Funders
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funds research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economics. The Foundation’s programs include: Science; Economics; Higher Education; Digital Technology; Public Understanding; Working Longer; Energy & Environment; and Initiatives.
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), a private, nonprofit federation of 75 national scholarly organizations, is the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences. ACLS fellows and grantees are engaged in creating new knowledge that benefits our understanding of the world. For the purpose of ACLS competitions, the humanities and related social sciences include but are not limited to: American studies; anthropology; archaeology; art history and architectural history; classics; economics; ethnic studies; film; gender studies; geography; history; languages and literatures; legal studies; linguistics; musicology; philosophy; political science; psychology; religious studies; rhetoric, communication, and media studies; science and technology studies; sociology; and theater, dance, and performance studies.
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies. Core programs include: Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities; Arts and Cultural Heritage; Diversity; Scholarly Communications; and International Higher Education and Strategic Projects.
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation does not seek, nor often fund, unsolicited grant applications. The Foundation’s approach to grant making focuses on making multi-year, multi-site commitments that enable them to invest in long-term strategies and partnerships. In general, the grant making of the Annie E. Casey Foundation is limited to initiatives in the U.S. that have significant potential to demonstrate innovative policy, service delivery, and community supports for disadvantaged children and families.
Most grantees have been invited by the Foundation to participate in these projects: Providing Direct Services; Reforming Public Systems; Providing Strategic Consulting; Transforming Neighborhoods; Strengthening Families; Building Economic Success; Using Data and Evaluation; Ensuring Racial and Ethnic Equity.
Bank of America Foundation
The Bank of America Charitable Foundation focuses on building pathways to economic mobility by addressing the issues of workforce development and education, basic needs and community development. The Foundation is committed to advancing a more diverse and inclusive society by expanding opportunities and supporting equitable solutions that will enable low-income communities to grow and prosper. They have two focus areas and application periods: Economic mobility focused on the needs of individuals and families by investing in workforce development and education, and basic needs (applications accepted 1/29/2018 – 2/23/2018); and economic mobility focused on the needs of the community by investing in affordable housing, community revitalization, arts and the environment (applications accepted: 6/4/2018 – 6/29/2018). While there are local variations, as a general guide, grant amounts in larger markets can range from $5,000 to $50,000. Grant amounts in smaller markets can range from $2,500 to $25,000.
https://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/what-guides-us/find-grants-sponsorships.html#fbid=NMMDWA0vhus
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York makes grants to promote international peace and to advance education and knowledge — primary concerns to which Andrew Carnegie devoted the Corporation. Areas of grantmaking include: education; democracy; higher education and research in Africa; and international peace and security.
Charles Steward Mott Foundation
The Mott Foundation funds grants in the United States and, on a limited geographic basis, internationally. While the Foundation is open to new ideas and projects, funding for unsolicited requests is very limited. The first step for submitting a funding request is to complete a letter of inquiry (LOI) form. The LOI will help program staff determine the relevance of the proposed project to the Foundation’s programs and provide advice on whether to submit a full proposal. Programs include: Civil Society; Education; Environment; and Flint Area.
David & Lucile Packard Foundation
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation works with partners around the world for social, cultural, and environmental change designed to improve the lives of children, families, and communities. The Foundation makes grants and investments in the following areas: Climate, Ocean, Land, and Science; Children, Families and Communities; Population and Reproductive Health; Local Grantmaking; Agriculture, Livelihoods and Conservation; Organizational Effectiveness; and Mission Investing.
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. In effort to achieve this mission, the foundation supports four national grant-making programs: the Arts Program; the Child Well-being Program; the Environment Program; and the Medical Research Program.
Energy Foundation
The Energy Foundation supports education and analysis to promote policy solutions that advance renewable energy and energy efficiency in the U.S. and China. The Foundation’s program officers identify potential funding opportunities in accordance with program strategies. The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals or letters of inquiry. In the U.S., the Public Engagement Program builds broad national and state support for strong climate and clean energy policy goals pursued by the Buildings, Transportation, Power and Climate programs. In China, the Foundation supports work in the sectors of clean power, environmental management, industry, low-carbon development, sustainable cities and transportation, as well as strategic communications.
