Inquiries and Guidelines

Inquiries

The Foundation encourages institutions to consider their ability to contribute to and sustain programs they seek to launch with Foundation support.  Institutional eligibility is determined by staff on the basis of criteria established over several decades.  For grants in the collaborative/cross-institutional category of the higher-education program, staff pay special attention to inquiries that link the projects of existing grantees to institutions not previously supported by the Foundation.  

The Foundation makes grants to institutions and organizations, not to individuals.  All grants result from invitations issued by the Foundation to institutions with which staff have engaged in preliminary exchanges.  Uninvited proposals cannot be considered.  Inquiries about possibilities for support should not be sent to more than one Foundation program.  If you already have an account on the Foundation's grantee portal, please contact program staff directly.  Otherwise, please submit an initial inquiry through the Foundation's grantee portal at https://mellon.fluxx.io.

In addition to overhead, indirect costs, and capital costs (construction, renovation, equipment), the Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities program does not fund projects in the social sciences or STEM fields, endowment management fees, one-off conferences, and undergraduate tuition, financial aid, or study abroad opportunities.

Grantmaking Policies and Guidelines

Please see the Foundation's grantmaking policies and guidelines for more information regarding the submission of proposals, annual reporting requirements, and grant modification procedures.

Other Funding Opportunities

The Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities program supports a number of fellowship programs, some of which are managed by other organizations.