Funding search · EIN 131879954 · New York, NY

The Andrew W Mellon Foundation

Name: The Andrew W Mellon Foundation grants, 2022–2024
Creator: PaperOrbit
License: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organization-public-disclosure-and-availability-requirements

A private foundation (files IRS Form 990-PF). Most private foundations do not take unsolicited applications; the route in is usually a program officer.

2,231
grants reported: $1.59B
total given: 2022–2024
filing years: $500,000
median grant

Based on grants this organization reported to the IRS for tax years 2022–2024. This is what they filed, not a complete record of their giving, and recent years may be incomplete because filings lag.

What they fund

capacity development community research humanities studies building planning

Funder website ↗Full IRS filings ↗How this is built Report an error

Funding pattern

What this funder pays for, at what size, and how to position adjacent work. Read from their filings, with every number checked against the record.

Where the money goes

Monuments, memorials, and commemoration of slavery and Black history
Humanities curricula, internships, and fellowships at broad-access universities
Archives, digitization, and preservation of underrepresented collections
Performing arts organizations and regranting to artists of color
Higher education in prison and abolition-focused research
Indigenous, Latinx, and Puerto Rican cultural heritage and language work

Typical grant

Median grant is $500,000, with the middle half falling between $250,000 and $750,000. Multi-million awards go to national infrastructure and regranting intermediaries (American Council of Learned Societies, Council on Library and Information Resources, New England Foundation for the Arts) and to large commemoration projects like the Richmond Shockoe Bottom train shed at $7 million. Renewal is common and explicit: descriptions repeatedly say "to continue support for" and "a final round of," so first grants are best understood as the opening of a multi-year relationship.

Their words

Phrases from their own grant descriptions, worth speaking back to them.

“TO CONTINUE SUPPORT FOR”
“INTERNSHIP PROGRAMMING FOR HUMANITIES STUDENTS”
“ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY”
“A REGRANTING PROGRAM”
“HISTORICALLY UNDERREPRESENTED”
“COMMEMORATIVE”

Positioning adjacent work

Tie adjacent work to monuments, memory, and commemoration; that theme absorbs the largest single checks.
Ask $500,000 to $1.5 million for a campus humanities project; internship and curriculum grants cluster there.
Name the collection or community by name and show public access, not just scholarly output.
Include organizational capacity and staff lines; they fund infrastructure and salaries, not only programming.

Worth knowing: New York holds 567 of 2,231 grants and a handful of intermediaries (ACLS, CLIR, NEFA) take repeated seven-figure awards, so much money moves through trusted regranters rather than direct one-off gifts. Recent giving leans heavily toward racial-justice commemoration, prison education, and Indigenous heritage, and toward regional public universities and community colleges rather than only elite research institutions.

10 grants matching “underrepresented” · $9.9M

$2.5M
Council On Library and Information Resources · Alexandria, VA · 2024
To support a national grantmaking competition for digitization of materials that deepen public understanding of people and communities that have been historically underrepresented
$2.5M
Council On Library and Information Resources · Alexandria, VA · 2023
To support a national grantmaking competition for digitization of materials that deepen public understanding of people and communities that have been historically underrepresented
$665,000
University of the Western Cape · 2023
Equiv determin: to support the establishment of an enduring academic pipeline for promoting underrepresented south african college students to complete graduate studies in the humanities
$665,000
University of Cape Town · 2023
To support the establishment of an enduring academic pipeline model for promoting historically underrepresented south african college students to complete graduate studies in the humanities
$665,000
University of the Witwatersrand · 2023
Equiv determin: to support the establishment of an enduring academic pipeline for promoting underrepresented south african college students to complete graduate studies in the humanities
$640,000
Nashville Symphony Association · Nashville, TN · 2023
To continue support for an intensive pre-college professional training program for students from underrepresented communities
$600,000
University of California at Merced · Merced, CA · 2023
To continue support for an undergraduate research program in the humanities and related fields for underrepresented students and others interested in pursuing scholarly careers
$942,000
Council of Independent Colleges · Washington, DC · 2022
To support a progressive reconceptualization of the organization's extensive suite of faculty and administrative leadership programs and trainings that place equity and justice at their center and ensure a focus on unde… read allTo support a progressive reconceptualization of the organization's extensive suite of faculty and administrative leadership programs and trainings that place equity and justice at their center and ensure a focus on underrepresented faculty less
$500,000
The University of Texas at San Antonio · San Antonio, TX · 2022
To continue support for an undergraduate research program for underrepresented and other students studying the humanities and selected social sciences
$210,000
Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles · Los Angeles, CA · 2022
To continue support of pathways initiatives for musicians from communities underrepresented in concert music professions

