Funding search
Find who already funds work like yours.
Private foundations don’t post open calls, so nobody can search them. We read IRS filings instead — 9.6 million grants from 174,053 foundations and grantmaking charities, searchable by what the money was actually for.
12 funders with a record of paying for “biographies”
Where the money went
Largest: $200,000 to WIKI EDUCATION FOUNDATION — to expand stem biographies (particularly women and people of color in math & engineering) in wikipedia through instruction-led student research projects to include stem pioneers "w…
Largest: $225,500 to THE GRADUATE CENTER FOUNDATION INC — to support an annual scientific biography fellowship at the leon levy center for biography that will result in three new major biographies of scientists and/or technologists
Largest: $70,000 to FUND FOR THE GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIPS — fellowship in either fiction, general nonfiction, or biography for a woman or a person of color
Largest: $75,000 to SHERRIE RUSSELL-BROWN — to conduct research for a biography on american civil rights theorist professor lani guinier
Largest: $37,500 to PETER J FILKINS — a biography of ingeborg bachmann
Largest: $10,000 to DARIEN LIBRARY — electronic audio books on biographies and history
Largest: $50,000 to UNIVERSIDAD SIGLO 21 — a biography exploring scientific history through the life of biologist dr. david d. sabatini
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine ArtsChicago, IL
3 matching grants · $15,000 · through 2023Largest: $5,000 to Anahi Alviso-Marino & Nel Beloufa — monument stories: cities of the gulf and the arabian peninsula through monument biographies
Largest: $26,000 to JOHNSON LEGACY INCORPORATED — bennie williams biography
Largest: $11,034 to Wallstein Verlag — grant to support publication of chaos & irrsinn and reissue of marwedel biography
Largest: $200,000 to MOUNT VERNON LADIES FOUNDATION — support the rehabilitation of the exhibition on george washington's biography
Largest: $135,000 to Olmsted Network — to support john olmsted biography & mission of network.
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Source: IRS Form 990-PF Part XV and Form 990 Schedule I, tax years 2019–2025. These are grants already paid, a record of what an organization funds rather than an open call. Private foundations rarely accept unsolicited applications and the route in is usually a program officer; grantmaking charities and associations more often run real application cycles, so check their website. How this data is built, and its limits →