MacArthur Foundation

OVERVIEW: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s grantmaking spans a range of interests including climate change, democracy, criminal justice reform, programs in Nigeria, nuclear challenges, racial equity, journalism and more. MacArthur also funds nonprofits and participates in funding collaboratives in the larger Chicago area, where the foundation is based.

IP TAKE: The MacArthur Foundation is an iconic funder that makes hundreds of grants per year. In recent years MacArthur has been known for its “Big Bet” approach to grantmaking, as it directed significant funding to a small selection of causes. However, MacArthur’s current Big Bets are winding down and will formally end in 2026, as explored here by IP’s Mike Scutari. The foundation is expected to roll out information about new grantmaking interests in the coming years. Under the leadership of current president John Palfrey, MacArthur has increased its commitment to equity and DEI practices and has simplified its grant application and reporting processes. Often evolving quickly, one IP reporter noted that the MacArthur Foundation is “no stranger to changing course.”

MacArthur is an accessible funder; it accepts letters of inquiry on a rolling basis, though the website cautions that very few grants are awarded as a result of unsolicited inquiries. This funder is not only responsive to emerging and evolving issues, but it also plans, executes and disseminates structured evaluations of its grantmaking initiatives, using this information to inform future programs. Grantseekers can peruse MacArthur’s detailed grants database for an understanding of the type of work that it has recently funded.

PROFILE: With assets of over $8 billion, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the biggest and best-known philanthropic organizations in the United States. It maintains the broad and far-reaching mission of “building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.” The Chicago-based foundation was established in 1970 by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, who owned the Bankers Life and Casualty insurance company and a significant amount of real estate in Chicago, Florida and New York City. Since its founding it has made approximately $8 billion in grants, gifts and investments.

The foundation’s grantmaking is organized into areas of interest that warrant different types and durations of support.

Big Bets are “time-limited investments in grantmaking with the potential for transformative change.” Commitments include Climate Solutions, Criminal Justice, Local News, Nuclear Challenges and development in Nigeria.
The foundation’s Enduring Commitments are “long-standing, deep, and unwavering areas of work.” Grants support racial equity and inclusivity in Chicago and independent Journalism & Media in the U.S.
Field Support focuses on “[b]uilding and strengthening fields that ensure our impact and effectiveness.” These include Impact Investments in “social and environmental challenges around the world,” support for organizations that are “devoted to improving the practice of Philanthropy,” and support for research and policy for Technology in the Public Interest.
MacArthur also names Initiatives to “respond to emerging challenges and explore new areas and ways of working.” These include Equitable Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and areas of New Work “guided by our values and mission.”
Finally, the foundation may be best known for its awards programs. The iconic MacArthur Fellows program is awarded annually to more than 20 individuals, recognizing exceptional creative potential with “no-strings-attached fellowships.” A newer program, 100&Change, runs every four years and awards a single organization with a “$100 million grant to fund a single proposal that promises real and measurable progress in solving a critical problem of our time.”

The MacArthur Foundation’s interests evolve continually and are shaped in part by the foundation’s systematic evaluation of its giving and engagements. For each of its grantmaking initiatives and signature programs, the foundation “develop[s] customized evaluation designs” that inform future programming. Moreover, the foundation shares these findings publicly on its searchable Evaluations page, which has become both a model of transparency and an important source of information for grantseekers, nonprofits and others.

Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy

Climate has been one of the MacArthur Foundation’s largest areas of giving over the past decade. Giving stems from both the Big Bets and Impact Investment programs.

