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The Irving Harris Foundation

Annual Giving
$15.0M
Grant Range
$1K - $1.0M

The Irving Harris Foundation

Quick Stats

  • Annual Giving: $15 million (approximately)
  • Total Awards (2023): 303 grants totaling $13,552,337
  • Decision Time: N/A (no public application process)
  • Grant Range: $500 - $1,000,000+ (most fall in $50,000 - $150,000 range)
  • Geographic Focus: Chicago-centered, with national and international reach (U.S. and Israel)
  • Application Method: Invitation only / no public application process
  • Important Note: Foundation is sunsetting in 2032

Contact Details

Website: https://www.irvingharrisfdn.org/

Location: Chicago, IL 60606

General Inquiries: Contact page available on website

Overview

The Irving Harris Foundation is a private family foundation established in 1946 by philanthropist Irving B. Harris. With approximately $15 million in annual giving, the foundation takes a strategic, proactive approach to grantmaking in five core areas: Reproductive Health & Justice, Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health, Early Childhood, Jewish Values, and Arts & Culture. The foundation has announced it will spend down its remaining financial assets and sunset in 2032, with the decision driven by a commitment to shift power and resources more quickly to communities most impacted by systemic oppression. The foundation prioritizes Chicago-based organizations and takes an intersectional racial equity lens across all work, focusing primarily on BIPOC-led and women-led organizations. The foundation tends to provide multi-year grants to grassroots organizations with which it has existing relationships.

Funding Priorities

Grant Programs

The Irving Harris Foundation organizes its grantmaking around five core areas:

Reproductive Health & Justice: Approaches family planning and maternal health as critical to promoting social and emotional health and creating equity for young children and families. Invests in the reproductive justice movement, supporting efforts led by impacted communities to build grassroots power, dismantle barriers to respectful care, and advance gender, reproductive, and birth justice.

Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health: Supports groups addressing the social and emotional well-being of young children ages birth to three, with emphasis on transforming systems to center equity.

Early Childhood: Prioritizes the health and emotional well-being of infants and young children, investing in organizations, leaders, and movements transforming systems, policies, and practices to shift power and center equity so pregnant and birthing people, infants, toddlers, families, caregivers, and communities can thrive.

Jewish Values: Supports work aligned with Jewish values in both the U.S. and Israel.

Arts & Culture: Works to create "a vibrant and accessible cultural life for all" in Chicago and beyond.

Legacy Giving: Recently developed program focusing on violence prevention and environmental justice.

Board Initiated Discretionary Grants: Additional strategic investments determined by trustees.

Priority Areas

The foundation's strategic approach employs four key strategies across all program areas:

  1. Grassroots Organizing & Movement Building: Funding people-driven movements for change
  2. Advocacy, Policy & Systems Building: Partnering on policy and systems solutions
  3. Leadership & Workforce Development: Building capacity of changemakers from impacted communities
  4. Innovative Models: Incubating new programs and institutions

The foundation explicitly centers intersectional racial equity and prioritizes BIPOC and women-led organizations. It focuses on eliminating racial and gender disparities among pregnant and birthing people, babies, toddlers, and their families.

What They Don't Fund

Specific exclusions are not publicly listed, but the foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals and has committed its remaining funding through 2032.

Governance and Leadership

Executive Director: Phyllis Glink - In her over two decades with the Foundation, she has helped develop and implement grantmaking and field leadership strategies. She emphasizes collaboration and strategic use of philanthropy: "We are using private money to change the way public money is invested."

Director of Finance and Operations: Jawania Williams

Administrative Director: Kipa Davis

Program Directors:

  • Denise Castillo Dell Isola - Early Childhood
  • Joanna Lauen - Reproductive Health and Justice
  • Tonia Spence - Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health

Program Officers:

  • Ausannette García-Goyette - Senior Program Officer, Early Childhood & Reproductive Health and Justice
  • Carmen Garcia - Early Childhood
  • Iveree Brown Donnell - Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
  • Kirbi Range - Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
  • Jeffrey Tiell - Jewish Values

Additional Staff: The foundation employs 16 staff members total, including associate program officers, program associates, grants and data manager, and administrative support.

Application Process & Timeline

How to Apply

The Irving Harris Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications. The foundation explicitly states: "The Irving Harris Foundation does not currently accept unsolicited proposals in our Early Childhood, Reproductive Health & Justice and Jewish Values Giving Areas."

The foundation prefers to contribute to organizations with which it is already familiar and tends to give multi-year grants to grassroots groups it knows. With the foundation sunsetting in 2032, it has committed its remaining funding and new grantseekers should look elsewhere for support.

General inquiries can be submitted through the foundation's website contact page, though this does not constitute an application process.

Decision Timeline

Not applicable - grants are made through proactive identification rather than application cycles.

Success Rates

Not applicable - no public application process exists.

Reapplication Policy

Not applicable - no public application process exists.

Application Success Factors

Since the Irving Harris Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications, organizations cannot apply through a traditional process. However, understanding what the foundation values provides insight into the types of organizations and work they support:

BIPOC and Women-Led Organizations: The foundation has made an explicit commitment to allocate more funding to BIPOC-led and women-led organizations. Grantmaking prioritizes these organizations as part of the foundation's intersectional racial equity approach.

Grassroots and Community-Driven: The foundation emphasizes supporting organizations "led by and for people most impacted by harm" and values solutions designed with and by communities rather than for them.

Multi-Year Partnerships: The foundation prefers long-term relationships and tends to provide multi-year grants, indicating they value sustained partnerships over one-time funding.

Systems Change Focus: The foundation looks for work that transforms systems, policies, and practices rather than just providing services. As Executive Director Phyllis Glink states: "We are using private money to change the way public money is invested."

Collaborative Approach: Glink emphasizes that changing systems requires "figuring out how to knit and weave what we're doing together," suggesting they value organizations that work collaboratively within broader movements.

Chicago Focus Through Racial Justice Lens: While the foundation supports work nationally and internationally, it prioritizes organizations working in Chicago through a racial justice lens.

Harris Professional Development Network Model: For over 23 years, the foundation has supported a network of 19 grantees in infant and early childhood mental health across 12 states, DC, and Israel, demonstrating their commitment to building field infrastructure through leadership development and multidisciplinary training.

Key Takeaways for Grant Writers

  • No Public Application Process: The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals and has committed its funding through its 2032 sunset date. Organizations seeking funding should look to other sources.

  • Existing Relationships Are Critical: The foundation works exclusively with organizations it already knows, providing multi-year support to established partners.

  • Sunsetting by 2032: The foundation is actively spending down assets to "put these resources more quickly where we feel they belong: in the hands of the communities we work to support."

  • Intersectional Racial Equity is Central: All work centers intersectional racial equity, with prioritization of BIPOC-led and women-led organizations addressing systemic racism and oppression.

  • Systems Change Over Service Delivery: The foundation invests in grassroots organizing, policy advocacy, leadership development, and innovative models that transform systems rather than simply providing direct services.

  • Chicago-Centered Geography: While the foundation supports work nationally and internationally, Chicago-based organizations receive priority consideration.

  • Movement Building Focus: The foundation "fuels ideas, leaders, and movements led by and for people most impacted by harm," indicating preference for organizations engaged in broader movement building rather than isolated programmatic work.

References

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