Top recipients

Repeat recipients are the strongest signal of whether a funder has an open door or quietly re-funds the same organizations.

Tides Center5 grants · $92.0M
American Council of Learned Societies15 grants · $44.4M
Wgbh Educational Foundation3 grants · $16.0M
National Park Foundation4 grants · $15.9M
The Studio Museum in Harlem3 grants · $13.5M
Fractured Atlas12 grants · $12.6M
Council On Library and Information Resources8 grants · $12.5M
Freedom Reads3 grants · $12.3M
City of Richmond2 grants · $11.0M
Smithsonian Institution11 grants · $10.8M

Giving over time

$505.7M

2022

$524.7M

2023

$555.0M

2024

Grant history

The 100 largest of 2,231 grants.

$90.0M
Tides Center · San Francisco, CA · 2022
To support creatives rebuild new york
$10.0M
The Studio Museum in Harlem · New York, NY · 2022
To support construction of the museum's new building
$8.6M
American Council of Learned Societies · New York, NY · 2024
To support the administration and annual institutional renewals for the mellon mays undergraduate fellowship program
$8.5M
American Council of Learned Societies · New York, NY · 2023
To support the administration and annual institutional renewals for the mellon mays undergraduate fellowship program
$7.5M
Fractured Atlas · New York, NY · 2023
To support the second phase of the chrysalis project including the development of an entity and technology product to radically re-imagine and upgrade support structures for individual artists in the united states
$7.5M
The Regents of the University of California · Oakland, CA · 2022
To support expansion of the university of california's presidential postdoctoral fellowship program by sharpening its focus on the humanities at six hsi uc campuses designated as hispanic-serving institutions
$7.3M
American Council of Learned Societies · New York, NY · 2022
To support one annual cycle of program renewals at institutions hosting the mellon mays undergraduate fellowship: amherst, barnard, bowdoin, brooklyn, bryn mawr, carleton, connecticut, dartmouth, grinnell, haverford, hu… read allTo support one annual cycle of program renewals at institutions hosting the mellon mays undergraduate fellowship: amherst, barnard, bowdoin, brooklyn, bryn mawr, carleton, connecticut, dartmouth, grinnell, haverford, hunter, macalester, oberlin, pomona, queens, smith, swarthmore, wellesley, whittier, and williams colleges; brown, columbia, cornell, duke, emory, harvard, howard, northwestern, princeton, rice, stanford, wesleyan, and yale universities; the universities of california at berkeley, at los angeles, and at riverside; the universities of cape town, chicago, new mexico, pennsylvania, puerto rico at rio piedras, southern california, texas at austin, the western cape, and the witwatersrand; the california institute of technology; california state university foundation; city college of new york; united negro college fund, inc.; and washington university in st. Louis less
$7.0M
City of Richmond · Richmond, VA · 2024
To support the planning, development, and initial operations of a cultural space located at the shockoe bottom train shed that memorializes and commemorates the history of slavery in richmond
$6.7M
National Park Foundation · Washington, DC · 2023
To continue and expand support for humanities postdoctoral fellowships in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence
$6.7M
National Park Foundation · Washington, DC · 2022
To continue and expand support for humanities postdoctoral fellowships in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence
$5.6M
The International Association of Blacks in Dance · Washington, DC · 2024
To support a regranting program to artists and companies driving the future of black dance
$5.5M
Wgbh Educational Foundation · Boston, MA · 2023
To support the american archive of public brd.casting to preserve endangered public media holdings at scale for future access and use
$5.5M
Wgbh Educational Foundation · Boston, MA · 2022
To support the american archive of public broadcasting to preserve endangered public media holdings at scale for future access and use
$5.0M
Freedom Reads · Hamden, CT · 2024
To provide major renewed support to freedom reads as it scales its library installations and expands organizational capacity
$5.0M
Wgbh Educational Foundation · Boston, MA · 2024
To support the american archive of public broadcasting to preserve endangered public media holdings at scale for future access and use
$5.0M
American Council On Education · Washington, DC · 2023
