Mission
The Atlantic Philanthropies are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people.
Lasting Changes
We are committed to making improvements in the lives of people who need change the most. Together with our grantees, we endeavour to make lasting changes for people who are disadvantaged by their economic situation, race, nationality, gender, age, disabilities, immigration status, sexual orientation, political affiliation or religion.
We make grants through our Ageing, Children & Youth, Population Health and Reconciliation & Human Rights Programmes. Atlantic also makes Founding Chairman grants. We are active in Australia, Bermuda, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States and Viet Nam. We have made grants totaling more than $5.4 billion as of the end of 2010.
We support lasting change by:
- Addressing the root causes of inequity rather than symptoms
- Focusing on advocacy for change rather than filling gaps in services
- Funding efforts to challenge policies and institutions that systematically exclude or disadvantage people
- Building on the strengths of individuals, organisations, communities and movements to advocate on their own behalf and on behalf of others
- Supporting institutions and investing in leaders who can work for progressive change over decades
- Working in partnership with government, whenever it can advance our goals and those of the organisations we support
- Supporting selected capital projects where the physical environment is a critical element of furthering our social justice mission.
Giving While Living
In keeping with the Giving While Living philosophy of our founder, Charles “Chuck” Feeney, we believe in making large investments to help solve urgent social problems now, so they are less likely to become larger, more entrenched and more expensive challenges later. To that end, we will become the largest foundation in history to spend down our endowment, and will close our doors by 2020.
