There were many recipients of grants from the Foundation, including Science for Peace, the Club of Rome, Amnesty International, Physicians for Social Responsibility, United Nations Association of Canada, and the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies.
The directors decided to refocus the Foundation's mandate to concentrate on four areas of interest: secondary education; peace, security and conflict management; the environment and the Arctic.
The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation along, with Science for Peace and Finnish researchers, worked to promoted the creation of the Arctic Council.
Arctic scholars, including Franklyn Griffiths, John Lamb and Bill Fox, as well as politician Tony Penikett, and indigenous advocates Rosemarie Kuptana Mary Simon and the Inuit Circumpolar Council, collaborated with the Canadian government to create the Arctic Council and the Canadian Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs in 1994.
[4] The Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Ecotrust Canada and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation came together to fund and publish Living Proof, a how-to manual written by Terry N. Tobias for designing and carrying out data-collection during indigenous use and occupancy map surveys.
More recently, the Foundation along with Tides Canada, helped fund studies which, unlike a joint industry-government panel report, supported the view that pollutant levels in the north are due to human development rather than natural sources.
The Global Citizenship Program, set up to discuss Canada's role in the world, was headed from 2005-2010 by the former President and CEO of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation Patrick Johnston.
The program encourages leadership and government participation by young Northern Canadians, promotes equity in the distribution of benefits from exploiting natural resources, and supports issues in the Arctic related to food security, search and rescue, and human and capital infrastructure.
The conference was chaired by Jean Chrétien the former Prime Minister of Canada, Olusegun Obasanjo the former President of Nigeria and former Chancellor of Austria Franz Vranitzky.
[15] Tom Axworthy, the Foundation president, also created the Mackenzie Data Stream, an online system that provides real time access to communities and decision makers on water quality indicators.
With the passing of Jane Glassco, the daughter of Walter and Elizabeth Gordon in 2010, the foundation set up an Arctic Fellowship Program.