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The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations actively pursue funding partnerships with foundations that have goals similar to our own.

In some cases these partnerships involve strategic planning sessions to determine how we can achieve common goals. In other cases, the aim is to learn from past successes and failures, in order to improve our grantmaking in the future. And in some instances, these partnerships involve creating co-funded programs, or providing grant support for successful programs that have been initiated by others.

Rita & Alex Hillman Founation
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVDF) and the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation are pleased to announce a $650,000 project to fund new and emerging innovations in serious illness and end of life care.
The partnership aims to expand Hillman’s Serious Illness and End of Life Emergent Innovation program. Launched by Hillman in 2018, the Emergent Innovation program provides grants to nurse-driven, early stage projects that are designed to improve palliative care and end of life services for vulnerable populations. The AVDF and Hillman partnership will expand the number of grants available for competitive projects in 2021.
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Teagle Foundation
AVDF is partnering with the Teagle Foundation on a 6 million dollar partnership to improve transfer pathways from community colleges to private four-year colleges.
On Monday, October 19, 2020 the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVDF) announced a partnership with the Teagle Foundation to address the academic obstacles that community college students face when trying to transfer to independent four-year colleges. Four out of five community college students hope to earn a bachelor’s degree, but few are able to succeed by transferring to and graduating from a four-year institution. The Teagle Foundation and AVDF’s partnership under Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts will provide planning grants of $25,000 over 6 to 12 months and implementation grants ranging from $250,000-$350,000 over 24 to 36 months to improve opportunities for students to transfer from two-year public institutions to four-year private liberal arts colleges.
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El-Hibri and Henry Luce Foundations
Muhammad Ali was among the most important and celebrated African Americans of the twentieth century, and is arguably the greatest boxer of all time.
What is less known is Ali’s religious journey from Baptist Christianity in his youth, to the Nation of Islam at age 18, and then, in his more mature years, to Sufi Islam—a Muslim order that promotes peace and interfaith harmony. With funding from AVDF and the El Hibri and Henry Luce Foundations, America Abroad Media is producing a podcast series that traces these key developments in Ali’s life. The podcast will launch in early 2021 and will be distributed by PRX.
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Templeton Religion Trust, Fetzer Institute, Stand Together
In the fall of 2019 Oberlin College and Spring Arbor University wanted to create opportunities for their students to have “courageous conversations” across lines of social, political, and religious difference.
Oberlin, a progressive, liberal arts college, and Spring Arbor, a conservative, Evangelical university, typically enroll students from different ends of the spectrum. AVDF partnered with the Fetzer Institute and Stand Together to support a January term course for students from these schools to learn from each other and form enduring bonds of friendship. In 2021, 8 more colleges will support similar programs with funding from AVDF and the Templeton Religion Trust.
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Foundation for Religious Literacy
In the spring of 2020, colleges and universities around the country were forced to use online instruction.
As a result, instructors were seeking new, high quality resources to use in their courses. While more institutions are developing interfaith and religious literacy courses, there are relatively few online curricular resources that are available for use in such courses. To help address this gap, AVDF has partnered with the Foundation for Religious Literacy to develop a suite of online course materials that can be used across many disciplines and departments.
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El-Hibri Foundation
Since 2007, the El-Hibri Foundation has awarded prizes to leaders who have promoted inclusion and collaboration across difference—especially religious difference—in their communities, with winners recognized at an annual ceremony. In 2021, AVDF will join El-Hibri in the funding and presentation of these awards.
Three prizes are offered each year. The Peace Education Prize is awarded to an individual who has supported Muslim and Muslim-inclusive communities in America, and of successfully building others’ capacity for work of the same sort. The Community Builder Award is given in recognition of the recipient’s recent success in building thriving and inclusive American Muslim communities. Finally, The Fearless Ally Award recognizes the recipient’s work as an ally to American Muslim communities, using his or her platform to challenge anti-Muslim bias and promote inclusion.
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Interfaith Funder Collaborative
Many foundations support work in interfaith leadership and religious literacy. Yet few opportunities exist for these foundations to share strategies, best practices, and successes and failures.
To address this need, AVDF joined with three partners—the Foundation for Religious Literacy, the Issachar Fund, and the Templeton Religion Trust—to convene 12 funders with over $25 billion in assets to share strategic plans and explore collaborations. The gathering created new alliances and opened doors for new funding priorities for some participating foundations.

AVDF Partners

Henry Luce Foundation Logo
Democracy Fund Logo
Fetzer Institute Logo
Issachar Fund Logo
The PEW Charitable Trusts Logo
Stand Together Foundation Logo
EL Hibri Foundation Logo
Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation Logo
TF Logo
Templeton Religion Trust Logo