Carrolle Perry Devonish, former director of the Philadelphia Foundation and celebrated philanthropy expert, has died at 85

Carrolle Perry Devonish, 85, formerly of Philadelphia, the first female and Black director of the Philadelphia Foundation, retired executive director of the Anguilla Community Foundation, former local development director for the United Negro College Fund, celebrated consultant on community philanthropy, and mentor, died Wednesday, May 3, of a heart condition while traveling in Bogota, Colombia.

Mrs. Perry Devonish began her career coordinating philanthropy in Philadelphia in the 1980s and, over the next two decades, connected hundreds of philanthropists with community service organizations that addressed inequities regarding education, arts and culture, health and medicine, employment, crime, and social justice for minorities, women, and underrepresented people.

Her tenure as director of the Philadelphia Foundation, from 1991 to 1999, is called the “Perry phase” by admiring colleagues, and she focused on building long-term assets and working closely with community leaders in making hundreds of grants for millions of dollars every year.

She concentrated, she told the Association of Black Foundation Executives in 2008, on “issues at the neighborhood level” and pointed donors to “using their resources to have an impact on their communities.”

She was particularly active among Black philanthropists. “African Americans were seen as recipients of giving and not necessarily the givers,” she said in 2008. “That is a myth that is and continues to be.”

She solicited hundreds of diverse donors and specialized in small donations and innovative funding. By 1997, the foundation had grown to 282 donor funds, awarded $8.8 million in grants to 656 nonprofits, and was recognized by the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy for its progressive strategy.

“Her work will stand long after she is gone,” Peter B. Vaughan, former foundation board chairman, said in 1998.

The Inquirer’s Claude Lewis wrote about Mrs. Perry Devonish in 1994, saying she “gets things done, helping as many individuals as is humanly possible through programs that are as lean as they are effective.” Mrs. Perry Devonish told Lewis: “We’re known as the place to come when you want to give to others but your heart is larger than your pocketbook.”

Colleagues at the Association of Black Foundation Executives called her “an unsung heroine of Black philanthropy” and a “quiet elder” who eschewed recognition for her achievements. They cited her “leadership and stewardship of philanthropic ideas” when they honored her as the 2008 James A. Joseph Lecturer.

She was also a founder and former executive director of the Anguilla Community Foundation, the first charitable trust on the Caribbean island, and later was chair of the Association of Caribbean Foundations.

Assistant director at the Philadelphia Foundation from 1983 to 1987, she left to join the United Negro College Fund and returned in 1991 when she was hired as foundation director. Earlier, she worked in Philadelphia for the Fellowship Commission and Urban League. She moved to Anguilla from Philadelphia in 1999.

Soft-spoken yet direct, Mrs. Perry Devonish lectured at conferences around the world, organized philanthropy tours to South Africa, and consulted for the Pew Charitable Trusts and others. She was a trustee at the Douty Foundation and on boards at the Association of Black Foundation Executives, Council on Foundations, Delaware Valley Grantmakers, and other groups.

She was a tireless mentor to many and featured in the 2020 book, They Carried Us. The Social Impact of Philadelphia’s Black Women Leaders. “Her empathy and humanity broke down barriers of class, race, educational level, national origin, sexual orientation, wealth and more,” a former colleague told Authority Magazine in 2020.

Born April 23, 1938 in Seattle, Carrolle Sandra Fair earned a bachelor’s degree at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., in 1960 and a master’s degree in social work at Howard University in Washington in 1963. She lived in Harlem for a time after college and earned a scholarship to study in Ghana for a summer.

She married Pete Ward, and they had sons Peter and Aubrey, and lived in Washington. After a divorce, she married William Perry, and they lived in Riverside Township, Old City, and West Philadelphia. He died in 1996. Her first husband also died earlier.

She met sculptor Courtney Devonish in the Caribbean, and they married in 1999 and lived in Anguilla. Mrs. Perry Devonish enjoyed mysteries and poetry by Langston Hughes, created intricate beaded necklaces, and traveled to nearly every continent. She had heart surgery in 2019.

“She was graceful and intelligent,” said her son Aubrey. “She had a wisdom about her and an inner toughness. She was a tough cookie.”

A colleague said in an online tribute: “She was a lovely, wonderful, powerful person.” A cousin said: ”Growing up with you as a little girl … my life is so much richer.”

In addition to her husband and sons, Mrs. Perry Devonish is survived by three grandchildren and other relatives.

A celebration of her life is to be at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 10, at Zion Baptist Church, 3600 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19140.

Donations in her name may be made to Fisk University, Office of Advancement Services, 1000 17th Ave. N., Nashville, Tenn. 37208.