Charlotte, NC — The Duke Endowment, one of the nation’s largest private foundations, awarded grants of more than $83 million to aid institutions in North Carolina and South Carolina in 1999. The information appears in the organization’s most recent annual report, distributed this week from the foundation’s Charlotte headquarters.

The Endowment, established in 1924 by industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke, serves the people of North Carolina and South Carolina by supporting selected programs of higher education, health care, children’s welfare, and spiritual life.

The new annual report shows that 1999 grants totaled $83,414,868, an increase of almost 17 percent from 1998 and a new record for annual grants by the Endowment. The market value of the Endowment’s assets as of Dec. 31, 1999, was $2.3 billion.

In the report, Mary D.B.T. Semans, chairman of the board of the Endowment, notes that the foundation’s creator “understood well that circumstances and needs change over time. That is why he took care…to lay out his choices for the work of the Endowment, and also to explain those choices, before giving the Endowment trustees wide discretion to make grants for similar charitable purposes in accordance with his wishes.” This approach has helped trustees ensure they have followed the course envisioned by Duke when he created the Endowment, she writes.

The report shows that the Endowment’s largest beneficiary in 1999 was Duke University, which received more than $26.4 million. Davidson College received slightly more than $3 million, Furman University received slightly less than $3 million, and Johnson C. Smith University received more than $2 million.

Grants for health care in the Carolinas topped $29.5 million, while grants for children’s welfare exceeded $6.1 million.

Rural United Methodist churches and retired ministers in North Carolina were awarded almost $5.9 million.