equity in central Indiana by empowering Black youth to achieve their academic and career goals. Black students face gaps in academic achievement and college preparation. In central Indiana, only 16.8% of Black people hold a bachelor’s degree or higher than 36.7% of White people (SAVI). This gap is higher in areas that have been identified as having the greatest need for CLD services which provide students, families, and schools with 18 unique, free, or low-cost programs that address specific gaps in holistic college preparation. CLD offers a continuum of support from 4th grade through college, ensuring that students graduate from our programs prepared for future college and career success. CLD’s tiered program pathway keeps students engaged with new programs and builds competencies yearly. Through CLD’s programs, youth 1) Develop the academic skills needed to succeed in high school and post-secondary programs, 2) Acquire life skills and real-world exposure to careers, leaders, and community institutions that will guide their future careers; and 3) Develop the social and emotional skills needed to succeed in life (as seen in CLD’s Principles for Success: Character Development, Educational Excellence, Leadership Effectiveness, Community Service, and Career Achievement).
‘The Center’ conducts its own youth programs, and catalyzes partnerships with other youth-serving organizations and ministries to give young people opportunities to thrive regardless of background, personal struggles, obstacles, and support.
The Center for Whitley County Youth’s mission is to provide developmentally intentional connection and supports that help young people thrive. Connection happens in family-like environments with peers and adults where young people feel a sense of belonging, care, challenge, and support in times of struggle. Supports fill gaps where young people lack basic and developmental needs, as well as opportunities for them grow in skills, character, knowledge and experiences that help shape their ability to contribute to their own future and their community.
Child Advocates focuses on transforming the child welfare system by addressing the significant gaps and barriers that prevent children from experiencing stability in a safe and permanent home and reaching their full potential.
A long-time leader in protecting and promoting the well-being of youth in Indiana, Child Advocates core programming includes the Child Permanency Program, the Direct Representation Program, the Department of Mental Health & Addiction’s High Fidelity & Wraparound program, and a comprehensive menu of legal services that are designed to provide support to children, caregivers, and Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA programs) throughout the state in resolving legal issues and advocating with the Department of Child Services (DCS) to resolve issues that prevent a permanent placement.
To Empower Those We Serve To Become Self-Reliant & Self-Sufficient.
CAGI’s We CANN program utilizes Trauma Informed & Asset Based Community Building to support the development of African-American Males (ages 16-30), families & Resident Leaders residing in communities adversely affected by trauma & systems of racial inequities. We CANN targets services to residents of neighborhoods that have been challenged by poverty and violence and provides youth with case management, leadership development, and education/employment services that lead to meaningful opportunities in school, career, and life.
To inspire philanthropy, enrich community, and serve donors by creating an enduring source of charitable assets.
CFWC is a public charity which exists to connect donors to projects that enhance Whitley County. As a Community Foundation, CFWC has the ability to pivot and address needs as they arise. A great example is their response to the COVID Pandemic. In mid-March of 2020, CFWC was able to offer $100,000 in rapid response grant making to the nonprofit organizations in Whitley County experiencing emergency needs such as food supplies or access to PPE. CFWC’s traditional grantmaking funds projects and programs in Education, Health & Human Services, Recreation, Community Development and the Arts. CFWC runs several fund-related programs but one of their most prized efforts is their youth philanthropy program, ‘HANDS’, which has been in place for 22 years and offers students the opportunity to learn leadership and grantmaking skills. Most recently, CFWC’s work has been leadership-centered and worked to collaborate with government agencies, elected officials, and non-profits to address several issues challenging the Whitley County community. The Next Level Whitley County project seeks to address trauma in youth, mental health barriers impacting families, and workforce and vocational opportunities for justice-involved citizens – providing meaningful solutions for one of the state’s highest recidivism rates. Over the past three years this work has led to the establishment of the Whitko Career Academy, jumpstarted community centers in the most troubled areas of Whitley County and secured funding to purchase three multi-unit buildings for transitional housing as individuals seek to re-enter society after homelessness or incarceration. In 2020, CFWC awarded about $300,000 in unrestricted grants and when scholarships and restricted gifts were added, our grants totaled almost $1.6 million dollars.
The Dove Recovery House is committed to empowering women to become substance free, self-sufficient, and healthy, by providing safe housing, quality programming and above all hope for their future.
Dove House is the largest transitional housing and recovery program for women in Marion County serving 40 women each night and more than 80 women annually. Dove House’s model offers a comprehensive continuum of services including housing, counseling and trauma therapy, case management services, recovery programming, life skills and job readiness classes, nutritious meals, parenting classes, and family reunification services. These services are offered at no cost to women and are designed to support them on their recovery journey from the moment they contemplate treatment, achieve recovery, and transition to independent living. The organization’s comprehensive continuum of care and ability to offer services at no cost is what sets Dove House apart from other treatment providers. Dove House is a leader in the field of recovery and our proven model maintains a high success rate with over 70% of women successfully completing our residential program.
