Since 1964, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has been guided by values passed down by our founders—integrity, respect for all people, belief in individual leadership, commitment to effectiveness, and the capacity to think big. These values inspire our grantmaking approach and define the success of our programs.
We understand that the concept of diversity embraces many different ideas, cultures, and people. We are committed to understanding diversity on different levels and acting upon diversity challenges in a number of ways. In our workplace, we strive for a staff and a leadership team that reflects the broad diversity of the country in which we live. In our grantmaking, we believe that our values are best realized by assuring that a wide array of people shape the work of the Foundation.
We are proud that our staff and our senior leadership team reflect our commitment to diversity in the workplace. The Foundation’s Commitment to Diversity provides a detailed description of that commitment, including statistics on staff composition that are updated annually. Similarly, our Code of Conduct and Statement of Values offer information about the composition and values of our Board of Trustees.
As a family foundation, we believe that the issue areas and geographies within which we work should be determined by our Board of Trustees. In many instances, the goals of our programs in Conservation and Science, Reproductive Health, and Children, Families, and Communities are specifically linked to diversity goals. We also have a strong tradition of support for nonprofits in our local community that directly represent and benefit low-income communities and communities of color.
Strong and dynamic nonprofit organizations are crucial to lasting impact in the places and issue areas we prioritize. Throughout its work, the Foundation aims to ensure that: policies and practices of nonprofit organizations and the philanthropic community address the interests of diverse communities, foundations and nonprofit organizations have the skills to engage with diverse communities in crafting solutions that meet their needs, and the leadership within the nonprofit sector reflects the diversity of its members and beneficiaries. These aspirations are integral to the success of our initiatives and the grantees we support. Because of this, our Foundation offers the Organizational Effectiveness program to support nonprofit organizations in strengthening their core administrative and management functions, including initiatives to ensure that they reflect and benefit from diverse leadership, staff and constituents (see Capacity-Building Support for Our Grantees).
Within the philanthropic sector, we are actively engaged in efforts to remove hurdles that keep foundations and nonprofit organizations from best serving the needs of diverse communities. Our investments in the Community Leadership Project help to direct capacity-building and leadership development efforts toward organizations serving low-income communities and communities of color.
We will continue to look for opportunities to work with all our grantees and partners to attract the broadest diversity of expertise and ideas, and of people and cultures, so that we can better our communities, enrich the nonprofit sector, and improve our effectiveness.