The Rockefeller Foundation

• The Foundation's stated priorities are climate solutions, energy, food, health and finance systems, and economic opportunity, with a priority geography of the U.S. and the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Italy (the Bellagio Center), so a small charity should check that its work fits one of these.
• Half of its grants to organisations were $25,000 or less and its median grant was $25,000, so a modest request is realistic, though about 8 in 10 grants fall between $300 and $500,000, a typical band rather than a ceiling.
• The filing shows 91% of its grant dollars to organisations went to groups it had also funded in the two earlier filings, so the process leans towards existing relationships, and a new organisation can still approach it.
• Where a Program Officer invites a project proposal, applicants use the Foundation's portal, and due diligence checks whether the grantee can complete the work and manage the grant, so an organisation should be ready to show both capacity and the narrative and financial reporting project grantees must provide.
• Organisations seeking personal aid to individuals, building funds, or endowments (except in rare cases) should not apply, because the Foundation does not fund these.

The largest grants to organisations in the foundation’s latest filing:

• RF Catalytic Capital · Toward the costs of launching and operationalizing its efforts to harness the full potential of green energy to create a more sustainable and equitable world
  $75,000,0002024 tax year
• American Heart Association · Toward the costs of generating evidence to help the health sector scale food is medicine interventions to benefit lower-income, historically marginalized groups in the us
  $11,800,0002024 tax year
• RF Catalytic Capital · Towards the costs of the invest in our future fund to accelerate emissions reduction and the equitable implementation of federal funding
  $10,000,0002024 tax year
• Co-Impact Philanthropic Funds · Toward the costs of the gender fund to transform health, education, and economic systems to ensure gender equitable and inclusive outcomes which allow all people to live fulfilling lives
  $10,000,0002024 tax year
• Co-Impact Philanthropic Funds · For use by co-impact, a global collaborative for systems change, toward the costs of funding systems change efforts in health, education and economic opportunity focusing on underserved populations with the greatest need
  $8,500,0002024 tax year
• RF Catalytic Capital · Building local capacity to increase access to electricity in africa
  $7,384,0002024 tax year
• Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria · Toward the costs of a laboratory systems catalytic fund to strengthen laboratory capacity across low- and middle-income countries for infectious disease detection and response
  $7,000,0002024 tax year
• RF Catalytic Capital · Expanding access to and affordablilty of electricity in africa
  $6,417,7442024 tax year

Grants to organisations listed in the foundation’s Form 990-PF filings. Grants to individuals are not shown.

Figures from the foundation’s IRS Form 990-PF filings. Assets are at fair market value at year end. The document icon links to each year’s filing on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.