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation funds work in civil rights, education, arts and culture, human rights, poverty reduction and urban development. Thematic areas of funding include: civic engagement and government; creativity and free expression; gender, racial and ethnic justice; internet freedom; natural resources and climate change; just cities and regions; and future of work.
Genworth Foundation
The Genworth Foundation provides grants to global non-profits that are addressing key social issues, promoting collaboration and partnership, and making sustainable long-term impacts. The Foundation’s focus areas are those that align with their business, including affordable housing, homelessness, healthy aging and supporting caregivers. Grants are given to employee-based locations, including: Richmond, VA; Lynchburg, VA; Raleigh, NC; Stamford, CT; Australia; and Canada.
https://www.genworth.com/about-us/social-responsibility/genworth-foundation.html
Golden LEAF Foundation
Golden LEAF’s grantsmaking focuses on the following priorities: economic development, agriculture, workforce preparedness, health care, education and community vitality. The Foundation’s work extends to every part of North Carolina, helping bring about positive change for many industries and communities. Priority is given to projects that support North Carolina’s tobacco-dependent, economically distressed or rural communities. There is no minimum grant amount. In the Open Grants Program, grants are not expected to exceed $200,000. There are no maximum grant amounts in the Economic Catalyst program.
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Gordon and Betty Moore established the Foundation to create positive outcomes for future generations. In pursuit of that vision, the Foundation fosters path-breaking scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements and preservation of the special character of the San Francisco Bay Area. Programs include: Science; Environmental Conservation; Patient Care; and San Francisco Bay Area.
Henry Luce Foundation
The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious and art communities. The Luce Foundation pursues its mission through the following grant-making programs: American Art; Asia; Luce Scholars; Theology; Higher Education; the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion in International Affairs; Public Policy; and the Clare Boothe Luce Program for women in science, mathematics and engineering.
Herb Block Foundation
The Herb Block Foundation is committed to defending basic freedoms, combating all forms of discrimination and prejudice and improving the condition of the poor and underprivileged. Grants will be considered according to the following schedule: January – Defending Basic Freedoms; May – Pathways Out of Poverty; September – Encouraging Citizen Involvement. Organizations that wish to apply for a grant are required to first submit a Letter of Inquiry.
Jessie Ball duPont Fund
The Jessie Ball duPont Fund works to expand access and create opportunity by investing in people, organizations and communities that were important to Jessie Ball duPont. Categories of research includes: building healthy neighborhoods; disaster response; energy conservation; financial asset building; housing; medicaid reform in Florida; strengthening the nonprofit sector; and youth employment.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. Grant categories include: Chicago Commitment; Climate Solutions; Criminal Justice; Impact Investments; Journalism & Media; MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions; MacArthur Fellows; Nuclear Challenges; and On Nigeria.
JPMorgan Chase Foundation
The mission of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation is to enable more people to contribute to and share in the rewards of a growing economy. The Foundation believes that reducing inequality and creating widely-shared prosperity requires collaboration of business, government, nonprofit and other civic organizations, particularly in the cities and metropolitan regions that power economic growth. JPMorgan Chase takes a comprehensive approach to increasing economic opportunity, using the firm’s global scale, talent and resources to make investments and create partnerships in four priority areas: jobs & skills; small business expansion; financial health; and neighborhood revitalization.
https://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Corporate-Responsibility/global-philanthropy.htm
Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation’s programs seek to expand opportunity for low-income people so they can gain the tools and supports needed to lead self-determined lives and join the economic mainstream. Program areas include: Arts & Culture; Detroit; Education; Environment; Health; Human Services; American Cities Practice; and Social Investment Practice. The Foundation awards single- and multiyear grants and provide operating support, project grants and planning grants. Most grants span 1-3 years.
