Inquiries and Guidelines

Inquiries

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.  We are unable to consider uninvited proposals; however, staff welcome letters of inquiry regarding ideas that fall within the program and review them throughout the year.  Please do not send inquiries about possibilities for support to more than one Foundation program.  Before sending any material, send a brief inquiry by email to sc@mellon.org.  The inquiry should describe:  the project for which you are seeking funding; its scope, objectives, and significance; why you require external funding and what benefits you would achieve from such funding; the specific activities for which funding is being requested; and how much funding is needed.  We will let you know promptly whether the project fits with our current funding priorities.

Please note that in addition to overhead, indirect costs, and capital costs (construction, renovation, equipment), the Scholarly Communications program does not fund endowment management fees, student tuition, library acquisitions, or K–12 initiatives.

Grantmaking Policies and Guidelines

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

If the Scholarly Communications program has invited a proposal, please see our proposal guidelines.  If you are a current grantee, please see our guidelines for reporting and/or grant modification.

Other Funding Opportunities

The Scholarly Communications program supports a number of regranting programs.