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 “thinking”
Where the money went
John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation (Consolidated)Chicago, IL
80 matching grants · $34.0M · through 2024Largest: $500,000 to Nobel Prize Education Fund — to pilot the global program for scientific critical thinking.
Largest: $300,000 to THE CENTURY FOUNDATION — core support for the disability economic justice collaborative, an initiative bringing together leading disability advocacy organizations with think tanks and research organization…
Largest: $100,000 to NETWORK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN OF AFRICAN DESCENT — support think different do different fellowship model replication initiative
Largest: $368,300 to DUKE U SANFORD SCH OF PUB POL — 79190 launching a food justice think tank of community organizers and researchers to address food system inequities
Largest: $475,000 to OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE - SOFIA FOUNDATION — to enhance the process of the european union enlargement through supporting think tanks in europe to perform and exchange relevant policy research
Wk Kellogg FoundationBattle Creek, MI
12 matching grants · $2.1M · through 2022Largest: $300,000 to ARCADIA UNIVERSITY — provide core support for the center for antiracist scholarship, advocacy and action of arcadia university to provide an academic center that brings together individuals, and commun…
Largest: $200,000 to NOBEL PRIZE EDUCATION FUND — for support of the global program for scientific critical thinking education
Largest: $255,000 to START SMALL THINK BIG INC — to provide general operating support
Largest: $525,000 to THINK OF US — to support establishment of a prevention-focused learning collaborative for 16 jurisdictions led by the child welfare transformation initiative, a sponsored project of think of us
Largest: $75,000 to LOS ANGELES BROTHERHOOD CRUSADE - BLACK UNITED FUND INC — under its energy efficiencies and sustainability banner, brotherhood crusade looks to empower youth to lead the charge in establishing more environmntally-friendly schools and neig…
Offerdahl Family FoundationIncline Village, NV
11 matching grants · $281,000 · through 2025Largest: $67,000 to COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE — the competitive enterprise institute (cei) is a non-profit libertarian think tank that advocates for limited government and free markets. cei's mission is to promote economic freed…
Conrad N Hilton FoundationWestlake Village, CA
8 matching grants · $2.3M · through 2024Largest: $1.4M to THINK OF US — to support the center for lived experience, a national research center integrating insights, data, and leadership of people with lived experience to redesign the child welfare syst…
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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 →