Brown Foundation Grants

Brown Foundation Grants is sponsored by Brown Foundation. Provides general support.

The Brown Foundation, Inc. – Committed to a flexible grantmaking strategy focused on Houston's evolving community needs. Build | Sustain | Enhance The Brown Foundation, Inc. is committed to a flexible grantmaking strategy focused on Houston’s evolving community needs. Our mission is to build, sustain, and enhance organizations that make Houston a stronger, more vibrant community.

As a family-directed foundation, we selectively participate in distinctive grantmaking opportunities across Texas and beyond. Honoring the legacy of our founders, the Foundation values visionary leadership, entrepreneurialism, a commitment to excellence, and an orientation toward action and direct service.

The Foundation purposefully maintains a low profile, keeping the focus on the mission of our grantees and the communities they serve. See the history of The Brown Foundation Since our founding in 1951, The Brown Foundation, Inc. has distributed more than $2 billion to help build and sustain institutions that make Houston a world-class city, from leading educational institutions to renowned medical facilities to a vibrant arts ecosystem.

The Foundation believes that the arts contribute meaningfully to the vibrancy and vitality of communities. A thriving arts ecosystem promotes diversity, creates dynamic and joyful experiences for residents, sparks dialogue, and sustains a richness of life in a city.

We proudly support arts organizations of all sizes—from the performing arts to museums, from small community-based groups to flagship institutions—that bring passion, energy, and creativity to life in Houston and beyond. The Foundation has a longstanding commitment to education, reflecting our belief that education creates pathways to future opportunity and strengthens communities.

Our grantmaking extends from early childhood to higher education. Although we fund broadly, our top priority is direct support to a diverse ecosystem of school models. Our public education grantmaking is concentrated almost exclusively in the greater Houston region.

The Foundation believes that strong and vibrant cities need places where communities gather, families spend time, and greenspace is abundant. We also believe in the importance of preserving our native landscape for future generations to enjoy. The Foundation proudly supports parks, gardens, nature conservancies, places for children, and efforts to preserve and protect ecologically sensitive areas.

The Foundation awards grants to a diverse array of organizations working to improve health in our community, ranging from large academic medical centers to small community-based clinics. Our current priorities include direct support to hospital systems and clinics that provide primary care, behavioral, and mental health services.

The Foundation is dedicated to supporting organizations that deliver critical social services and programs that address basic human needs in our community. We award grants to organizations with demonstrated ability to accomplish ambitious goals aligned to their mission.

These include organizations focused on a range of services from child welfare to food insecurity, services to individuals experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, substance recovery, and community development, among others. We welcome your ideas to make Houston a stronger, more vibrant community. Learn more about our grant principles and application process below.