A formerly conservative (pre-90s) 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Chicago that was hijacked by leftists (post-death) and now finances advocacy for gun control, radical environmental causes, reducing incarcerations by allowing criminals to go free, and liberal education policies, and opposes conservative election reforms. Beatrice Joyce Kean established the organization in 1948. It principally operates in the Great Lakes region, focusing on Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin and distributed $50 million in liberal political and culture project grants in 2018. [1]
Before he was elected President of the United States, then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama was a member of the Joyce Foundation board of directors. Obama White House advisor Valerie Jarrett also previously served on the Joyce board of directors. [9] Obama was on the board in Chicago from 1994 to 2002. Before his 2004 U.S. Senate run, Obama reportedly considered leaving politics to become full-time president of the Joyce Foundation.[8]
The Joyce family was involved in the lumber industry, which included family-owned timberlands, plywood and sawmills, as well as wholesale and retail building material based in the Midwest and in Louisiana. [2] Although today, the foundation funds mostly left-wing causes, family patriarch and founder of the family lumber business David Joyce was known for being a strong advocate of the free market and a Republican. [3]
Beatrice Joyce Kean, born in 1921, was the sole inheritor of the Joyce family fortune at age 21, and established the Joyce Foundation at age 25. [4] She aimed to reduce poverty and violence in the Great Lakes area. [5] For more than two decades, the foundation distributed smaller grants to the interests of Kean, which largely included conservation, hospitals, and universities. When Kean died in 1972, she left the 90 percent of her estate, more than $120 million, to the foundation. [6]
Executives and lawyers from the family lumber business initially ran the foundation continuing to give to Beatrice Joyce Kean’s interests. It wasn’t until 1978 that the organization hired Charles U. Daly, a former White House aide to President John F. Kennedy, as the first executive director. Daly expanded the focus to include education, cultural organizations, and government policies. [7]
