Attorney and philanthropist. Forty-one years building one of Chicago's largest law firms — then devoting the next phase of his career to donating the majority of his wealth to nonprofits and those most truly in need. Today still supporting dozens of nonprofits annually, from Greater Chicago to the Grand Traverse region of Northern Michigan.
A Chicago lawyer who built a six-hundred-person firm — and then quietly turned that success into one of the city's most respected family foundations.
Denis Pierce graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1969 and founded Pierce & Associates in downtown Chicago in 1975. Over the next forty-one years he built it into one of the country's largest mortgage law firms, growing to six hundred employees at its peak. In 2016 he merged the firm with Atlanta-based McCalla Raymer to form what is now McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLP.
The firm was the engine. The mission was always something else.
Alongside the law practice, Denis served on the boards of Chicago nonprofits — including a small one run by his wife Martha, who lived the funding gaps every day: the leaking roof, the donor database that never quite worked, the staffer whose salary had to stretch a little further. Those conversations — and a now-famous one on the front deck of a friend's cottage in Northern Michigan — became the seed of what would later be the Pierce Family Foundation, launched at a gathering of friends and family at the Newberry Library in 2008.
Above everything else, family is the center of Denis's life. He and Martha have been married for more than fifty years; together they raised three children, and now share their lives with five grandchildren. Every philanthropic decision, every board seat, every late-night conversation about a struggling agency starts from a question Denis has asked at his own kitchen table — what kind of community do we want our family, and other families, to grow up in?
For more than forty summers, Denis and his family have gathered at a cottage on Glen Lake, in Leelanau County. The grandchildren know the water the way locals do. That place — and a deep commitment to the people, water, and land around Traverse City and the Grand Traverse region — is the second pole of his giving.
Founded by Denis in 2007, the Pierce Family Foundation operated for fifteen years — and deliberately spent itself out at the end of 2023.
A philosophy of giving that began in boardrooms and at the Pierce family kitchen table — and grew into a body of work recognized across the field.
The foundation became known for an idea that should not have been radical, but somehow was: that if you want nonprofits to do good work, you have to fund their real costs — the rent, the salaries, the technology, the back office. Not just the programs.
Denis built the foundation around a few stubborn principles. Unrestricted, multi-year general operating grants. Minimal paperwork. Funding the things other funders avoided — IT infrastructure, leadership development, HR consulting, a new boiler when a shelter's old one gave out. He called it support beyond the grant, and over fifteen years it earned the foundation twenty-nine separate awards from the very organizations it funded.
Under Denis's leadership, PFF became a founding partner in AMPT: Advancing Nonprofits, a capacity-building hub for BIPOC-led organizations on Chicago's West and South Sides. The foundation was a founding member of Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness, and an early seed funder of the Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund. It launched the Chicago Youth Storage Initiative, which installed 700 storage lockers at 25 program sites for young people experiencing homelessness. It created Peer Skill Share, which paired more than 1,200 nonprofit staffers from 500 organizations for free advice and mentorship.
And it helped La Casa Norte build its Humboldt Park community center — the 25 units of supportive housing there are collectively known as Pierce House.
When the time came to wind down, Denis did the unusual thing: he spent the foundation out on purpose, finished what he had started, and made sure the work continued. Today he and Martha continue to support dozens of nonprofits every year as individual donors.
In its final year, the foundation published "Small But Mighty" — a record of what fifteen years of trust-based grantmaking had taught Denis and his staff. A selection:
Programs cannot be delivered effectively without stable organizations. PFF championed the need to support "the real costs" of nonprofits — and the importance of doing so only grew over time.
You can't get the meal without the kitchen, and most certainly not without the cooks. PFF invested in HR support, salary research, and a leadership development program — the Top Talent Institute — that ran for eleven years.
Nonprofit leaders often have ideas they'd like to test. Take the leap with them — even when outcomes can't be predicted. Don't shy away from funding smaller organizations whose names are lesser known but whose work is more immediately vital.
Foundations working alone reach further when they work together. PFF was a founding or seed partner in AMPT, Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness, the Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund, and the Cuore e Mani partnership.
Trust starts from the first impression. What materials are requested from grantees, and why? Whose workload is being eased — the foundation's, or the nonprofit's? Whose voices are being listened to?
Ask Denis why they sunset, and he will say, "Well, we ran out of money." From the start, holding to a 5% payout never concerned them. The idea of perpetuity was never top of mind. Spending down is not a failure — it's a choice.
From the foundation's longtime grantee partners — the people who knew Denis's giving from the inside.
I appreciate PFF's friendship and camaraderie. I could tell you what was really happening, and not do a dog-and-pony show. You really got it. You understood why we needed to pay the light bill with that grant.A Core Grantee
PFF was our first multi-year foundation grant, our first general operating grant, our first capacity-building grant. We were so small — and it really was a catalyst.A Core Grantee
You've led groundbreaking philanthropy, and really trusted us to know what we needed to do to meet our mission — and then given us the capacity we needed to pull it off.A Core Grantee
I think I am more excited about the computer lab updates than the Christmas I got my Easy Bake Oven. Having supporters who understand the day-to-day work of nonprofits is crucial.A Core Grantee
Denis's giving has always been geographically rooted — Greater Chicago, where he built his life and the firm, and the Grand Traverse region of Northern Michigan, where he has summered for four decades.
The agencies meeting people where they are — and the field-level work that helps every Chicago nonprofit do its job better.
From the family cottage on Glen Lake — four decades of giving to the people, water, and land of the Grand Traverse region.
In its fifteen years, the Pierce Family Foundation received twenty-nine awards from grantees and peers. A selection of those honoring Denis:
Denis reads everything that comes through this form personally. A few words about who you are and why you're writing is the best way to start a conversation.
Note: the Pierce Family Foundation closed at the end of 2023 and no longer accepts grant applications. Denis continues to give as an individual.