NOTE: We fund ambitious, visionary work at the intersection of the arts and humanities and social justice. If your organization has a project that aligns with one of our grantmaking areas, please consider submitting a new inquiry here.

Through our Arts and Culture program, Mellon celebrates the power of the arts to challenge, activate, and nourish the human spirit. We support exceptional creative practice, scholarship, and conservation practices while nurturing a representative and robust arts and culture ecosystem. We work with artists, curators, conservators, scholars, and organizations to ensure equitable access to excellent arts and cultural experiences and support approaches that place the arts and artists at the center of thriving, healthy communities.

Guiding strategies

Three interconnected strategies guide Mellon’s Arts and Culture grantmaking.  

Supporting visionary artists and practitioners and the participatory roles they play across institutions and communities 

Artists reveal our shared humanity and connect us all. We invest in visionary artists and arts leaders whose practices extend beyond their studios or workspaces to catalyze change in our world. We celebrate artist-driven, cross-sector collaborations and acknowledge the dimensional nature of an artist’s work and place in society. 

Supporting exceptional organizations and artists that have been historically under-resourced, including the creation, conservation, and preservation of their artwork, histories, collections, and traditions 

Mellon seeks to engender an understanding of broader histories, narratives, and aesthetic traditions through multi-year support of artists and communities historically subject to disinvestment. Grants seek to ensure the legacies of many instead of few.

Creating scaffolding for experiments with new economic paradigms and institutional models that center equity and justice and creative problem-solving in arts and culture  

Mellon seeds experiments that center and embolden artists to imagine new structures and organizational models that reflect their holistic approach to social change. Mellon provides support for projects that pilot new operating and funding models for individual artists and organizations that foster a more inclusive, nimble, and cooperative sector.

The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation seeks to dramatically improve the lives of people and the world around us through innovative strategies, systems changing approaches, and disrupting technologies. Our goal is to find social entrepreneurs with dynamic ideas and nurture them at the early stages with maximum leverage and total commitment.

Prospects for our portfolio of social enterprises come from a vast field of compelling ideas and dedicated leaders. We concentrate our selection on the capabilities of the founder/leader, the scalability of the model, and the potential impact of the organization on the world.

We have an open application process and accept applications year round. Borrowed from our venture capital legacy we find exceptional entrepreneurs, provide them with 3 years of unrestricted capital (totaling $300,000) and provide rigorous on-going support by joining their board of directors for the 3 years and partnering with the leader to help them to build capacity in their organization and scale their impact.

What We Fund

DRK’s hope is to support outsized impact through entrepreneurs and enterprises that create a transformational paradigm shift to meaningfully address a pressing societal problem affecting people’s lives.

DRK Funds:

• Organizations addressing a critical social or environmental issue as the focus of their work.
• Founders who intend to expand their impact significantly over time.
• Organizations operating in Africa, Europe, India, Latin America, and the United States.
• Independent nonprofit and impact first, mission-driven for-profit entities, including US 501(c)3 and its non-US equivalents, C corporations, B corporations, and hybrid organizations.
• Fiscally sponsored organizations in select cases where there is a plan to spin out (in our experience, independence creates stronger enabling conditions for growth).
• Post-pilot, pre-scale organizations. This typically means:
  • Your program, product or service is already in the market or in the field.
  • You have early indication that your model is having its intended impact.
  • Your organization is 3-5 years old (this is not a rule, but a guidepost).
• Organizations with one or more founders who are full-time or intend to be.
  • We believe that full-time leadership from the organization’s founder(s) is critical to an early stage organization’s growth.
  • We recognize that going full-time requires resources that you may still be putting together, and if that is the case we are happy to start a conversation with you in the meantime.
• We value diversity of people proximate to the problem at hand and a commitment to foster justice, equity, inclusion, and belonging practices.