Climate Solutions is one of MacArthur’s Big Bets for timely and significant impact. The program makes grants to “[e]nsure that the Earth stays well below a two-degree Celsius temperature increase to avoid catastrophic global effects.”
- Specific areas of focus include advocacy, policy development, support for climate-related laws and regulations and “expanding financing” for climate solutions.
- Since beginning this work in 2014, the foundation has made over $500 million in climate grants.
- MacArthur’s Climate Solution’s grantees include Chicago’s Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, the Great Plains Institute for Sustainable Development, the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and the Swaniti Initiative.
- This program is not currently accepting proposals for funding, but the foundation invites grantseekers to contact staff at climatesolutions@macfound.org “to share new ideas and perspectives.”
- It is worth noting that this Big Bet program will come to a close in 2026.
The foundation also invests in climate change solutions via its Impact Investments program, which names “environmental challenges” as one of its main priorities.
- This program makes “patient, and risk-tolerant investments” in promising work that “more conventional investors consider too risky, unprofitable, or novel.”
- A significant portion of climate funding is channeled through the program’s Catalytic Capital Consortium, which the foundation describes as “investment, learning, and market development initiative bringing together leading impact investors to encourage greater impact and use of catalytic capital.”
- This program is not accepting unsolicited proposals, but the foundation invites contact via email at nbarksdale@macfound.org.

Grants for Global Development, Global Health, Human Rights and Democracy

MacArthur’s Big Bets and Impact Investing programs also work globally in the areas of development, health and human rights. MacArthur intersects much of its work on these fronts rather than dedicating individual programs to these funding areas.

One of the foundation’s Big Bets initiatives focuses on Nigeria, where it funds “Nigerian-led efforts that strengthen accountability, transparency, and participation.”
- Areas of focus here include independent and investigative journalism, criminal justice, support for civil society organizations and collaborating with religious and cultural leaders to “to produce and share compelling content about corruption and the cost of corruption to Nigerian communities.”
- This program does not accept unsolicited proposals, but the foundation provides grant guidelines on its website and invites relevant organizations to reach out via email at onnigeria@macfound.org with an introduction.
- The foundation plans to unwind its commitment to Nigeria by the end of 2024.
Global funding also stems from MacArthur’s Impact Investments program.
- Investments work broadly to fund issues named in the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals including but not limited to Indigenous Entrepreneurship and sustainable solutions to poverty.
- Giving consists of “below-market loans, equity, guarantees, and other financial instruments.”
- Grant and investment guidelines are linked to the program page. While this program does not accept proposals, grant and/or investment seekers may email the program at nbarksdale@macfound.org “to share new ideas and perspectives.”

Grants for Journalism

The MacArthur Foundation conceives of independent journalism as an essential component of democracy and a vital means of “informing, engaging, and activating Americans.” MacArthur names journalism as a main area of focus for both the Big Bets and Enduring Commitments programs.

Big Bets names Local News as a grantmaking priority. This subprogram acknowledges the “steady disappearance” of independent and trusted local news outlets and the “economic, structural, technological, and cultural challenges that have contributed to its decline.”
- In response to these dramatic changes in the news and media landscape, the foundation created Press Forward, a coalition of funders that works “to dramatically strengthen and expand local news in America.”
- Launched in 2023, the initiative has committed to investing $500 million “to revitalize local news” over five years. Still in its earliest stages, grantmaking stemming from this program will adhere to three strategies.
The MacArthur Foundation also names Journalism & Media as one of the foundation’s Enduring Commitments. The initiative focuses on “[s]trengthening democracy and building a more equitable future by informing, engaging, and activating Americans through deep investments in just and inclusive news and narratives.”
- The foundation specifies professional nonprofit reporting, nonfiction multimedia storytelling, and participatory civic media as preferred media and makes grants that pursue three strategies.
- Funding will help to “[b]uild strong, independent, and sustainable organizations and networks” and contribute to a “media infrastructure” that is able to “meet the democratic ideals of a multiracial, multiethnic America.”
- While this program does not accept grant applications it does post guidelines and welcomes contact from grantseekers and others at journalismandmedia@macfound.org.

Grants for Racial Justice, Criminal Justice Reform and Chicago

While MacArthur prioritizes marginalized groups and communities across all areas of engagement, racial justice has figured more prominently in the foundation’s engagements over the past several years, with several initiatives focusing specifically on equity, justice and inclusive development.