To support the development of a social and economic mobility index to be incorporated into the carnegie classifications
$5.0M
Freedom Reads · Hamden, CT · 2023
To provide major renewed support to freedom reads as it scales its library installations and expands organizational capacity
$5.0M
Jazz Foundation of America · New York, NY · 2023
To support a lifetime achievement award program for jazz artists aged 62 years and older
$5.0M
Barnard College · New York, NY · 2022
To support the extension and elevation of caribbean-focused digital humanities scholarship, training, and infrastructure across caribbean and us universities for scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates
$4.9M
Simon Fraser University · 2022
To support an expansive interdisciplinary approach to critical data studies to address issues such as misinformation, disinformation, and data literacy
$4.7M
University of Kansas · Lawrence, KS · 2022
To support the in zhuje waxobe project
$4.4M
Social Science Research Council · Brooklyn, NY · 2023
To continue support for the mellon mays graduate initiatives program
$4.3M
Montpelier Foundation · Montpelier Station, VA · 2024
To support the creation of a memorial to the individuals who were enslaved at montpelier
$4.0M
Monument Lab · Philadelphia, PA · 2024
To support the expansion of the re:generation program, field building, narrative change work, and general operations
$4.0M
Monument Lab · Philadelphia, PA · 2023
To support the expansion of the re:generation program, field building, narrative change work, and general operations
$4.0M
City of Richmond · Richmond, VA · 2022
To support the planning, development, and initial operations of a cultural space located at the shockoe bottom train shed that memorializes and commemorates the history of slavery in richmond
$4.0M
National Trust for Historic Preservation in the US · Washington, DC · 2022
To support the african american cultural heritage action fund's grantmaking, programs, marketing, expanded technical assistance for prospective grantees, and three signature preservation projects
$4.0M
Los Angeles Nomadic Division · Los Angeles, CA · 2024
To support the semi-permanent installation of a monument to south central
$3.7M
American Council of Learned Societies · New York, NY · 2022
To continue support for postdoctoral fellowships in social justice-oriented government and nonprofit agencies for humanities phds
$3.7M
Bard College · Annandaleonhudson, NY · 2022
To support an expansion of college-in-prison programs for men and women, planning for a master's degree program, and an endowed chair dedicated to the bard prison initiative
$3.5M
National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States · Washington, DC · 2024
To support the african american cultural heritage action funds grantmaking, programs, marketing, expanded technical assistance for prospective grantees, and three signature preservation projects
$3.5M
National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States · Washington, DC · 2023
To support staff capacity, programs for presidential sites in virginia, a national regranting program, and a convening for the new descendant stewardship & leadership initiative
$3.5M
Thomas Jefferson Foundation · Charlottesville, VA · 2023
To support the expansion of the getting word project and the development of the digital archive of slavery to freedom at monticello
$3.5M
Fidelity Charitable · Cincinnati, OH · 2024
Matching gift
$3.5M
Hunter College · New York, NY · 2024
To continue support for the center for puerto rican studies rooted & relational initiative
$3.4M
The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events · Chicago, IL · 2024
To support the chicago monuments project and citywide community-initiated commemorative initiatives and installations
$3.4M
The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events · Chicago, IL · 2023
To support the chicago monuments project and citywide community-initiated commemorative initiatives and installations
$3.3M
The Theater Offensive · Boston, MA · 2022
To support capital costs and programming at the boylston black box
$3.2M
Fidelity Charitable · Cincinnati, OH · 2023
Matching gift
$3.2M
City College of New York · New York, NY · 2023
To support internship programming for humanities students
$3.0M
Smithsonian Institution · Washington, DC · 2024
To support the development and initial work of the new office of human dignity
$3.0M
University of California at Santa Cruz · Santa Cruz, CA · 2024