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy seeks to improve quality of life through the effective use, taxation and stewardship of land. Through a combination of in-house and commissioned research, the Institute investigates broadly defined land policy issues as well as more specific themes such as municipal fiscal health. The Institute periodically issues requests for proposals on four global challenges: value capture and the property tax; informality and urban poverty; climate change; and municipal fiscal health.
Lumina Foundation
Lumina Foundation believes that education provides the basis for individual opportunity, economic vitality and social stability. With its partners, Lumina strives to meet workforce demands and close gaps in attainment for groups not historically well-served by higher education. Lumina’s overarching goal is to increase the higher education attainment rate of the United States to 60 percent by 2025.This will represent an increase of 23 million graduates above current levels of production. While their mission focuses on both student access and success in higher education, the emphasis is on attainment, defined as completing post-secondary certificates, associate and baccalaureate degrees and credentials.
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
The Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation accepts Letters of Inquiry and Proposals on an ongoing basis. The Bradley Foundation has identified four priority giving areas, including: Constitutional Order; Free Markets; Civil Society; and Informed Citizens.
Melville Charitable Trust
100% of the Melville Charitable Trust’s grantmaking is focused on ending homelessness, both in its home state of Connecticut and in supporting better practice and policy at the national level. The majority of its funding is made to organizations independently identified by Trust staff, who are actively engaged with and learning from practitioners, researchers, government agencies, funder colleagues and those who have experienced homelessness first hand. the Trust values the knowledge and insights of grantee partners, many of whom are leaders in the field, and rely on them for counsel. In order to learn about new work and broaden its knowledge, the Trust has an open inquiry process and accept unsolicited requests.
Nathan Cummings Foundation
Rooted in the Jewish tradition of social justice, the Nathan Cummings Foundation is committed to creating a more just, vibrant, sustainable and democratic society. The Foundation focuses on finding solutions to the two most challenging problems of our time – the climate crisis and growing inequality – and aim to transform the systems and mindsets that hinder progress toward a more sustainable and equitable future for all people, particularly women and people of color.
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a statutory body affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration, supports a wide range of activities to preserve, publish and encourage the use of documentary sources, created in every medium ranging from quill pen to computer, relating to the history of the United States. The NHPRC supports projects to research and develop means to preserve authentic electronic records; assist archives through a network of state partners; preserve and make accessible records and archives; publish papers documenting America’s founding era; publish papers documenting other eras and topics important to an understanding of American history; and improve professional education for archivists and historical documentary editors.
National Endowment for Financial Education
The grants program seeks innovative research that can make a profound contribution to the field of financial literacy. Inquiries are encouraged from disciplines in fields as diverse as: behavior; marketing; economics; finance; neuroscience; education; sociology; change theory; psychology; decision sciences and others. Project outcomes should be actionable in the field of financial literacy, directly relevant to the financial well-being of the public, and able to be applied broadly. Funding requests are assessed within the parameters of the following three key grant themes: Understanding Financial Behavior; Advance Innovative Thinking; and Assure Significance to Society. Applicants submit a Letter of Inquiry by the deadline for one of the two annual processes.
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society currently offers three types of grant applications—Early Career, Exploration, and Requests for Proposals. All proposed projects should be bold, innovative, and potentially transformative and have a primary focus in conservation, education, research, storytelling or technology. National Geographic does not usually consider applications that support strictly laboratory or collections work. Grants are awarded on the basis of merit and exist independent of the Society’s other divisions.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/grants/grant-opportunities/
National Institute for Transportation and Communities
The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), one of five U.S. Department of Transportation national university transportation centers, is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University. NITC pursues their theme — improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities — through research, education and technology transfer. Principal Investigators have to be a member of the consortium that includes the Portland State University, Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Utah.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) was founded in 1962 to investigate human development throughout the entire life process, with a focus on understanding disabilities and important events that occur during pregnancy. Since then, research conducted and funded by NICHD has helped save lives, improve wellbeing and reduce societal costs associated with illness and disability. NICHD’s mission is to ensure that every person is born healthy and wanted, that women suffer no harmful effects from reproductive processes and that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive lives. The Institute also aims to ensure the health, productivity, independence and well-being of people through optimal rehabilitation.
