Presidential Initiatives

# We make grants through signature initiatives.

## Imagining Freedom

A $125 million commitment to support artistic, cultural, and humanistic work that centers the voices and knowledge of people impacted by the US criminal legal system. 

[Learn more about Imagining Freedom](https://www.mellon.org/article/imagining-freedom-initiative)

## Puerto Rico
An ongoing commitment to strengthen Puerto Rico’s vibrant artistic, cultural knowledge, and memory ecosystems, and the individuals who work within them, both on the archipelago and in the diaspora, with more than $50 million in grants to date.

[Learn more about our Puerto Rico grantmaking](https://www.mellon.org/article/puerto-rico-initiative)

## The Monuments Project
A $500 million commitment to transform the nation’s commemorative landscape by supporting public projects that reflect the breadth and complexity of American stories and communities.

[Learn more about The Monuments Project](https://www.mellon.org/article/the-monuments-project-initiative)

# How to apply
Through our Presidential Initiatives, Mellon makes grants to organizations. Mellon does not make grants directly to individuals, although we do support regranting programs that benefit individuals. We welcome inquiries from organizations whose work aligns with our current initiatives and strategies. We review inquiries, which can be submitted via our Grants Portal, on a rolling basis.

Please do not send inquiries to more than one Mellon grantmaking area. If you already have an account on Fluxx, please contact program staff directly.

Guiding strategies

An illustration of a person's head with a tree growing out of it.

Proposal Guidelines: Presidential Initiatives 

The Ireichō, a sacred book that records the names of over 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were unjustly imprisoned during World War II. On the wall behind the book are sotoba (wooden markers) with the names of and soil from each incarceration site. The installation is at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Carlos Jaramillo for the Mellon Foundation

A book sits open on a table in front of a navy blue wall with Japanese writing written on wooden planks

Launched in 2020, the Monuments Project supports projects that promote a fuller telling of the American story in public commemorative spaces.

The Monuments Project

Nearly half of American adults have a relative who has spent time in jail or prison; about 20 percent of children have a parent who is or has been incarcerated.

Jesse Krimes: “Purgatory” (detail), 2009. Image transfers, prison-issued soap, toothpaste, playing cards. Artwork © Jesse Krimes 

An artwork comprised of dozens of bars of prison-issued soap, on which an artist has transfered faces from a newspaper.

Strategic priorities the Presidential Initiative, which supports organizations that foster expression, creativity, and ideas from people who are impacted by the criminal legal system.

Imagining Freedom

Artists and young people sit together at a table where they are using hands to shape faces made of art materials.

Information about the Puerto Rico Presidential Initiative, working with organizations to strengthen and sustain the cultural infrastructure, on the island and across the diaspora. 



Puerto Rico

The arts and humanities can move our interconnected communities closer to justice.

The Foundation’s Presidential Initiatives support a wide range of creativity, culture, and knowledge production and dissemination in defined topical areas. Our three current initiatives are grounded in the arts and humanities and address some of the most pressing issues of the day.

Across our grantmaking, we partner with organizations, governments, and community-based groups to advance projects that elevate multivocal perspectives, facilitate creative expression, and nurture human potential.

Artists as Catalysts

Artists as Catalysts Navigation Image

Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Borderlands Cultures

In portrait orientation, an aerial view of a major highway running parallel to a large border wall set on a hilly landscape

Civic Engagement

A man in a brown jacket stands in front of blue bulletin board that is covered with papers and advertisements  

Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Expanding Public Knowledge

An interior room filled with audio and video equipment 

Monuments and Memory

A multicolored painted totem pole set in front of a foggy forest landscape

Multivocality

Five people stand together in a group photo. They are laughing and smiling.

Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 

Guiding strategies

We make grants through signature initiatives.

Imagining Freedom

Puerto Rico

The Monuments Project

How to apply

Grantmaking in focus