Issues

Issues include:

• Arts & Culture
• Civic Engagement
• Economic Empowerment
• Education
• Energy & Environment
• Environment & Climate Change
• Food & Agriculture
• Health
• Social Justice
• Systemic Poverty

Please note that we do not accept unsolicited grant proposals. Because of our tightly-defined grantmaking strategies, many worthwhile projects fall outside the scope of our funding priorities. However, if you have thoughts or inquiries related to our work that you would like to share, you may send us a brief, ~100-word email. Please understand that due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we are only able to commit to reviewing those inquiries that adhere to the ~100-word guideline.The Science Program explores additional areas where we can drive significant scientific advances beyond our major core investments.New ideas come from many directions, including innovative technologies and instrumentation, new partnerships or collaborations, or fresh perspectives from other disciplines.In addition to large-scale, long-term initiatives, we back bold ideas that can have a lasting effect across a broad range of scientific disciplines.

What We Support

Children are at the heart of everything we do at the Kellogg Foundation. Our goal is lasting, transformational change for children. As a grantmaker, we recognize that children live in families and families live in communities. Therefore, our three areas of focused work – Thriving Children, Working Families and Equitable Communities – are dynamic and always interconnected.    

Achieving strong outcomes for children happens by connecting what families need – at home, in child care settings, at school, at work and in their communities. As a foundation, we use a variety of change-making tools – grantmaking, impact investing, networking and convening. With our support, grantees and partners work together to make measurable improvements in children’s lives.

Our Interconnected Priorities:

• Thriving Children: We support a healthy start and quality learning experiences for all children.
  • improving access to high quality, early childhood education
  • support healthy birth outcomes
  • quality maternal and infant health care
  • children's early development
  • increase breastfeeding rates
  • expand access to oral health care
  • increase access to fresh, local healthy food
  • improve nutrition for children and families in early child care settings
• Working Families: We invest in efforts to help families obtain stable, high-quality jobs.
  • widen pathways to stable, high-quality jobs
  • more equitable employment opportunities
  • expand support for tribal-, minority-, and women-owned business enterprises
  • accelerate small business growth
  • inform policies and change systems to create greater economic stability
• Equitable Communities: We want all communities to be vibrant, engaged and equitable. 

Embedded within all we do are commitments to advancing racial equity and racial healing, to developing leaders and to engaging communities in solving their own problems. We call these three approaches our DNA and believe they are essential to creating the conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success.

Our Vision & Purpose

Our vision is to become a global catalyst for discoveries that contribute to human flourishing.

Our purpose is to enable people to create lives of purpose and meaning.

Mission

The John Templeton Foundation funds research and catalyzes conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder.

Our Impact

The work supported by the John Templeton Foundation crosses disciplinary, religious, and geographical boundaries. We fund work on subjects ranging from black holes and evolution to creativity, forgiveness, and free will. We also encourage civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, theologians, and the public at large.

Our grantees produce field-leading scholarship across the sciences, theology, and philosophy. From probing gravitational waves to updating the modern evolutionary synthesis, they have contributed to major discoveries in the basic sciences. Other grantees have opened critical new topics to scientific investigation, including prayer, gratitude, immortality, and imagination. In addition to supporting academic research, we fund a wide range of media — print, digital, broadcast, and film — to raise awareness about discoveries in ways that are clear and thought-provoking.

Our Grants

The Foundation offers grants in support of research and public engagement in our major Funding Areas. We invest in bold ideas from contrarian thinkers — ideas that cross disciplinary boundaries and challenge conventional assumptions. And we fund innovative programs that engage the public with these ideas, in an effort to open minds, deepen understanding, and inspire curiosity.

Funding Areas

The John Templeton Foundation funds research and catalyzes conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder. Our funding areas define our philanthropic priorities and advance our aspiration to become a global catalyst for discoveries that contribute to human flourishing. We welcome grant applications to support field-leading research and high impact public engagement programs in these areas.

Character Virtue Development

The Character Virtue Development funding area supports research and catalyzes conversations that seek to advance the science and practice of character, with a focus on moral, performance, civic, and intellectual virtues such as humility, gratitude, curiosity, diligence, and honesty.

Individual Freedom & Free Markets

The Individual Freedom & Free Markets funding area supports education, research, and outreach projects to promote individual freedom, free markets, free competition, and entrepreneurship.

Life Sciences

The Life Sciences funding area supports projects that seek novel and fundamental insights into the meaning and significance of life processes, by which we can better understand humanity’s place within nature.

Mathematical & Physical Sciences

In our Mathematical and Physical Sciences funding area, we support research seeking to shed light on the fundamental concepts of physical reality. We also explore the interplay between these sciences and broader human experience.

Public Engagement

The Public Engagement funding area supports content projects that include video, audio, public events, and print media. In addition, we seek proposals that support the next generation of thought leaders, generate durable courses and programming at leading universities.

Religion, Science, & Society

The Religion, Science, & Society funding area will seek to advance our collective understanding of the ways in which religious and spiritual beliefs and practices affect human flourishing and to apply those insights to society in meaningful and practical ways.

About

The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative catalyzing social impact on a grand scale. Every year we select and nurture a group of big, bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges, and with the support of an inspiring group of donors and supporters, come together to get them launched.

Housed at TED, the nonprofit with a long track record of surfacing ideas worth spreading, and with support from leading social impact advisor The Bridgespan Group, the funding collective is comprised of several respected organizations and individuals in philanthropy.

Our goal is to match bold ideas with catalytic resources.

We encourage the world’s inspirational changemakers to dream bigger than ever before.

Help shape their best ideas into viable multi-year plans.

Present those solutions in a compelling way to potential supporters.

The Process

Every year, The Audacious Project works with proven change-makers to surface their best, boldest ideas for tackling global problems.

Sourcing & review

Projects are sourced from public applications and a global network of partners and donors. They are narrowed down to a group of finalists whose ideas are representative of a broad range of geographies and issue areas while elevating leaders with proximity to the communities they serve.

Idea shaping & investment support

Each finalist project goes through a rigorous ideation, due diligence, and investment support process, to ensure their proposal is achievable and compelling.

Funding & launch

Finalist projects are presented privately to groups of donors and are then publicly unveiled at TED. Funded projects then pursue their plans and share regular updates on key milestones reached with donors and the public.

Is Your Idea Audacious?

Are you a changemaker with a bold vision?

Are you a non-profit with an experienced team equipped to receive large scale philanthropic support?

Is your idea a proven concept that aspires to create a better world?

We look for ideas that cover a wide range of issues, from global health and climate change, to social justice and education.

Please refer to FAQ for additional guidelines.

Vision

An elevated place for species in the global conservation debate and a thriving global community of well-resourced species conservationists.

Mission

Elevate the importance of species in the conservation debate by:

• Providing timely support for grass-roots initiatives which make a real difference to species survival.
• Supporting those whose passion, dedication and knowledge is the key to saving species.
• Assisting the  conservation of species  in their natural habitats.
• Heightening awareness of species conservation.
• Stimulating renewed interest among young people in natural sciences.
• Attracting further contributions to species conservation from across the globe.

Grants

During 2023 the Fund will be trialing a process whereby the Fund awards grants for the conservation of threatened soil species. This is in addition to the usual grants awarded.

The Fund has been established to provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives, recognize leaders in the field and elevate the importance of species in the broader conservation debate. Its focus is global and eligibility for grants will extend to all plant, animal and fungi species conservation efforts, without discrimination on the basis of region or selected species.

The Fund was established to support species conservation work, and so if your project is not about an endangered species it is probably not worth your while submitting an application.

The Fund will use the IUCN Redlist as the primary guide to the conservation status of a given species, although documented variations for sub-species, distinct populations and sub-populations will be taken into account. For those species not assessed through the IUCN Redlist we welcome other methods of assessment and the submission of quantative data to confirm a species status.

About the Foundation

Jesse W. Couch lived a life of zeal, honor, and dedication to the betterment of his community. The Couch family now humbly stewards the foundation he created to carry on his legacy of service for future generations. We believe that impact is best accomplished through partnerships with local organizations that know the people and communities they serve. We invest in and support efforts to protect the environment, further conservation and preservation initiatives, and save historical architecture that preserves community heritage. We also support initiatives that promote wellness and mental health and organizations seeking to provide and further education for all communities.

What's the Purpose Here?We're always in search of ways to partner with great people doing great things. In order for us to better evaluate how we can work together, we need more information from you.

Preservation

Historic Preservation

We believe in preserving our history so that we can understand and educate the importance of community. Historic places affect our identity and have a direct impact on our well-being. 

Wildlife Conservation

We believe it's our duty to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. We envision a world where everyone works in harmony to protect what is important so that all life on this planet can thrive. 

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy provides essential resources to communities without the planet-warming effects of fossil fuels. Solar, wind, hydroelectric, biomass and geothermal power are all great examples of renewable energy sources. We're looking for teams that are expanding the reach of these critical resources so that we can stave off rising global temperatures.

Food Management

Food management activities, including producing food, transporting it, and storing wasted food in landfills, produce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. What is your team doing to help solve these problems?

Transportation

Burning fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gas emissions from transportation account for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse emissions. How are you changing the transportation industry?

Waste Management

Today, products are disposed of at very high rates, and each is quickly replaced by new ones. This cycle leads to the use of more fossil fuels that are needed to power the processes required to obtain raw materials to manufacture more of these items. All of this leads to growing waste sites that contaminate our water, pollute our environment, and kill wildlife. Can you think of a better way? 

Education

Early Childhood Education

We are looking for schools that are providing young children with a creative and balanced approach to education. Things we love in early childhood curriculums:

• Life Skills
• Collaboration With Their Peers and Teachers
• Having Fun
• Montessori Teachings
• Project Based Teachings
• Diversity
• More Time Outside
• Less Screen Time

21st-Century Education

We are looking for schools that teach students the essential 21st-century skills needed for the future:

• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
• Agility and adaptability
• Effective oral and written communication
• Initiative and entrepreneurship
• Ability to access and analyze information
• Curiosity and imagination

Teachers

Teachers are essential to providing children with the best possible education. We must invest in their future and are always looking for teams that help them succeed in educating future generations.

Wellness

Mental Wellness

We are looking for teams that are helping those who struggle with mental health issues such as:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Bi-Polar
• Schizophrenia
• PTSD

Digital Wellbeing

We are actively looking for teams that are educating and creating awareness to promote a more balanced technological lifestyle around the world. 

Get Outside

Being outside can improve memory, fight depression, lower blood pressure, and more! We support organizations that facilitate and encourage more outdoor activities that help create healthier communities. 

About

The Zayed Sustainability Prize, an evolution of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, is the UAE’s pioneering global award in sustainability and a tribute to the legacy of the late founding father of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Established in 2008, this annual award recognises and rewards the achievements of those who are driving impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainability solutions across five distinct categories: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools.

Categories

Health

This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of health that include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring access to essential and affordable healthcare
• Ensuring access to maternal and new-born healthcare
• Ending epidemics (AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis etc.)
• Preventing and treating water-borne, communicable and non-communicable diseases
• Reducing illness from pollution, hazardous chemicals and contamination

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

Food

This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of food that include, but are not limited to:

• Decreasing hunger and malnutrition
• Increasing agricultural or other food processing productivity
• Enhancing sustainable food production

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

Energy

This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of energy that include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring access to affordable and reliable clean energy
• Increasing production of clean energy
• Improving energy efficiency
• Introducing new forms of clean energy or other technology innovations

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

Water

This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of water that include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring access to safe and affordable drinking water
• Ensuring access to sanitation and hygiene
• Increasing water use efficiency
• Improving water quality

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.