About Our Grantmaking Process is a resource from the Mellon Foundation that explains how the foundation supports arts, humanities, and higher education through strategic grantmaking. The Mellon Foundation makes grants primarily to U.S. 501(c)(3) public charities and equivalent international organizations, investing in work that fosters critical thinking, curiosity, and appreciation of shared culture and history.

Areas of focus include arts and culture, higher education, public humanities, and place-based cultural initiatives. The foundation accepts funding inquiries for its Humanities in Place program area on a rolling basis. Grants are not awarded for tuition, K-12 education and programming, fundraising events, or direct unrestricted individual funding.

Prospective grantees should align proposals with the foundation's charitable and educational mission.

For Grant Seekers | Mellon Foundation Funding Inquiries for Mellon’s Humanities in Place Program Area Applications are accepted on a rolling basis Art and artists are essential to human connection. Knowledge is produced everywhere. How and where we tell our stories matters.

Knowledge should be accessible to all. The arts and humanities can move us closer to justice, lifting up historically underserved and overlooked communities. The Andrew W.

Mellon Foundation actively works with our grantee partners and we are deeply immersed in the fields in which we invest. Our grants are designed to activate the spirit of learning through the creation and sharing of bold new ideas and the inspiration felt in art, expression, spaces, and scholarship.

Mellon makes most of its grants to organizations in the United States that have been determined by the IRS to be section 501(c)(3) public charities, as well as organizations outside the United States that are equivalent to US public charities. The Foundation does not fund tuition, K-12 education and programming, fundraising events, or provide direct unrestricted funding for individuals.

The Foundation makes grants designated for charitable and/or educational purposes and grant applications and other communications should always be in alignment with those purposes. Our charitable mission at a glance We invest in grantees whose tireless work fosters critical thinking, curiosity, and appreciation of our shared culture and history.

We partner with nonprofits, organizations, and individuals across the nation, multiplying their impact through crucial funding. We support grantees through four grantmaking areas: Higher Learning, Public Learning, Arts and Culture, and Humanities in Place, and signature Presidential Initiatives. We make grants to support organizations and ideas that contribute to a more connected, creative, and understanding world.

Since 1969, Mellon has awarded more than 20,000 grants.