The Joyce Foundation was established in 1948 by Beatrice Joyce Kean of Chicago. She was the sole heir of the Joyce family, which originated in Clinton, Iowa. The family wealth came from the lumber industry, including family-owned timberlands, plywood and saw mills, and wholesale and retail building material distribution facilities which were located in the Midwest and Louisiana.

The Foundation's mission was broadly stated as "religious, charitable, scientific, literary and educational purposes." Until the early 1970s, assets of the Foundation remained small and grants were given to the particular philanthropic interests of its founder. When Mrs. Kean died in December of 1972, the Foundation received ninety percent of her estate, an amount in excess of $100 million. A professional staff was retained and Kent F. Peterson, who had been an executive of the family-owned Tremont Lumber Company, was named president.

At the time of Mrs. Kean's death the Foundation's annual giving totaled less than $100,000. By 1974, when the Foundation received Mrs. Kean's total bequest, annual giving reached $500,000; by 1976, it was $10 million. During the first twenty-five years, traditional health organizations and hospitals received the majority of the Foundation's contributions. In 1973, higher education and cultural institutions were added as major beneficiaries. In 1978, the Foundation published its first public annual report under the direction of its new president, Charles U. Daly. Included in that report was a description of the Foundation's programmatic interests in culture, education, environment and conservation, government, health and social services.

Over time, the Foundation's mission has evolved. New programs have been added, and the focus has sharpened to concentrate on public policies affecting the Great Lakes region. Currently, the Foundation's grantmaking focuses on education, employment issues affecting low-wage workers, Great Lakes environmental issues, gun violence prevention, money and politics, and culture. Succeeding Mr. Daly as Foundation President have been R. Craig Kennedy (1986-92), Deborah Leff (1992-99), Paula DiPerna (1999-2001), and Ellen S. Alberding (2002-present).

Notable accomplishments that have come about at least in part as a result of Joyce grantmaking include the following:

The Foundation provided initial funding that led to the development and rigorous evaluation of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), a form of matched savings to help low-income people develop capital for productive purposes. Individual Development Accounts have been incorporated into a broad variety of anti-poverty efforts, including state and federal welfare reform.

Through grants to the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University, the Foundation funded a feasibility study and initial technical work that led to the creation of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the nation's pioneering carbon emissions trading exchange. Today emissions trading is broadly viewed as an essential strategy for controlling carbon emissions in order to reduce global warming.

Together with other Chicago foundations, Joyce has been a major funder of Chicago school reform efforts, which over the last two decades have contributed to significant improvements in the Chicago public schools. Today the Foundation concentrates on improving the quality of teachers in low-performing schools in Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee. Joyce has also supported pioneering experiments with small schools and charter schools; today Chicago is considered a center of experimentation with charters and other innovative forms of educational organization.

Joyce funded citizen and environmental groups around the Great Lakes, both in the U.S. and Canada, that provided critical input into two keystone agreements released in 2005: one on protecting the Great Lakes from pollution, invasive species, and other threats, the second on conserving Great Lakes water. Today those groups are working to have the agreements implemented and funded.

Environmental groups funded by Joyce pioneered the concept of ensuring that the nation's fundamental laws subsidizing agriculture and transportation promote and reward environmental performance. Their policy ideas and advocacy have helped make possible funding for wetlands restoration, habitat protection, bike paths, pedestrian amenities, public transportation, and other similar purposes.

When Congress passed welfare reform in 1996, the Foundation funded over $9 million worth of research to follow the subsequent experiences of Midwest welfare families. It also supported state and local advocacy groups and helped organize a network (WELPAN) of Midwest welfare agency executives, who met regularly to share ideas as they worked to implement the new reforms. In 2002 Joyce published Welfare to Work: What Have We Learned?, a summary of research findings that helped shape public and policymaker understanding of the impact of welfare reform. The WELPAN network continues to meet, and has been in part responsible for a broadly thoughtful and innovative set of welfare policies in Midwest states.

Joyce helped fund several of the groups that provided critical research and advocacy on behalf of state and federal campaign finance reforms. After Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) in 2002, Joyce provided funding to the Brennan Center at New York University, Democracy 21, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Public Citizen Litigation Group to help defend the act against lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. The Supreme Court upheld BCRA in 2003.

The Foundation supported the Medical College of Wisconsin and later the Harvard School of Public Health in developing a pioneering system to track a broad array of data about violent deaths. Information on victims, perpetrators, location, circumstances, motives, weapons, etc. together enable researchers to identify patterns and possible solutions. The system was eventually taken over by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today the National Violent Death Reporting System covers 17 states, and the CDC has set a goal of expanding to all fifty states by 2010.

The Foundation has long been a major funder of Chicago's vibrant array of community theaters and arts groups, including Black Ensemble Theater, Congo Square, Teatro Vista, Muntu Dance Theater, Silk Road Theater Ensemble, Luna Negra, and many others. Joyce funding has also enabled such major Chicago institutions as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Goodman Theater, Museum of Contemporary Art and the Chicago Children's Museum to develop programming to attract new and more diverse audiences.

Through the Joyce Awards, Midwest arts groups have commissioned and presented new works by Roberto Sierra (Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra), Lin Hwai-min (Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago), Trenton Doyle Hancock (Cleveland Museum of Art), Nick Cave (Chicago Cultural Center), Edgar Arceneaux (Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago) and Chinary Ung (St Paul Chamber Orchestra).

Information about other Joyce grantmaking accomplishments is on individual program pages.