In his remarkable new book, The Foundation: A Great American Secret; How Private Wealth is Changing the World," Joel Fleishman casts his expert eye on the role that private foundations play in improving civil society. As he notes, the more than 68,000 foundations that currently exist in this country contribute more than $30 billion tax-exempt dollars to a wide range of causes, providing seed money to such ground-breaking initiatives as the 911 emergency telephone system, the institution of public broadcasting (PBS, NPR), and inner-city community-development corporations. With recent headlines about sizable philanthropic gifts from such foundations as those run by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, the visibility and influence of our organizations is cause for celebration.

As The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation observes its fiftieth anniversary, Fleishman's analysis provides encouragement for what we are doing, and have done since our inception. Aided by longtime friends and advisers, Freeman J. Daniels, Francis Pemberton, William O'Connor, and Bert W. Stiles, my grandmother established her eponymous foundation with guidelines that were both personal and prescient. She targeted North Carolina and New York—her homes throughout her life - as the two geographical regions within which to direct grants. And she structured the Biddle Foundation so that its grants were directed to enterprises that were of longstanding importance to the Duke family - religion, education, the arts, and charitable activities.

Such strategic parameters have served us well. As Fleishman notes, having prudently planned constraints in place actually creates greater flexibility and freedom for foundation trustees over time, allowing them to stay true to the original intent of the founder's vision while adapting to evolving social needs. Forthose of us fortunate enough to be involved in the careful stewardship of Mary Duke Biddle's philanthropic legacy, her original guiding principles continue to inform the work that we do in today's complicated and interconnected world.

Fifty years ago, none of us could have foreseen the role that technology now plays in our communities, allowing medical advancements and educational outreach programs that have impact beyond a specific setting. And with changing demographics, including the effect of immigration and a progressively mobile citizenship, churches and social service agencies find themselves grappling with how best to serve increasingly diverse populations.

Looking back over the last half century of grants made by the Biddle Foundation, I am struck by the imagination and adaptability that our grantees bring to their work. Each entity, in its own way, strives to remove barriers that exist in our daily lives, and to bridge connections between often disparate groups of people. In some cases, such as the religious institutions we have supported, that means nurturing spiritual sustenance within communities and across racial and socioeconomic lines. For example, one early grant, made to the North Carolina Council of Churches, funded a series of workshops for ministers to learn about problems facing urban neighborhoods, the better to improve race relations.

In other cases, these barriers are physical. And so the Biddle Foundation has supported activities that provide accessibility and support to handicapped children and adults. We have also assisted myriad projects that address educational disparities, as well as those that embrace the kinds of artistic endeavors that appeal to the universal human need to witness and engage in creative expression. With at least one-half of our dispensations directed to Duke University, we have proudly watched our gifts over time result in an extraordinary array of groundbreaking research, in the development of promising young scholars, and in the vitality and excitement that the visual and performing arts bring to campus life.

At the conclusion of the Biddle Foundation fifteen-year report, spanning the years 1956 to 1970, it is noted that "The trustees believe, as Bertrand Russell observed of Americans, that the best is yet to be...that no problem is insoluble, no defeat final, no established order is above questioning. Hopefully, they will continue to keep their minds and hearts open to adventurers in art, humanities, medicine, music, religion, and science who also feel, with Robert Frost, that ‘we have ideas yet that we haven't tried.'

When my grandmother established The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation in 1956, she could never have imagined how her philanthropic vision would flourish into what has become the Biddle Foundation of today. In its inaugural year, the Biddle Foundation made two grants of $204 each to Duke University and Christ Church United Methodist, in New York City. Fifty years later, in 2006, we distributed more than $1.3 million to more than 300 grantees. With the joy andsatisfaction that comes with the Biddle Foundation's Golden Anniversary, we remain committed to our founder's steadfast and hopeful goals as we look to the decades - and adventures - yet to come.