The foundation’s long-term Chicago Commitment focuses on “people, places, and partnerships to advance racial equity and build a more inclusive Chicago.” Giving centers on four types of local organizations:
- Grants for Culture, Equity and the Arts provide general operating support to arts and cultural organizations that represent the “strong core of arts and culture organizations, large and small, that represent the diversity of artistic disciplines.”
- Civic Partnership is a subprogram where MacArthur partners with public and private organizations “to address critical or timely challenges” to equity and inclusivity in Chicago.
  - Areas of engagement have included gun violence and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
  - The foundation also worked collaboratively to help establish a public library on location at the Obama Presidential Center and joined with several other iconic foundations to acquire photographic archives of Ebony and Jet magazines for donation to museums and libraries with broad public access.
  - This program generally accepts LOIs by invitation, but invites interested parties to submit brief descriptions of their work via the foundation’s application portal.
  - Guidelines are provided on the program’s webpage.
- The Vital Communities subprogram supports several “place-based initiatives and organizations that provide infrastructure support to neighborhoods.”
  - The program focuses on the development and needs of historically marginalized communities with responsive investments that improve quality of life for residents.
  - The foundation links application guidelines to the program page and accepts “self nominations” from organizations through the foundation’s application portal.
- The Advancing Leadership program works to “advance equity by expanding access to a wide range of leadership opportunities and by fostering conditions that recognize and support people who bring diverse experiences and perspectives to leadership positions.”
  - The program seeks to develop talented individuals from marginalized groups in Chicago across the foundation’s interest areas of Culture, Equity, and the Arts; Vital Communities; and Civic Partnerships.
  - In addition to grantmaking, this program runs learning and networking programs for grantees and other participants.
  - Grantseekers and others may “submit a brief description of their leadership program” to the foundation via its application portal at any time.
MacArthur names Criminal Justice as one of its Big Bets for timely and intense support. This initiative, which the foundation expects to wind down in 2025, works nationally “to address over-incarceration and racial and ethnic disparities by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails.”
- A signature program, the Safety and Justice Challenge, is a “network” of U.S. cities and counties “implementing a wide variety of strategies all aimed at reducing jail populations and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities.”
  - Strategies for this initiative include “local reform, research, experimentation, and communications to create national demand for local justice reforms that will safely reduce jail populations and eliminate racial and ethnic disparities.”
  - This program is no longer accepting applications, but organizations and municipalities may contact the program via email at etwyman@macfound.org with questions and ideas.
Technology in the Public Interest, one of MacArthur’s Field Support issues, focuses on “the social impact of technology” with the broad goal of “connect[ing] people, organizations, and networks working to advance equity and justice in the digital age.”
- Areas of giving include but are not limited to research, advocacy and policy development for a “technology ecosystem” that does not replicate power structures that have marginalized and excluded groups of people throughout history.
- A significant portion of this giving prioritizes advancing marginalized communities as stakeholders and decision makers in “the development, governance, and use of technology.”
- This program does not accept applications for funding but welcomes “new ideas and perspectives” via email at tpi@macfound.org.
Finally, MacArthur’s Equitable Recovery program works in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis “to improve the critical systems that individuals and communities need to thrive.” Equitable Recovery represents a commitment of “$125 million in social bonds to fund a one-time set of grants that support an equitable recovery by addressing the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and structural racism.” This program names four main funding priorities.
- The foundation makes grants for Racial Justice Field Support With a Focus On Combatting Anti-Blackness. These grants target Black-led organizations and movement building and place a strong focus on “reparations and racial healing as issues that philanthropy meaningfully helps to address.”
- Another focus area of the recovery program involves the Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples. These grants aim to “inform” recovery in Indigenous communities with the “priorities, culture, and practices of Indigenous peoples.
- Grantmaking for Public Health Equity and Covid-19 Mitigation and Recovery supports health equity with eye toward post-COVID “models, policies, and infrastructure” and increased “community engagement, vaccine confidence, and accountability.”
- Finally, the Equitable Housing Demonstration Project works to address homelessness and housing instability broadly “by generating an array of solutions that can permanently end the use of jails and prisons as housing of last resort.”

