Mellon Foundation

• Mellon Foundation, a New York private foundation with a priority for the United States, funds arts and humanities work under Arts and Culture, Higher Learning, Humanities in Place and Public Knowledge, so a project that fits one of those themes and matches its current strategies is worth raising with it.
• Its typical grant falls between $120,000 and $1,300,000 and its median is $500,000, so a modest request sits well below what most of its grants look like.
• Most of its grant dollars go to organisations it has funded before (63% in the latest filing), and most grants go to US 501(c)(3) public charities, though equivalent public charities outside the United States are also eligible.
• Because staff usually seek out organisations and invite proposals, reaching out first is the sensible route, and its occasional open calls are the other way in.
• Do not apply for tuition, K-12 education and programming, fundraising events, or direct unrestricted funding for individuals, as the foundation does not fund these.

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

• American Council of Learned Societies · To support the administration and annual institutional renewals for the mellon mays undergraduate fellowship program
  $8,556,0002024 tax year
• City of Richmond · To support the planning, development, and initial operations of a cultural space located at the shockoe bottom train shed that memorializes and commemorates the history of slavery in richmond
  $7,000,0002024 tax year
• International Association of Blacks in Dance · To support a regranting program to artists and companies driving the future of black dance
  $5,600,0002024 tax year
• WGBH Educational Foundation · To support the american archive of public broadcasting to preserve endangered public media holdings at scale for future access and use
  $5,000,0002024 tax year
• Freedom Reads · To provide major renewed support to freedom reads as it scales its library installations and expands organizational capacity
  $5,000,0002024 tax year
• Montpelier Foundation · To support the creation of a memorial to the individuals who were enslaved at montpelier
  $4,282,0002024 tax year
• Monument Lab · To support the expansion of the re:generation program, field building, narrative change work, and general operations
  $4,000,0002024 tax year
• Los Angeles Nomadic Division · To support the semi-permanent installation of a monument to south central
  $3,950,0002024 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.