NICHD supports investigators at universities and other research institutions to further its public health mission. This support enables more scientists to conduct biomedical, behavioral and interventional research aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of children, families and communities throughout the world. NICHD uses various funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), including requests for applications (RFAs) and program announcements (PAs/PARs), and notices (NOTs) of changes and guidelines to stimulate and support research activities at universities and other academic institutions.
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. It does this through grants, and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the United States. The Foundation accounts for about one-fourth of federal support to academic institutions for basic research. NSF receives approximately 40,000 proposals each year for research, education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 are funded. In addition, the Foundation receives several thousand applications for graduate and postdoctoral fellowships.
Open Society Foundation
The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. The Foundation focuses on the following issues: Education & Youth; Governance & Accountability; Health; Rights & Justice; and Media & Information. The process for applying for grants varies by program. Some use requests for proposals (RFPs), others invite letters of inquiry (LOIs) or concept papers, and certain others accept proposals by invitation only. Given that each program has specific grant-making processes, it is best to inquire with that particular program to explore fit and process.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds program and policy initiatives in four focus areas which are each critical to health equity—enabling everyone in our nation to live a healthier life: health systems; healthy children, healthy weight; healthy communities; and health leadership. In relation to these focus areas, the Foundation’s grants and grant programs generally have three major aims: discover and explore; spread model interventions; and conduct research and evaluation.Connected with these objectives, they fund a wide range of activities, including but not limited to: planning and demonstration projects; research and evaluations; policy and statistical analysis; learning networks and communities; public education and strategic communications; community engagement and coalition-building; training and fellowship programs; and technical assistance.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund actively identifies organizations that are well-positioned to meet programmatic goals. While the Fund remains open to unsolicited requests, applicants should be aware that the likelihood of an unsolicited request becoming a grant is low. If you believe your request fits a specific program area’s goals, send a letter of inquiry. The Fund’s grantmaking is organized around three thematic programs: Democratic Practice, Peacebuilding, and Sustainable Development, and two place-based programs: China and Western Balkans.
Rockefeller Foundation
Through grantmaking, The Rockefeller Foundation works to spread the benefits of globalization to more people in more places around the world. During 2018, The Rockefeller Foundation is reviewing and assessing their areas of focus and grant-making to ensure that they are most effectively delivering on our mission to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. They are not accepting or reviewing unsolicited proposals at this time.
Smith Richardson Foundation
The mission of the Smith Richardson Foundation is to contribute to important public debates and to address serious public policy challenges facing the United States. The Foundation seeks to help ensure the vitality of our social, economic and governmental institutions. It also seeks to assist with the development of effective policies to compete internationally and to advance U.S. interests and values abroad. Programs include International Security and Foreign Policy and Domestic Public Policy. The Foundation has a two-stage application process. Initial inquiries should be submitted by mail in the form of the concept paper. Foundation staff will review the concept paper and, if the project is determined to be a good candidate for a grant, will ask an applicant to prepare a full-length proposal.
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is the largest grant-making agency in the United States. Most HHS grants are provided directly to states, territories, tribes, and educational and community organizations, then given to people and organizations who are eligible to receive funding. The mission of HHS is to enhance the health and well-being of Americans by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) has authority to enter into unsolicited research partnerships with academic institutions, philanthropic entities, state and units of local government, and not-for-profit and for-profit institutions located in the United States through noncompetitive cooperative agreements. HUD developed the Research Partnerships vehicle to allow greater flexibility in addressing important policy questions and to better utilize external expertise in evaluating the local innovations and effectiveness of programs impacting residents of urban, suburban, rural and tribal areas. HUD can accept unsolicited research proposals that address current research priorities and allow PD&R to participate in innovative research projects that inform HUD’s policies and programs. These projects are meant to align with PD&R’s research priorities and help HUD answer key policy and programmatic questions in ways that can inform new policy and program development efforts. Research partnerships require that at least 50 percent of the costs are funded by a partnering agency or organization. PD&R is focusing its cooperative agreement efforts on research partnerships that will advance one of the following key areas: Strengthening Housing Markets: Homeownership and Housing Finance; Affordable Quality Rental Housing; Housing as a Platform for Improving Quality of Life; Resilient and Inclusive Communities; HUD Research Assets.
