Mission Report — Released 2023

A message from Dr. Leigh Anne Taylor Knight

Established in 1988 by Paul DeBruce, just ten years after he founded DeBruce Grain, The DeBruce Foundation has been generously supporting causes to improve lives and strengthen communities. Today, our mission is to expand pathways to economic growth and opportunity.

Some of you reading this are long-time partners, many of you fellow Kansas Citians. Others may just be getting to know us and connecting from across the country. Either way, we are grateful for the spirit of collaboration with which you approach making a difference. It is from what you have taught us and with a heart of gratitude that we share this Mission Report.

We believe, together, we can:

• Empower individuals to craft and effectively pursue career goals; and
• Raise confidence and network strength for those who are employment challenged.

This is how we equip people with what it takes to launch careers and navigate career transitions across a lifetime.

This report highlights progress across 2018-2022. You will discover more about our programs, products, research, and partnerships. You’ll learn about the Agilities, our proprietary career literacy tools, and the power of networks.

We hope to shed light and spark ideas on how organizations can partner with us to expand career pathways. Together we can do extraordinary things. In fact, it is by way of amazing partners we have recently passed a milestone of 100,000 completions of our career assessment tool, the Agile Work Profiler, bringing greater career literacy to individuals.

Thank you to our board, team members, and partners who are valuable contributors to this incredible journey!

With Appreciation,

Dr. Leigh Anne Taylor Knight
Executive Director and COO