**Note: For grants to universities, hospitals, academic medical centers, and affiliated nonprofit fiscal sponsors (e.g. research foundations affiliated with fundraising vehicles of government agencies), overhead costs for grant administration may not exceed five percent of the total project budget. Administrative costs related to carrying out the proposed grant activities, including space, materials and supplies, and technology for project staff, are not subject to the five percent limit, and should be identified separately in the proposed itemized project budget.
For additional information, please contact Liza Lagunoff.
You may submit a proposal anytime to our competitive grants program. (This does not include the national and international environment program).*
We build in a long lead time to review proposals and prepare grant recommendations for five board meetings each year (February, April, June, October, and December). Program staff weigh many considerations in preparing grant recommendations and cannot promise that any proposal will be considered at a particular board meeting.
The dates in the table below indicate when applicants can expect a decision on their grant application. Please note that these are NOT due dates.
Grant applications received in the Grants Portal by: Decision notification sent by email no later than:
Second Tuesday in February End of October of the same year
Second Tuesday in May End of December of the same year
Second Tuesday in September End of March of the following year
*Note: Grantseekers interested in seeking support through the national and international environment program start the process with a Letter of Interest (LOI), which can be submitted through the Grants Portal during a three-to-four-week window each fall (late September) and winter (late February). A small percentage of those LOIs will result in an invitation to submit a full proposal.
We also issue RFPs and calls for LOIs for certain programs (such as our capacity-building program for arts groups, many of our collaborative funds, and some of our biomedical research grants, such as those for leprosy); each has its own rules and timeline.