To continue support for visualizing abolition
$3.0M
Centro De Economa Creativa · San Juan, PR · 2023
To support an initiative to stabilize and strengthen contemporary artists and artist-centered organizations across puerto rico
$3.0M
Department of Cultural Affairs City of Los Angeles · Los Angeles, CA · 2023
To support a memorial to the victims of the 1871 chinese massacre in los angeles
$3.0M
Mass Design Group Ltd · Boston, MA · 2023
To support the expansion of the public memory and memorials lab
$3.0M
Pride Live · Long Island City, NY · 2023
To support the creation of the stonewall national monument visitor center and core staffing
$3.0M
University of Missouri at Kansas City · Kansas City, MO · 2023
To support internship programming for humanities students
$3.0M
Naacp Legal Defense and Educational Fund · New York, NY · 2022
To support organizational archives
$2.9M
California State University at Fresno · Fresno, CA · 2024
To support internship programming for humanities students
$2.9M
The Center for Economic Research and Social Change · Chicago, IL · 2024
To continue support for the writing freedom fellowship
$2.9M
Museum Am Rothenbaum · 2024
To support digital benins next phase, and an open source repository of software and tools accessible to other digital heritage projects
$2.8M
American Library Association · Chicago, IL · 2023
To support efforts to shore up the association's digital infrastructure and to advance intellectual freedom and access to information, diversity fellowship programming, and a covid-19 relief regranting program
$2.8M
American Library Association · Chicago, IL · 2022
To support efforts to shore up the association's digital infrastructure and to advance intellectual freedom and access to information, diversity fellowship programming, and a covid-19 relief regranting program
$2.8M
American Council of Learned Societies · New York, NY · 2022
To support a dissertation writing fellowship to spur methodological and cross-disciplinary innovation in the humanities
$2.7M
Fidelity Charitable · Cincinnati, OH · 2022
Matching gift
$2.7M
Bureau of Indian Affairs · Washington, DC · 2024
To support the establishment of an oral history project as part of the federal indian boarding school initiative
$2.5M
Alliance for California Traditional Arts · Fresno, CA · 2024
To support organizational capacity and a national fellowship for traditional artists
$2.5M
City University of New York · New York, NY · 2024
To support the further development of black, race, and ethnic studies across the cuny system
$2.5M
Council On Library and Information Resources · Alexandria, VA · 2024
To support a national grantmaking competition for digitization of materials that deepen public understanding of people and communities that have been historically underrepresented
$2.5M
Council On Library and Information Resources · Alexandria, VA · 2024
To support a regranting program for the digitization of materials
$2.5M
Latino Theater Company · Los Angeles, CA · 2024
To support the latinx theater initiative
$2.5M
Miami Valley Public Media · Yellow Springs, OH · 2024
To support the preservation of historical audio collections held by campus radio stations at historically black colleges and universities
$2.5M
Old Dominion University · Norfolk, VA · 2024
To support internship programming for humanities students
$2.5M
University of Illinois at Chicago · Chicago, IL · 2024
To continue support for a research and training program for advanced graduate students
$2.5M
Centro De Economa Creativa · San Juan, PR · 2023
To support the maniobra music cohort
$2.5M
City University of New York · New York, NY · 2023
To support the further development of black, race, and ethnic studies across the cuny system
$2.5M
Council On Library and Information Resources · Alexandria, VA · 2023
To support a national grantmaking competition for digitization of materials that deepen public understanding of people and communities that have been historically underrepresented
$2.5M
Latino Theater Company · Los Angeles, CA · 2023
To support the latinx theater initiative
$2.5M
Miami Valley Public Media · Yellow Springs, OH · 2023
To support the preservation of historical audio collections held by campus radio stations at historically black colleges and universities
$2.5M
Northern Arizona University · Flagstaff, AZ · 2023
To support the indigenization of curricular, support, and community engagement efforts
$2.5M
Old Dominion University · Norfolk, VA · 2023
