Daily 3 Foundations - 8/22/25

8/22/2025

Here are today’s daily 3 foundations.

The Ford Foundation

• Mission and Purpose: The Ford Foundation's mission is to "challenge inequality" by supporting courageous people and institutions on the frontlines of social change worldwide. It focuses on addressing the underlying drivers of inequality through its programs.

• Broad Funding Guidelines: The foundation is an international grantmaker with a significant endowment. The majority of its grants are proactive and by invitation only, with staff identifying and working with potential grantees that align with their specific program strategies. The foundation has a "limited opportunities" page for organizations that can submit unsolicited applications under very specific conditions. It does not fund undergraduate scholarships, personal needs, business assistance, or capital campaigns. It provides core support funding, known as BUILD grants, to strengthen social justice institutions.

• Featured Opportunity: The Ford Foundation's "JustFilms" initiative, part of its Creativity and Free Expression program, accepts submissions for documentary film production grants.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)

• Mission and Purpose: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is dedicated to improving health and healthcare for all Americans. Its mission is to build a "national Culture of Health" where everyone has an equal opportunity to live a healthy life. The foundation's work is centered on achieving health equity and dismantling structural racism.

• Broad Funding Guidelines: RWJF funds research and initiatives that align with its mission of achieving health equity. It offers funding through competitive calls for proposals (CFPs), open calls for ideas, and prize competitions. Applicants must be public entities or tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations based in the United States or its territories. Projects must aim to improve the health and healthcare of Americans.

• Featured Opportunity:

  • Exploring Equitable Futures: This program supports projects with new and unconventional ideas that could radically advance health equity. The foundation is particularly interested in projects that explore the future of the health science knowledge system.

  • Local Data for Equitable Communities: This grant program provides up to $50,000 to eligible nonprofit organizations to collect, analyze, and use data to address inequities in the physical, economic, and social conditions of their local communities.

The McKnight Foundation

• Mission and Purpose: The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, aims to "advance a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive." It focuses its grantmaking on addressing the climate crisis, building an equitable and inclusive Minnesota, and supporting the arts and neuroscience research.

• Broad Funding Guidelines: The foundation provides operating and project grants primarily to tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations in Minnesota. It makes limited grants outside the state, but only for projects that clearly benefit Minnesota. The foundation does not generally fund scholarships, endowments, capital campaigns, or activities with a specific religious purpose. It has a one-step application process and accepts proposals on a rolling basis. The foundation advises grantseekers to review its specific program strategies and contact a program director before applying.

• Featured Opportunity:

  • McKnight Neuroscience Scholar Awards: This program, offered through the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, provides competitive awards to independent investigators at not-for-profit research institutions in the U.S. Awards are for early-career scientists whose research shows promise in addressing diseases of the brain and behavior.