The Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Endowment is using a new means of giving away some of its money, the Charlotte Observer reports.

The foundation, which has seen its assets triple to $2.1 billion during the past decade, is using a new program through which it plans to distribute $3 million this year to help children and families in the Carolinas, the newspaper reports.

The program is novel for the foundation because it operates under strict stipulations established by its founder, tobacco magnate James B. Duke. Duke mandated that the endowment give money to specific program areas: four universities and colleges - Davidson College, Duke, Furman and Johnson C. Smith universities - and to nonprofit hospitals and nonprofit children's homes, and rural United Methodist churches in North Carolina.

Through the endowment's new Children and Families Initiative, the endowment is providing funds to its regular recipients so that they may support community programs.

For example, this week the endowment provided $255,000 to Davidson College, money that will go to a day-care center, a community center and a program for middle-schoolers, all in the town of Davidson.

The initiative grew out of a desire to be more creative to help children, Elizabeth Locke, the endowment's president, tells the paper.

The endowment invited its regular recipients to link with community groups and apply for the extra money. The endowment has given out more than $1 million in Children and Families grants so far, and expects to award a total $3 million in the project's first year.

Duke University will use $372,000 of endowment funds to work with neighborhoods near the campus. Furman University, located in Greenville, S.C., received $291,000 to help open a child development and family services center. Johnson C. Smith University is expected to put together a project soon. Several churches also have received money through the program.

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