Jessie Ball du Pont Religious Charitable and Educational Fund (Jessie Ball du Pont Fund or JBDF) provides temporary relief to people and organizations in need in Florida, Virginia, and Delaware. ¹

The organization seeks to create a sense of place; provide equal access to opportunity in education; support nonprofit organizations and cultural and religious institutions; and provide impact investments in organizations led by women and people of color; and establishing affordable housing. ²

History

The Jessie Ball du Pont Fund (JBDF) was founded by the widow of Alfred I. du Pont, the former limited partner in E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, following her death in 1970 to ensure that her assets continued to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), churches, and nonprofits that served the poor. ³

Programs

Equity

Jessie Ball du Pont Fund invests in educational institutions to increase retention and graduation rates of low-income and first-generation students, provides tools to aid in the enrollment process, and encourage diversity at the faculty and board level of those institutions. The organization conducts audits of nonprofits as the starting point of eliminating bias and increasing diversity. ²

JBDF provides opportunities to support artistic works of diverse people and facilities and sharing them with the public. ⁴

JBDF supports Edward Waters University (EWU), a historically Black university in Jacksonville, Florida, by aiding the establishment and support of its honors college. ⁵

Placemaking

JBDF promotes the connection of people to build a sense of belonging while strengthening low-income neighborhoods via encouraging partnering and the development of leaders. ⁶

JBDF provides offices for nonprofits for their work and meeting spaces for the Jacksonville, Florida community in a historic building called “The Jessie.” The Student Advocacy Training Institute, designed for local leaders to share their equity advocacy, is housed here. ⁷

The organization is constructing Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park designed by MacArthur Foundation fellowship recipient Walter Hood, in Jacksonville, Florida, to honor the writers of what some call the “Black national anthem.” ⁶

Impact Investing

JBDF invests its endowment in affordable housing and small business led by women and people of color via loans and equity investments. ⁸

Springfield Park Confederate Statue Removal

JBDF advocated and supported the removal of the Confederate statute in Jacksonville’s Springfield Park on the premise of fostering more inclusive space for residents. ⁹

Grantmaking

Jessie Ball du Pont Fund granted a total of $11,933,183 in 2021 to 183 organizations including Children’s National Medical Center, Center for Structural Equity, Florida State College at Jacksonville Foundation, and the University of Virginia. ¹⁰

JBDF made a grant of $242,401 was made to Evident Change, formerly known as National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), an organization opposed to cash bail. Other major donors to Evident Change include, George Soros funded Open Society Foundations (OSF), John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). ^{10 11}

Controversies

Jessie Ball du Pont, the Foundation’s namesake, supported racial segregation by directing that her education grants be used for segregated Black and white schools and ended support for some when they desegregated following the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The Foundation has acknowledged du Pont’s past, apologized, and sought to reconcile it through its grantmaking. ¹²

The organization has refurbished and maintains Stratford Hall, Robert E. Lee’s birthplace, as a place to speak of Jessie Ball du Pont’s past and as a center for communicating programs designed to rectify the past. ⁹

JBDF grants to four higher education institutions including Sewanee, the University of the South, that have been designated “Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Centers” by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. ¹²

Among the institutions du Pont funded during the segregation/desegregation period was the Fuqua School, which was founded as a white-only school in response to the closing of Prince Edward County Public Schools after Brown v. Board of Education. The contemporary JBDF is leading efforts to fund the creation of a new campus master plan that replaces landmarks of the past. ¹²

People

Mari Kuraishi is president of Jesse Ball du Pont Fund. She co-founded GlobalGiving and the World Bank’s Development Marketplace. ¹³

Anna Escobedo Cabral is chair of the trustees of JBDF and a partner of the Cabral Group, a public relations firm helping clients gain government support and a board member of Navient, the largest servicer of federal government student loans. ¹⁴ Cabral is perhaps most notable for having served as Treasurer of the United States in the George W. Bush administration. ¹⁵

1. “Our Aspirations – Jessie Ball Dupont Fund: Equity, Placemaking, Impact.” Jessie Ball duPont Fund | Equity, Placemaking, Impact. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.dupontfund.org/our-aspirations.
2. “Jessie Ball Dupont Religious Charitable & Educational Fund.” JESSIE BALL DUPONT RELIGIOUS CHARITABLE & EDUCATIONAL FUND – GuideStar Profile. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/59-6368632.
3. “Legacy.” Alfred I. duPont, January 1, 1970. https://alfrediduponttrust.org/legacy/.
4. “Equity – Jessie Ball Dupont Fund: Equity, Placemaking, Impact.” Jessie Ball duPont Fund | Equity, Placemaking, Impact. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.dupontfund.org/equity.
5. Cravey, Beth Reese. “Edward Waters: $250,000 from Dupont Fund ‘tremendous’ Investment in Honors College.” The Florida Times-Union, November 30, 2020. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/nonprofits/2020/11/30/jacksonville-philanthropy-supports-ewc-honors-college/6420623002/.
6. “Placemaking – Jessie Ball Dupont Fund: Equity, Placemaking, Impact.” Jessie Ball duPont Fund | Equity, Placemaking, Impact. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.dupontfund.org/placemaking.
7. “The Jessie on Instagram: They Will Be Hosting the Student Advocacy Training Institute (SATI) for the Second Time This Summer. Instagram. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/p/C5Wd9tArbnK/.
8.  “Impact Investing – Jessie Ball Dupont Fund: Equity, Placemaking, Impact.” Jessie Ball duPont Fund | Equity, Placemaking, Impact. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.dupontfund.org/impact-investing.
9. Cost, Melanie. “Statement on the Removal of the Springfield Park Confederate Statue – Jessie Ball Dupont Fund: Equity, Placemaking, Impact.” Jessie Ball duPont Fund | Equity, Placemaking, Impact, March 29, 2024. https://www.dupontfund.org/news/statement-on-the-removal-of-the-springfield-park-confederate-statue
10. “Funders.” Evident Change, January 11, 2023. https://www.evidentchange.org/about/funders.
11. “Jessie Ball Dupont Religious Charitable & Education Fund” Return of Private Foundation, (Form 990-PF), 2021, Part I, Line 25, Part XIV, Line 3a.
12. “Legacy & Repair – Jessie Ball Dupont Fund: Equity, Placemaking, Impact.” Jessie Ball duPont Fund | Equity, Placemaking, Impact. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.dupontfund.org/legacy-repair.
13. “Mari Kuraishi – Jessie Ball Dupont Fund: Equity, Placemaking, Impact.” Jessie Ball duPont Fund | Equity, Placemaking, Impact. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.dupontfund.org/mari-kuraishi.
14. “Anna Escobedo Cabral – Jessie Ball Dupont Fund: Equity, Placemaking, Impact.” Jessie Ball duPont Fund | Equity, Placemaking, Impact. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.dupontfund.org/anna-escobedo-cabral.
15. “U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral.” George W. Bush White House (Archived). Accessed May 29, 2024. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/cabral-bio.html.