Current Grantees

If your organization has received a grant from our Foundation in the last five years, please log in to our grantee community portal for more detailed guidelines and additional information needed to submit a grant request or report. If you need login assistance, please email us at grants@brownfoundation.org. For any questions about our guidelines, application requirements, or new or pending requests, please reach out to your grants officer.

Guidelines

We accept and review grant requests in four annual cycles. Please log in to the online portal for more details about your grant request history and what will be needed to submit your request.

We do not accept grant requests by post or email. All pre-applications and applications must be submitted via our online portal.

Our Foundation provides general operating, program, and capital grants to support Arts & Culture, Education, Human Services, Civic Assets, and Health and Medicine.

Requests of $1,000,000 or more are exclusively considered in Cycle 4 and must be submitted no later than our Cycle 4 submission deadline in January.

Organizations may only submit one grant request for review between July 1 and June 30.

Our Foundation does not make grants to: individuals; individual scholarship funds; endowments or endowment campaigns; debt retirement or to cover past operating deficits; any type of fundraising or marketing event; or any type of activity intended to support candidates for political office or influence legislation.

Requirements

All applicants will be required to provide the following information when submitting their application:

Mission statement
Narrative description of grant purpose
Narrative description of organizational strategy
Time-bound outcomes with clear targets
Operating budget; sources of revenue; other sources of contributed revenue
Information about your governing Board and contributions made by Board members
Financial documents: Most recent audited financials or 990; balance sheet for the most recently closed month
Tax ID number

Process

If you typically apply for and receive annual funding from The Brown Foundation Inc., you are no longer required to submit a pre-application. Please submit your full application by the deadline of the cycle in which you are applying.

Our staff will review your request and reach out to learn more as needed.
Once we have made a decision, our team will notify you.
If you have been awarded a grant, you will receive a grant agreement via DocuSign for review and signature. Once the signed agreement is received, we will process payment of the grant, typically within 30 days.

Timeline

We accept and review pre-applications in four annual cycles, listed below.

Cycle 1
- May 1, 2025 – May 31, 2025
Cycle 2
- July 1, 2025 – July 31, 2025
Cycle 3
- Oct 1, 2025 – Oct 31, 2025
Cycle 4
- Jan 1, 2026 – Jan 31, 2026

If you submit your pre-application outside of these cycles, your application will be reviewed but remain pending until the next cycle is opened.

FAQs

While best to reach out to your organization’s grants officer with any questions, below are our most frequently asked questions.

What is an appropriate request amount?

Many factors influence the size of grant awards, including: the scale of the organization and its budget; the age and maturity of the organization; prior relationship with the organization; program area; and more. To identify an appropriate request level, we recommend that you review our website for information about past grants. Foundation staff will share feedback on the rare occasion that a request amount needs to be revised.

What criteria are used to assess grant applications?

We assess several criteria to guide our decisions. Some primary factors are: alignment to our mission; organizational leadership and capacity; organizational strategy to work toward its mission; the impact the organization has on its constituents and the community; and organizational finances, including but not limited to Board giving.

Where can I find previously approved grant requests from my organization?

Previous grant requests are in the online grantee portal.

Do you provide emergency grants outside of the usual grant cycles?

Our Foundation does not make grants outside our four grant cycles—emergency or otherwise. Grantees can contact their grants officer about special circumstances or requests.

How should I notify you of changes to my organization (e.g., contact updates, change of address)?

Updating organizational information in the online grantee portal is the best way to notify us of changes. Feel free to email your grants officer about any significant organizational changes as well.

Where / how do I share additional information about our organization?

Our Foundation deeply values the impact grantees have in our community and understands that impact cannot always be captured in a grant application. As such we welcome the opportunity to speak with you and learn more about your work; feel free to reach out to a grants officer directly to schedule time to speak or email us at grants@brownfoundation.org.

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Access Grantee Portal

Access our grantee community portal to submit a new request, submit required reports, update your organization’s contact information, and to find previously approved requests.