OVERVIEW: The philanthropic vehicle of billionaire Bruce Halle, the founder of Discount Tire, and his wife, Diane, the Diane & Bruce Halle Foundation does most of its grantmaking in Arizona, with particular interests in fighting homelessness, providing justice and supporting human services.
IP TAKE: This funder an accessible Arizona funder with overlapping giving areas. Take Halle’s eligibility quiz to see if your organization qualifies for funding and begin the application process.
PROFILE: Established in 2002, the Diane & Bruce Halle Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Bruce Halle, the founder of Discount Tire, and his wife, Diane. Discount Tire is the world's largest independent tire and wheel retailer. Halle attended Eastern Michigan University and launched his first Discount Tire store more than half a century ago in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Today, Discount Tire has more than 850 locations in 25 states. The Halles live in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Discount Tire engages in corporate charity in Arizona. The funder invests “time and talent to collaborate with our network of resources to solve issues rather than support agencies.” Grantmaking areas of interest are human services, education, health and medicine, arts and culture, homelessness, social justice, hunger, religion and scholarships.
In social justice, the foundation focuses on poor and minority women experiencing domestic violence who are more likely to lack the legal tools with which more privileged people are armed. In the foundation's hunger focus area, Halle has supported the Northern Arizona Food Bank, St. Mary’s Food Bank, United Food Bank in Mesa, Valley of the Sun United Way, and Homelessness & Hunger Funders Collaborative. The foundation's homelessness grantmaking, meanwhile, has focused on UMOM New Day Centers. Halle has also made grants toward a number of human services organizations in Arizona. Halle's health grantmaking is particularly personal, given that both Halle and Dianne lost their first spouses to cancer. Halle also supports arts and culture in Arizona. The Phoenix Art Museum is the site of the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection, which showcases Latin American art. Recent funds have supported Phoenix Symphony, and Scottsdale Museum of the West. Halle's education grantmaking, meanwhile, includes recent grants to the University of Arizona Foundation, Tesseract School, Children First Academy (a charter school), and Educare Arizona. As well, University of Arizona is the site of the Halle Chair in Leadership. Finally, the foundation supports religious institutions, with recent grants going to Franciscan Renewal Center in Paradise Valley, and Southgate Church.
The Halle Foundation made about $15 million in grants in a recent year. Foundation grants of $25,000 or less are part of the funder’s small grants program. Other grants are in the $200,000 to $700,000 range. The funder does not have an online grants database to review past grantees. Grantmaking is mostly limited to groups that serve the state of Arizona. The Halle Foundation provides core operating grants, programmatic grants, capital grants for equipment and facility needs, large capital campaigns for select grantees, and capacity building support.
The Diane & Bruce Halle Foundation accepts unsolicited concept proposals from nonprofits, but grantseekers must first take the foundation’s online eligibility quiz to determine if they are eligible for funding. Grant seekers can submit a summary of their organizations and the project to info@hallefamilyfoundation.org or via mail to the foundation’s Scottdale, Arizona address.
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