Grants

The National Science Foundation awarded a $440,885 grant to researchers at MIT to develop social robots specifically to be reading companions for children. The investigation is led by Cynthia Breazeal, who's been in headlines during the past few years with her consumer personal robot named Jibo. The study, which began last month, is "developing and…

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the writer and star of the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” thought it was the cable company calling to beg him to reconsider his recent service cancellation. Nicole Eisenman, the artist, was in the meat section of a Fire Island grocery store, buying bacon. Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the best-selling nonfiction book “Between the…

Google wants Bay Area residents to pick the groups with the best ideas for transforming local lives. Google.org, the search giant’s philanthropic arm, is seeking public input on its Google Impact Challenge grants to “change-makers and forward-thinkers who challenge the status quo ... with big ideas for an even better Bay Area,” as it says…

It’s widely accepted in the world of fundraising that summer can be slow. Funders tune out, travel, spend time with family. In general, giving slows to a crawl. If private foundations can utilize these six easy-to-implement strategies during the remaining weeks of summer, funders will be more likely to maximize the social return on their giving, which is good news for all nonprofits and the causes they champion...

Funding from foundations in support of global human rights initiatives totaled $1.8 billion in 2012, a report from Foundation Center and the International Human Rights Funders Group finds. The 2015 edition of Advancing Human Rights: Update on Global Foundation Grantmaking found that 774 foundations based in 45 countries made nearly 19,000 grants to almost 11,000…

City Year, an education-focused nonprofit organization that helps students to stay in school and on track to graduation, announced that it will standardize and scale its after-school middle school program with the support of a three-year $2.5 million grant from New York Life Foundation. “We are grateful and proud to welcome New York Life as…

Last week, Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, announced that the foundation would shift its programming to focus exclusively on grantmaking that addresses inequality. In many ways, the move was very much in character for the evident culture and values set of the current leadership: “Among these many trends, the one we returned to…

The fight against inequality will take center stage at the Ford Foundation under a sweeping overhaul announced today by the nation’s second biggest philanthropy. Not only will Ford direct all of its money and influence to curbing financial, racial, gender, and other inequities, but it will give lots more money in a way grantees have…

The Humana Foundation has selected three communities for its Humana Communities Benefit program. Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations that aim to transform their communities by lowering barriers to health and well-being are encouraged to apply for the multi-year charitable grant totaling $350,000.

Does your organization receive government funding? Or are you at least considering it? The federal government is increasingly stepping away from providing human services like elder care, and instead it is calling for nonprofits to take up the services slack.