OVERVIEW: The Heising-Simons Foundation supports climate and clean energy, education, human rights, local and emerging opportunities and science. Early childhood is the focus of its education program, while its human rights grants focus on women and girls, people involved in the criminal justice system and undocumented communities.
IP TAKE: This funder works mainly with established organizations that are “at the forefront of their fields.” While this foundation is not particularly accessible, it is approachable, progressive and forward-thinking, so don’t hesitate to contact them to learn more about how its grantmaking is evolving.
PROFILE: The Heising-Simons Foundation was established in 2007 by Mark Heising, a computer chip design engineer who holds six U.S. patents, and his wife, Liz Simons, an educator. The foundation is based in Los Altos, California, and aims to “advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of our youngest learners and support human rights for all people.” Its funding programs are climate and clean energy, education, human rights, community and opportunity and science.
Grants for Climate Change
The Heising-Simons Foundation’s climate and clean energy program focuses on protecting the “people and planet from the worst impacts of climate change by accelerating the transition to a clean energy future.” It supports organizations that help to advance policies to effect large-scale progress in “curbing pollution, and to ensure that a low-carbon future is a prosperous one for the most vulnerable communities.” The foundation does so by primarily funding efforts in the U.S. focused on four strategic areas:
Advancing climate policy to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Transforming the energy sectors that are the primary source of pollution.
Cutting the most potent pollutants, such as methane.
Seizing time-sensitive opportunities to achieve large-scale emission reductions.
Past climate change grantees include the Environmental Defense Fund, which received support for its work advancing climate and clean energy policies; and the Clean Air Task Force, which received funding for its work reducing methane emissions in the U.S. and Canada.
Grants for Early Childhood Education
The Heising-Simons Foundation’s education program seeks to “facilitate the creation and strengthening of early childhood systems necessary for children from low-income families and children of color to reach their full potential.” Education funding is directed toward organizations working in the state of California and nationally and prioritizes programs serving young children from birth through third grade. Current education sub-initiatives include stabilizing the early childhood education workforce, data for action, effective governance and financing of state early childhood education systems, support for emerging bilingual learners, family and community math, families lead California and creating coherent early math instruction in California. Through its workforce initiative, the foundation works toward developing public policy and infrastructure that support the early childhood education profession. The data in action and math instruction programs both work with agencies and organizations in the state of California. Data in action supports children’s public service agencies, while the foundation’s math instruction program aims to provide quality math instruction to all low-income and minority students in California’s schools. Past grantees include the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, the Ounce of Prevention Fund and Education First Consulting, which used funding to bring research-based English language learning practices to early childhood education settings in California.
Grants for Human Rights, Immigrants, and Criminal Justice
The Heising-Simons Foundation’s human rights program supports long-term, sustainable changes that advance equal rights in political, social, and economic matters for people in the United States and abroad. It supports organizations that defend and advocate for people that have been denied “full and equal rights and participation in the political, social, and economic institutions that shape their lives.” The foundation is particularly interested in an intersectional approach to “undocumented communities, people impacted by the justice system, and women and girls.” The foundation offers both project-specific and general operating support grants. For example, Human Rights Watch received support for its programs in criminal justice and immigration in the U.S., as well as women’s rights programs worldwide, while the Fund for Global Human Rights has received grants for general support in the past.
Grants for Science Research
The Heising-Simons Foundation’s science program prioritizes fundamental research, with an emphasis on the physical sciences. The foundation’s three-part funding approach involves “enabling basic scientific research, connecting key stakeholders, and communicating scientific results.” Specific areas of grantmaking programs include Astronomy & Cosmology, Climate Change Science, Fundamental Physics, and Women in Physics and Astronomy. The latter program supports efforts to improve the institutional climate for female scientists, build networks of support systems, and collect data on best practices for gender equality in academia. Its grants primarily go to highly regarded academic institutions and scientific research facilities such as Yale University and the California Association for Research in Astronomy.
Grants for Journalism
The Heising-Simons Foundation awards grants for journalism through its local community and opportunity program. It supports “key organizations and leaders in investigative journalism” that fight for freedom of the press and “elevate underrepresented voices and content in mainstream media.” The foundation also awards the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, an unrestricted cash grant of up to $100,000 made to distinguished freelance journalists in order to “call attention to the recipients’ great promise, and to give them the freedom to continue their work.” The foundation has increased its funding for journalism since 2016. Journalism grantees include ProPublica, the Center for Investigative Reporting, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Future Media Group, and Northeastern University. The recent round of journalism grants also flows through Heising-Simons’ “special opportunities” grantmaking portfolio, which falls under its Community program area.
Other
The Heising-Simons Foundation’s local community and opportunity program include miscellaneous giving initiatives that do not fall into its other grantmaking categories. Local Community grants serve the city of San Jose with grants to increase equity and opportunity for all residents. Organizational Effectiveness grants are awarded to current grantees in order to build capacity and develop leadership. The CEO Fund awards grants according to the interests of the current CEO, and has recently shown an interest in gun violence and disaster relief.
Important Grant Details:
Grants can range anywhere from $25,000 to over $2 million. The majority of grants, however, typically fall in the $50,000 to $250,000 range. For a broader sense of the types of organizations receiving funding from Heising-Simons and the kind of work grantees are conducting, explore the foundation’s searchable grants database.
Heising-Simons does not accept unsolicited letters of inquiry, proposals or requests for funding. General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation via email or its contact page.
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