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/oup/research_partnerships.html
U.S. Department of the Treasury
The mission of the Department of the Treasury is to maintain a strong economy and create economic and job opportunities by promoting the conditions that enable economic growth and stability at home and abroad; strengthen national security by combating threats and protecting the integrity of the financial system; and manage the U.S. Government’s finances and resources effectively.
U.S. Department of Transportation
The mission of the Department of Transportation is to serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) mission to protect human health and the environment is accomplished, in large part, by the awarding of funds to other organizations to conduct environmental program or projects. When EPA transfers funds for a public purpose, it uses a legal instrument called an assistance agreement, which may be in the form of a grant or cooperative agreement. Every year, EPA awards more than $4 billion in funding for assistance agreements to state and local governments, tribes, universities, nonprofit recipients and other entities. EPA’s environmental statutes are the legal basis for funding assistance agreements.
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency
Preparedness and other grant programs support citizens and first responders to ensure that we work together as a nation to build, sustain and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards. These grants support our grantees, develop and sustain capabilities at the state and local, tribal and territorial levels, and in our nation’s highest-risk transit systems, ports and along our borders to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate terrorism and other high-consequence disasters and emergencies.
Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
The W.E. Upjohn Institute is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent research organization devoted to investigating the causes and effects of unemployment. The Institute’s areas of research include: Education; Labor Market Issues; International Issues; Economic Development; Unemployment, Disability and Income Support Programs; and Workforce Development.
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
W. K. Kellogg Foundation supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. The Foundation has five focus areas: educated kids; healthy kids; secure families; community & civic engagement; and racial equity.
Walton Family Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation works in three areas: improving K-12 education; protecting rivers and oceans and the communities it supports; and investing in its home region.
Washington Center for Equitable Growth
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth considers proposals that investigate: the consequences of economic inequality across wages, benefits, incomes, wealth and job quality as well as group dimensions of inequality including race, ethnicity and gender; the causes of inequality to the extent that understanding these causal pathways will help us identify and understand key channels through which economic inequality may affect growth and stability; and the ways in which public policies affect the relationship between inequality and growth in four core areas of interest, including: macroeconomics; human capital and the labor market; innovation; and institutions. Academic grants are typically in the $25,000 to $100,000 range over 1 to 3 years. Doctoral/Postdoctoral grants are funded at $15,000 over 1 year.
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has long-standing programs that focus on education, environment, global development and population, performing arts and effective philanthropy, as well as support for disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, the Foundation makes grants for special projects and addresses other timely problems, such as challenges related to cybersecurity and U.S. democracy.
William T. Grant Foundation
The William T. Grant Foundation is interested in research with the potential to improve the lives of young people between the ages of 5 and 25 in the following two focus areas: Reducing Inequality; Improving the Use of Research Evidence. Categories include: research grants, William T. Grant Scholars; institutional challenge grants; and youth services improvement grants.
Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation (ZSR) is a statewide, private, family foundation that has been a catalyst for positive change in North Carolina for more than 80 years. In 2017, The Foundation embarked on a yearlong strategic assessment and planning process to understand the changing landscape of North Carolina. Its emerging direction will continue to evolve over the coming months. Therefore, ZSR Trustees have made the decision that they will not have a traditional spring 2018 grant cycle in order to focus on the design and implementation of ZSR’s emerging direction.