OVERVIEW: The Autodesk Foundation awards disaster response and relief grants, in-kind donations, and employee volunteers to help recovery efforts.
IP TAKE: Autodesk seeks innovative organizations with dynamic leaders and teams to carry out disaster response and relief work. Smaller and grassroots outfits should note that this funder tends to back larger international organizations.
This funder likes to put it’s full weight behind the grantees it chooses to fund. It offers a full package of support, which includes in-kind software donations, subsidized training, and pro bono employee expertise. This is an open-minded and supportive funder that likes to help grantees scale. To meet these funding goals, Autodesk takes an incubator approach to giving by providing “risk capital directly to nonprofits and social impact startups in the form of grant funding and investments (equity and debt).” The foundation also funds “accelerators, incubators, and impact funds to bolster the growth of the entire field” to help ecosystems of giving scale.
It’s relatively accessible, but it’s going to require grantseekers to reach out, fill out the foundation’s questionnaire provided below, and some contact. However, expect response delays since this corporate foundation comes with some red tape, common for corporate funders.
PROFILE: The Autodesk Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the software company of the same name. The foundation supports “organizations taking on humanity’s biggest challenges” and responds to global calamities with grants, in-kind donations, and volunteers.
Grants for Climate Change, Humanitarian and Disaster Relief and Global Health
In it’s efforts to “Build Back Better,” the Autodesk Foundation seeks to “build global Autodesk-centric solutions using technology, design, and engineering” to address humanmade and natural disasters, unrest and global pandemics. While the foundation does not have a separate giving program for climate change issues, it appears to give grants to organizations whose work focuses on humanitarian or disaster aid spurred by climate change pressures. Overall, Autodesk likes to use technology to prevent or lessen impact from various disasters.
Autodesk invests in a range of organizations around the world. In particular, it seeks organizations that, according to it’s site:
Champion innovative solutions to address climate change and inequality
Develop unique solutions that have a path to scale
Demonstrate qualified, visionary leadership, and a skilled team
Maintain a commitment to measuring and managing toward the impact of their work
In this light, the Autodesk Foundation, rather than maintain clear programs, invests in evolving initiatives that center on “Energy & materials, Health & resilience, and Work & prosperity.”
Recent tax filings suggest this funder backs Disaster Response and recovery efforts more often than humanitarian crises.
The Autodesk Foundation makes grants through three programs, beyond it’s initiatives:
Important Grant Details:
Grants typically range from $10,000 to $20,000, and Autodesk does not make a large number of awards each year. In the past, the foundation has offered support in the wake of the Nepal earthquake, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and the Ebola crisis in Africa. To learn more about organizations receiving Autodesk support, explore its grantees page.
The Autodesk Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding. Instead, it uses its “extensive network” to seek out suitable grantees.
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