Equitable Recovery appears to have made its last grants in 2022, but the foundation has not named a definitive end to this grantmaking program.

Grants for Global Security

MacArthur’s Nuclear Challenge program, one of its Big Bets, represented a “three-year, $30 million capstone investment” that culminated decades of giving for the reduction of global nuclear risk. This program made its final grants in 2023.

Grantmaking targeted “a research network to challenge nuclear deterrence theory” and organizations and research that “sustain critical nuclear dialogues.”
These grants aimed to broaden MacArthur’s past nuclear work to include “dialogue about the role of nuclear power as a climate solution.”

Among the foundation’s final grantees in this area are Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Federation of American Scientists and Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution.

Grants for Nonprofit Sustainability

The foundation names Philanthropy as an area of focus for its Field Support program. Grantmaking and engagement aim to support “organizations that are devoted to improving the practice of philanthropy, strengthening the sector, and advocating and defending the sector at the local, state, and national levels.”

Grants provide both general operating and project support and have gone to organizations and philanthropic collectives of all sizes.
The foundation has made multi-year commitments to organizations including Borealis Philanthropy, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, the World Affairs Council of Northern California and the Innovation Network.
Shorter-term grants have supported the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Panorama Global of Seattle and Funders for LGBTQ Issues in New York.

The foundation does not provide contact or application information for this area of engagement. Network with one of the foundation’s past philanthropy grantees to get involved with this work.

Other Grantmaking Opportunities:

In addition to its many grantmaking and investment programs, the MacArthur Foundation runs two prestigious awards programs.

The MacArthur Fellows program, known as the Genius Grant, is an “$800,000, no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential.” The foundation does not limit the fields or disciplines from which candidates are selected; recent winners have represented the arts, sciences, social sciences, humanities, entrepreneurship and education, to name a few.
- For detailed information about the selection process, see the program’s How Fellows Are Chosen and FAQ pages.
- For profiles of past and recent winners, see the Fellows page. The award usually goes to between 20 and 25 individuals each year.
The foundation’s 100&Change award is a “competition for a $100 million grant to fund a single proposal that promises real and measurable progress in solving a critical problem of our time.” IP reports on the award’s latest competition in 2024.
- Every four years, MacArthur accepts proposals that “address a significant problem and provide a solution that is impactful, evidence-based, feasible, and durable.”
- Applications are vetted and reviewed by separate panels of peers and and experts. While only one organizations wins the $100 million grant, the proposals of all finalists receive significant publicity via the MacArthur Foundation’s website and media.
- To review the proposals and work of past winners and finalists, see the program’s Award Recipients page.
- The next application round began in 2024, and additional information about the program is available in the FAQ and News sections of the program site.

Important Grant Details:

The MacArthur Foundation’s grants range from about $10,000 to tens of millions, supporting organizations and institutions of all sizes.

MacArthur’s grantmaking programs are evolving to respond to changing needs and issues in the foundation’s areas of interest.
The foundation makes grants for both general operating and project support. It also works collaboratively with its grantees and with other funders toward concrete goals and benchmarks.
As a part of its grantmaking process, this funder articulates specific goals and conducts detailed, planned evaluations of its work to assess the effectiveness of grantmaking and engagement.
This funder maintains a searchable database of past grantees.
While most programs do not accept unsolicited proposals for funding, almost all of MacArthur’s programs welcome contact from organizations working in fields of interest. Program pages generally provide email addresses for this purpose.

General inquiries may be submitted to the MacArthur Foundation via its contact page.

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