DREAM Alive helps break the cycle of poverty by helping vulnerable youth in 7th-12th grade discover career paths and mentoring them from 7th grade until high school graduation.
DREAM Alive (DA) is helping vulnerable youth break the cycle of poverty by developing career paths and mentoring them over 6 continual years. With the help and collaboration of strong community partners, volunteers, schools, families and corporations, DA has comprehensive long-term programming that increases employment, education and wealth opportunities for marginalized populations.
The mission of Dress for Success Indianapolis (DFS Indianapolis) is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
DFS Indianapolis has served over 17,000 local women by providing work attire, career placement services, and training to guide them toward employment, and ultimately economic independence. Through its Suits for Success Program (SFS), Professional Women’s Group (PWG), and the Career Development Center, DFS Indianapolis provides women with training along with the professional attire to gain and retain employment, and to propel to higher wage careers. Through its Mobile Services Program, DFS Indianapolis is able to meet women where they are located such as schools, churches, or community centers, or to provide transportation to the DFS Indianapolis Career Center. During the COVID 19 pandemic, these services are available in a contactless environment, or virtually.
Through the power of community involvement and self-expression, VOICES empowers youth to change their lives.
Through culturally sustaining education, healing-centered engagement, and workforce development, VOICES provides the relationships, resources, and opportunities for youth to heal, grow, and further their path towards economic self-sufficiency and civically engaged lives. VOICES programs and services are grounded by our Four Pillars of Wellness:
VOICES programming includes community-based services, DCS contracted services, and the Arts as Healing & Activism program.
Building long-term, life-changing relationships with Indianapolis urban youth, equipping them to thrive and contribute to their community.
Elevate Indianapolis, a teaching and mentoring program grounded in Elevate USA’s nearly 40-year relational model, builds on students’ inherent strengths and potential. With its year-round, holistic approach, Elevate connects Indianapolis Public Schools [IPS] students to a comprehensive pipeline of support through its teacher-mentors beginning in elementary school, continuing into middle school, flowing through high school and into post-secondary pursuits. Elevate invests early, consistently, and long-term in the lives of its students. Elevate’s Eastside Pipeline links Arsenal Technical High School, H.L. Harshman Middle School, and Theodore Potter Elementary School #74, while its Westside Pipeline engages George Washington High School and Matchbook Learning at Wendell Phillips School #63, kindergarten to 8th grade.
The mission of the Felege Hiywot Center (FHC) is to guide urban, suburban and second-generation immigrant youth to transform their communities, their environment and themselves.
Through its agriculture-based STEAM program, FHC engages students from early grade school beyond high school and into careers in educational enrichment and servant leadership. FHC acknowledges that many of the students in the neighborhood are unfairly disadvantaged when it comes to educational opportunities. With that awareness in mind, FHC leverages its role as a longstanding non-profit to best help those students. Through summer programming focused on STEAM+, year-round mentorship, employment training, and community engagement, FHC opens up a world of new possibilities for these young students to elevate the neighborhood in which they live.
To help deserving but underserved youth develop the social and emotional qualities to be successful.
Fight for Life Foundation (FFLF) is rooted in its flagship program, Building Dreams, an evidence-based educational program that uses students’ experiences to help them develop the social-emotional skills necessary for success. Building Dreams is aligned with Indiana state educational standards and integrates Common Core Reading, Writing, Language, and Speaking and Listening skills with Social Emotional Learning (SEL) core competencies. Building Dreams provides a teacher-implemented curriculum designed to teach SEL concepts, with a behavior management system that tracks and rewards student’s behavior and class participation, as well as communicates with families to ensure the student’s wellbeing and academic success.
To inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold.
Girls Inc. Indy helps participants to explore and celebrate their strengths, their voices, who they are today, and who they will become, ensuring they grow up healthy, educated, and independent. Girls Inc. Indy offers empowering, comprehensive programs at partner schools and at the Girls Inc. Indy office, allowing participants to experience a linear pathway of education and personal development from age 6 to 18. In addition to attending Summer Camp (ages 6-14), participants may begin with Girls Inc.’s Outreach Program (grade 3), transition to EmpowerHubs (grades 3-8), and end with the Young Women in Leadership (YWIL, grades 9-12) and/or Eureka! programs (grades 8-12), enabling the deepest possible impact on their growth and development.
To foster the sustained regeneration, improvement and management of the environment by developing community-based partnerships which empower people, businesses and organizations to promote environmental, economic & social well-being.
Groundwork Indy (GWI) is changing places and changing lives by employing Indianapolis youth to work on community-based projects that equitably enhance environmental, economic, and social well-being. Groundwork’s youth programs, which primarily engage low-income Black youth, are committed to engaging all youth as whole people with incredible potential and to providing a structured and caring work environment that involves youth in meaningful work that builds resilience and a sense of agency and hope.
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Amount | Percent | |
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Operations | $381,638 | 12% |
Grants | $2,793,052 | 88% |
We will remain responsive to our communities and continuously learn and evaluate our role in supporting them. 2021 showed us that no matter the year, the following will be upheld as we consider future grantmaking: