Foundation Funding

The mission of the Commonwealth Fund is to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color. Funding program areas include:
 

• Health Care Delivery System Reform
• Health Care Coverage and Access
• Advancing Health Equity
• Controlling Health Care Costs
• Federal and State Health Policy
• International Health Policy and Practice Innovations
• Advancing Medicare
• Tracking Health System Performance
• Medicaid

Within these programs, preference is given to proposals that seek to: clarify the scope of serious and neglected problems; develop, test, and evaluate the impact of practical, innovative models for addressing such problems; disseminate tools and models of care that have been proven to be effective; or analyze the impact of particular policies or trends. To review descriptions of funding priorities and lists of recently approved grants, please click on the programs above.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu.

Learn More about The Commonwealth Fund - Grants to Improve Health Care Practice and Policy

This funding opportunity seeks proposals primed to impact health equity moving forward. We are interested in ideas that address any of these four areas of focus: Future of Evidence; Future of Social Interaction; Future of Food; Future of Work. Additionally, we welcome ideas that might fall outside of these four focus areas, but which offer unique approaches to advancing health equity and our progress toward a Culture of Health.

We want to hear from scientists, anthropologists, artists, urban planners, community leaders—anyone, anywhere who has a new or unconventional idea that could alter the trajectory of health and improve health equity and wellbeing for generations to come. The changes we seek require diverse perspectives and cannot be accomplished by any one person, organization, or sector. 

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu

Learn More about Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health

Responsive Grants provide opportunities to build knowledge and increase understanding of East and Southeast Asia through scholarship and exchange, with an emphasis on strengthening capacity in the United States. They typically support research and training, the creation of scholarly and public resources, and intellectual and cultural exchange between Americans and Asians.  These grants are deliberately broad, allowing the Asia Program to respond to new ideas and keep abreast of trends, needs and priorities relevant to Asia-focused work in our three grant making areas (academic work, foreign policy, public education). Most awards are made to colleges, universities, think tanks, museums and other non-profit organizations based in the United States.

Our interests include:

• Asia-focused teaching and research initiatives, typically for multi-year projects whose benefits extend beyond a single institution to advance the broader field of Asian studies. The majority of our funded work is in the humanities and qualitative social sciences, including projects that seek to reexamine the conventional area studies model and explore new approaches to training and research.
• Development and dissemination of library, archival, research and pedagogical resources, including digital resources.
• Policy dialogues and other projects with policy relevance.
• Efforts to educate and inform non-specialist audiences about Asia, through museum exhibitions, journalism and media offerings, and cultural programming.
• Next generation training and leadership development.
• Collaboration, exchange, and border-crossing initiatives, including across geographic, disciplinary, institutional and/or sectoral divides. This may include work that spans the divides of our own grantmaking areas, such as projects that bridge the gap between academic and policy work, or between scholarship and broader public education

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu

Learn More about Henry Luce Foundation - Asia Program

Mellon’s Public Knowledge program supports the creation and preservation of the cultural and scholarly record—vast and ever-expanding—that documents society’s complex, intertwined humanity. The program works with archives, presses, and a range of university, public, and other local, national, and global libraries that are foundational to knowledge production and distribution in culture and the humanities. The program’s goal is to increase equitable access to deep knowledge that helps to build an informed, heterogeneous, and civically engaged society. We aspire to cultivate networks and maintainable infrastructure, expand digital inclusion, and ensure that more authentic, reflective, and nuanced stories are revealed, preserved, and told.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu

Learn More about Mellon Foundation - Public Knowledge

Additional Information:

From poverty to health, to education, our areas of focus offer the opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of life for billions of people. So we build partnerships that bring together resources, expertise, and vision—working with the best organizations around the globe to identify issues, find answers, and drive change.

Our work depends on grantees and partners across the United States and in more than 130 countries who have on-the-ground expertise, a deep understanding of the issues we care about, and strong ties with the communities in which we aim to make a difference. At the same time, we have learned the value of having foundation representatives based in key regions—to help us build relationships with partner organizations and governments, better understand the policy environment, and remain culturally sensitive.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Additional Information:

We support artist-driven film and new media storytelling projects that explore aspects of inequality, as well as the organizations and networks that support these projects.

JustFilms accepts inquiries for grants year-round, averaging between 800 and 1,000 inquiries annually. We welcome submissions from any region of the world. Our funds are limited, and we are able to support only a small percentage of these projects through direct grants.  All projects submitted for JustFilms grants will be judged on the basis of:

• Artistic excellence
• Contemporary relevance
• Alignment with Ford priorities
• Potential for strategic impact
• Potential to transform stereotypes, beliefs, and value systems
• Creativity and innovation in form
• Potential to build cultural power and voice in marginalized communities

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Ford Foundation - Just Films Program

Additional Information:

We fund food and agriculture science that addresses large-scale challenges to develop actionable knowledge and solutions. We fund research focusing on our cross-cutting Challenge Areas.  These Challenge Areas include:

• Soil Health – Our Soil Health Challenge Area develops sustainable on-farm practices from the ground-up by creating innovative solutions to improve soil health from measurement to adoption.
• Sustainable Water Management – The Sustainable Water Management Challenge Area supports research that enhances and protects natural waters to sustain agricultural production and environmental health.
• Next Generation Crops – The Next Generation Crop Challenge Area funds research on new and conventional crops to increase crop diversity and farm profitability.
• Advanced Animal Systems – The Advanced Animal Systems Challenge Area supports research that improves animal health and welfare and pioneers practices that sustain our food system.
• Urban Food Systems – The Urban Food Systems Challenge Area helps scientists, farmers and policymakers design equitable urban food systems that promote wellness and urban resilience.
• Health-Agriculture Nexus – The Health-Agriculture Nexus Challenge Area supports research to reduce food and nutrition insecurity, decrease food waste and loss and improve human health.

Another important aspect of our grants are the public-private partnerships. Some funding opportunities require applicants and grantees to secure matching funds. In other cases, we secure matching funds before announcing the opportunity. Please consider potential matching funders when proposing a research concept.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu. 

 

Learn More about Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research - Food and Agricultural Research

Additional Information:

The Rapid Outcomes from Agricultural Research (ROAR) program deploys urgent funding to support research and outreach in response to emerging or unanticipated threats to the nation’s food supply or agricultural systems.

Plant and animal pests and pathogens can strike quickly, devastating crops, livestock and livelihoods. When such unplanned events occur, it often takes months before an effective response can be mounted. Researchers must understand these pests and pathogens before they can develop an effective solution. While the initial period after pest or pathogen detection is critical to stopping the threat, conventional research funding opportunities take significant time and effort to pursue.

To address these outbreaks quickly, FFAR makes rapid grants through ROAR for research related to response, prevention or mitigation of new pests and pathogens. ROAR’s one-year funding fills urgent research gaps until traditional, longer-term funding can be secured.

ROAR grants are swift, diverse and far-reaching. In the past, we have awarded ROAR grants to combat invasive weevils, lettuce wilt, swine viruses and cattle ticks, among other pests and pathogens.

NOTE: ROAR grant recipients must provide equal or greater matching funds from non-US federal government sources.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research - Rapid Outcomes from Agricultural Research (ROAR)

Additional Information:

The Henry Luce Foundation believes in the power of visual art to spark dialogue that celebrates creativity, explores difference, and forges common ground. Through our support for museum projects that foreground diverse experiences and perspectives, the Henry Luce Foundation empowers institutions to challenge accepted histories, elevate underrepresented voices, and promote critical conversations. We embrace the role of American art and art collections in realizing more vibrant and empathetic communities.

The Foundation funds projects in three different categories:

• Exhibition Competition – The American Art Program supports scholarly loan exhibitions that contribute significantly to the study and understanding of art of the United States, including all facets of Native American art. The loan exhibition grants advance the Program’s efforts to empower art museums to reconsider accepted histories, foreground the voices and experiences of underrepresented artists and cultures, and welcome diverse collaborators and communities into dialogue.
• Responsive Grants – Through its Responsive Grants, the American Art Program seeks to support a wide range of collection-based projects that advance the understanding and presentation of art of the United States. Eligible collection areas include paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, decorative arts, naïve and outsider art, traditional and studio crafts, architecture, design, and all aspects of Native American arts.
• Support for Individuals – Support for scholarly training in Art History is offered through the annual awarding of dissertation fellowships to doctoral candidates at colleges and universities in the United States. Administered by the American Council of Learned Societies on behalf of the Luce Foundation, the program provides stipends as well as travel and research funds.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu.  

Learn More about Henry Luce Foundation - American Art Program

Additional Information:

The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to deepen understanding of religion as a source of division and a site of common ground, an agent of inequality and a force for social transformation. Our work strengthens knowledge of religion’s complex and contested place in public life; diversifies intellectual inquiry in this area; and promotes more curious and civil public conversations. We build initiatives that creatively engage religion in pursuit of a more just and compassionate future.

The program awards grants primarily to organizations and institutions for dedicated projects, though more flexible funding can also be requested. Those interested in applying for a grant can submit a concept note through our online portal at any time.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu.  

Learn More about Henry Luce Foundation - Religion and Theology Program

 

Additional Information:

Sloan's programs in Digital Technology explore how the internet and computing technology are creating new opportunities to empower the scientific enterprise and expand the public's access to knowledge.  Ongoing specific program areas include:

• Better Software for Science – Software is increasingly central to scientific research, but academia often fails to leverage best practices for software engineering from industry or elsewhere. To realize the full potential of software in advancing discovery—whether in data science, computational modeling, or machine learning—this program aims to adapt and extend approaches from other contexts into academic software development while recognizing the unique workflows and incentives of the research enterprise. Rather than funding individual scientific software development projects, grants in this area focus mainly on tooling, institutions, economic models, and incentives around the production, maintenance, and adoption of research software. 
• Exploratory Grantmaking in Technology – The Sloan Foundation continually explores the intersection of research and technology to identify emerging focus areas where recent innovation, changing contexts, or scarce funding open up potential opportunities for new programs. Exploratory grantmaking is intended to bring community needs and priorities into sharper focus and allow us to determine whether there is a clear strategy and potential impact for the Foundation in a specific area. Supported activities may include workshops and other expert convenings, early software development and prototyping, landscape analyses, development of protocols and standards, initial research on and engagement with potential user communities, and demonstration or other proof-of-concept projects.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu.

Learn More about Alfred P. Sloan Foundation - Technology Program

Additional Information:

Support for basic scientific research lies at the core of the foundation’s mission.  Alfred P. Sloan Jr. felt strongly that future increases in human welfare would be driven by an increased understanding and mastery of the natural world and that it was thus important to support those scientific pioneers who are expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.

Because our resources constitute such a small fraction of total societal investment in research, the Foundation must be extremely strategic both in the design of its grantmaking programs and in selecting individual projects for funding. In each of our science grantmaking programs, the Foundation seeks proposals for original projects led by outstanding individuals or teams, which exhibit a high degree of methodological rigor, which have a high expected return to society, and for which funding from the private sector, government, or other foundations is not yet widely available.  Ongoing specific program areas include:

• Economics – To provide public goods, including fundamental research, conceptual breakthroughs, and technical advances, that inclusively strengthen and accelerate U.S. economic progress.
• Energy & Environment – The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Energy and Environment program looks to achieve its mission by supporting research, training, networking, and dissemination efforts in this domain that shape the direction of scholarship by investigating under-explored questions that warrant further attention, advance collaborative and interdisciplinary research across the social and natural sciences, involve early career faculty and train the next generation of students, link research with practice, and partner with other funders to amplify programmatic impact. The program’s predominant geographic focus is the United States
• Matter-To-Life – To sharpen our scientific understanding of the physical principles and mechanisms that distinguish living systems from inanimate matter, and to explore the conditions under which physical principles and mechanisms guide the complexification of matter towards life.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Alfred P. Sloan - Scientific Research Program

Additional Information:

The Foundation supports institutions dedicated to humanist scholarship and artistic excellence through its Humanities, Research Libraries, and Venetian Programs. More information below:

Humanities: The Foundation intends to further the humanities along a broad front. Programs in the following areas are eligible: history; archaeology; literature; languages, both classical and modern; philosophy; ethics; comparative religion; the history, criticism, and theory of the arts; and those aspects of the social sciences which share the content and methods of humanistic disciplines.

Research Libraries: Improve the ability of research libraries to serve the needs of scholarship in the humanities and the performing arts, and to help make their resources more widely accessible to scholars and the general public. Primarily focused on European and American history

Venetian Research: Research focused on Venetian history, society, and culture.

For more information, please contact Cooper Adams at adamscoo@msu.edu or Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu. 

Learn More about The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation - Programs for Organizations

Additional Information:

To promote fidelity to the Constitution, The Bradley Foundation supports organizations and projects that advance federalism and limit government at the national, state, and local levels. The Foundation recognizes the threat to self-government that results when decision-making is delegated to the administrative state. Finally, the Foundation recognizes the increasing threats to our rights enshrined in the First Amendment and therefore supports organizations and projects that protect free speech; restore election integrity; promote citizen political engagement; uphold the rule of law and Constitutional order; and defend the free exercise of religion.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu. 

 

Learn More about Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation - Constitutional Order Program

 Additional Information:

To advance free markets, The Bradley Foundation supports organizations and projects that reduce the size and power of public sector unions; advance free trade within the rule of law; and support deregulation of markets. 

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu.

Learn More about Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation - Free Markets Program

Additional Information: 

To defend and reinvigorate institutions of civil society, The Bradley Foundation supports organizations that strengthen families; encourage self-reliance; promote civil discourse; rely on voluntary institutions outside of government to address community and individual needs; and foster arts and culture in the Milwaukee area.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation - Civil Society Program

Additional Information:

To encourage the formation of informed and capable citizens, The Bradley Foundation supports organizations and projects that reform and re-imagine systems and institutions of higher education; further outstanding research, teaching, and scholarship; advance alternatives to the K–12 public education monopolies; promote the teaching of American exceptionalism; encourage vocational training and other alternatives to university-based education; and support education for gifted students. 

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation - Informed Citizens Program

Additional Information:  

The student-focused grant program is designed to hone primary practice skills prior to a student's graduation from veterinary school. Completion of these courses should empower the students, particularly during their first few years of private practice, to provide a spectrum of care, ranging from "gold standard" medicine to quality, low-cost interventions. 

Additionally, the proposed course must be:

• Aimed at improving canine health, understanding that many techniques or treatments may be applicable to multiple companion animal species.
• Focused on building primary care skills and outcomes-based assessments without the use of high-cost diagnostics or treatments;
• Taught in-person at an accredited institution (no online or remote offerings will be supported);
• Held at least three times as long as it is justified by student enrollment and evaluations.

Courses addressing common canine conditions are preferred. The strongest applications will provide specific course objectives and evidence (which may be practice-based) of the effectiveness of the suggested approach.

For more information, please contact Larry Wallach at wallach@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Stanton Foundation—Canine Health: Student-Focused Course Development Program

Additional Information:  

The Clinical Research Program funds projects that identify and evaluate diagnostic and therapeutic protocols to reduce client costs without sacrificing quality health care. It seeks to provide primary care practitioners with additional tools to practice more broadly along the spectrum of care. The Program’s goal is to allow them to serve an economically diverse clientele while maintaining a practice that is professionally, emotionally, and financially rewarding.  Specifically, the Foundation seeks proposals that address common canine presentations and/or allow primary care practitioners to treat cases that he/she currently refers to specialists. 

Proposals should meet the following criteria:

• Canine centric. While the research may benefit other companion animals, dogs must be the primary potential beneficiaries of a successful trial.
• Broad applicability. The idea must deal with diseases and conditions that are commonly seen in primary care practice either regionally (e.g. heartworm in the south) or nationally.
• Immediate applicability. If the trial is successful, must produce results that are immediately usable by primary care practitioners.
• Financially sustainable for private practitioner. While all successful proposals will test cost-reducing protocols, the protocol must, if adopted in a standard clinic setting, allow the primary care veterinarian to generate revenue over total expense specific to that protocol.

No dollar minimums or maximums. The Foundation welcomes proposals of all sizes, from small proof-of-concept seed grants to large, multi-institution studies. However, larger grants must test a diagnostic or treatment protocol that would: a) have broad applicability and would be used frequently in primary care practice; and b) would provide a significant cost savings over ‘best option’ recommendations.  If a proposal is accepted, the applicant will receive funding within four weeks of approval notification.

Time horizon. Elapsed time from start to finish of the project must be no more than 24 months.

 For more information, please contact Larry Wallach at wallach@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Stanton Foundation—Canine Health: Spectrum of Care Clinical Research Program

Additional Information:

The Foundation works with local communities to build IXPs in markets where they are needed, level up existing IXPs to realize their full potential, and further develop regional organizations and communities that support peering and interconnection. Grant funds are available to assist in training, capacity building, community development, and equipment purchases (switches, optic modules, servers, and routers).

The Foundation’s peering and interconnection work endeavors to:

• Further our 50/50 Vision to ensure half of all Internet traffic in emerging economies stays local by 2025
• Strengthen collaboration with regional partners on IXP development in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and other regions
• Implement the IXP initiative of the Coalition for Digital Africa

Program Objectives

• Increase the amount of Internet traffic within local infrastructure, reducing costs associated with traffic exchange between networks
• Provide support to build new and enhance existing IXPs to ensure their long-term sustainability
• Champion the development of peering and interconnection by building local capacity in collaboration with regional entities

Focus Regions

• Emerging economies
• Low-income economies
• Small island developing states

NOTE: This is probably best for those with strong collaborative partnerships in the above regions.

For more information, please contact Larry Wallach at wallach@msu.edu

Learn More about Internet Society Foundation—Sustainable Peering and Interconnection (IXP) Funding Program