To support internship programming for humanities students
$2.5M
Alliance for California Traditional Arts · Fresno, CA · 2022
To support organizational capacity and a national fellowship for traditional artists
$2.5M
Amalgamated Charitable Foundation · Washington, DC · 2022
To support the fiona community response fund
$2.5M
Brown University · Providence, RI · 2022
To support relocation of the haffenreffer museum of anthropology from bristol to providence, rhode island
$2.5M
Northern Arizona University · Flagstaff, AZ · 2022
To support the indigenization of curricular, support, and community engagement efforts
$2.5M
University of California at San Diego · La Jolla, CA · 2022
To support a final renewal for the cross-border community stations program of innovative community engagement in san diego and tijuana
$2.5M
University of Illinois at Chicago · Chicago, IL · 2022
To establish a latinx studies research and training program for advanced graduate students and a network of 16 public research intensive hispanic serving institutions
$2.4M
Emory University · Atlanta, GA · 2023
To support building a program of study in native american and indigenous studies
$2.4M
University of Michigan · Ann Arbor, MI · 2022
To support a digital futures collaborative network
$2.3M
Texas a&M University · College Station, TX · 2024
To support an initiative that centers interdisciplinary humanistic scholarship
$2.3M
Trust for the National Mall · Washington, DC · 2022
To support the temporary commemoration pilot program
$2.3M
Kinfolk Tech Foundation · Brooklyn, NY · 2024
To continue support for the kinfolk ar monuments app and digital archive
$2.3M
Web Du Bois Museum Foundation · New York, NY · 2024
To support historic preservation and conservation work at the w.e.b. Du bois centre in accra, ghana as well as organizational development and capacity building
$2.3M
Emmett Till Interpretive Center · Sumner, MS · 2023
To support museum interpretation and planning, community engagement, memorial design, and the centers organizational capacity
$2.3M
Freedom Reads · New Haven, CT · 2022
To support freedom reads
$2.2M
New England Foundation for the Arts · Boston, MA · 2024
To continue support for the national theater project
$2.2M
New England Foundation for the Arts · Boston, MA · 2023
To continue support for the national theater project
$2.2M
Invisible Histories Project · Birmingham, AL · 2024
To support general operations
$2.2M
Sylvester Manor Educational Farm · Shelter Island, NY · 2023
To support the historic manor house renovation and expanded history & heritage department programming and staffing
$2.1M
Motown Historical Museum · Detroit, MI · 2023
To support construction and renovation costs for the museum community annex
$2.1M
New England Foundation for the Arts · Boston, MA · 2024
To continue support for the national dance project
$2.1M
New England Foundation for the Arts · Boston, MA · 2022
To continue support for the national dance project
$2.1M
California State University at Fresno · Fresno, CA · 2023
To support internship programming for humanities students
$2.0M
University of California at San Diego · La Jolla, CA · 2024
To support the uc sentencing project, a collaboration between ucsd, ucla, and members of the california coalition of women prisoners
$2.0M
Arizona State University · Tempe, AZ · 2024
To support a partnership that connects academic instruction through masters-level coursework with on-the-job work
$2.0M
Baryshnikov Arts Center · New York, NY · 2024
To support strategic planning and execution of the bloodlines interwoven festival
$2.0M
Centro De Economa Creativa · San Juan, PR · 2024
To support the maniobra music cohort
$2.0M
City University of New York · New York, NY · 2024
To support the development of infrastructure and staff for strengthening the institutional archives of the city university of new york
$2.0M
National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers · Washington, DC · 2024
To support a regranting program and organizational capacity
$2.0M
Social Impact Fund · Los Angeles, CA · 2024
To continue support for organizational capacity, a preservation toolkit, and a regranting program of a sponsored project

View all 2,231 grants →

Grants already paid are the record; PaperOrbit reads your paper and finds the funders whose record matches it — then explains why.

Search funders like this one

Source: IRS Form 990-PF, Part XV, as filed by the foundation. These are grants already paid — a record of what this funder backs, not an open call.