Proposal Guidelines: Higher Learning

1. Information on the proposed grant and organization

2. A proposal narrative document that provides information on the proposed work

3. Supplemental documents

4. A budget and budget description outlining how funds would be spent

All information, including document attachments and the budget, should be submitted directly through the Fluxx grants portal. In addition to the application requirements presented here, additional information may be requested.

Applicants should review and be familiar with the Foundation’s grantmaking policies and guidelines and crediting guidelines. Please note that the Mellon Foundation is a non-profit organization, and as such we are nonpartisan. The Foundation makes grants designated for charitable and/ or educational purposes and grant applications and other communications should always be in alignment with those purposes. If the applicant’s proposal is approved by the Mellon Foundation, the grantee will be required to enter into a standard grant agreement with the Foundation before the grant is funded. This grant agreement and the finalized proposal establish the terms of the grant.

Tipping: Please note that proposed grants that are large relative to the total income of your organization could impact your organization’s ability to satisfy the public support test for public charity status. Additional resources about this matter can be found here: https://www.ngosource.org/blog/an-introduction-to-public-support-tests.

Does the proposed grant include the creation of content or other work products, such as audio or video works (including podcasts, films, and oral history and other recordings), databases, software, digitization of works, books, white papers, or other digital content?

If yes, please describe those content outputs or work products and note whether the content or work products will be distributed or made available for educational or charitable purposes. Please also describe:

Will you be documenting the grant with any visuals, such as photography, or other archival materials? If so, the Foundation may be interested in requesting copies for its records and to promote the grant.

In a bulleted list, please provide the outputs of the primary grant activities described in the “planned activities” section of your proposal narrative document. Outputs of grants may include, for example: positions and their respective levels (e.g., postdoctoral fellows), academic resources (e.g., courses developed), publications, convenings, or formal agreements (e.g., MOUs, articulation agreements). Please include an expected count of each output that will result as part of the proposed project. For example, “Postdoctoral fellows: 5”. [Bulleted list].

Please upload a Word document to the documents section in Fluxx that responds to the questions below. You are welcome to provide separate answers to each individual question or to draft a cohesive narrative that incorporates answers to all questions. The proposal narrative should be no more than 5-7 pages.

If helpful, you may repurpose language from other relevant proposals, including documents previously submitted to Mellon. You may include visuals, infographics, tables, and bulleted lists directly within the Word document. Likewise, we hope you will be able to use this proposal narrative for other purposes.

*This question is not required for colleges and universities.

**For fiscally sponsored grants, please include a brief statement that indicates this proposal is being submitted by the fiscal sponsor to support the sponsored project.

If applicable:

The budget should be in local currency and include all spendable funds requested from the Foundation for the proposed grant. The budget should not include projected interest or investment income, funds requested for cash reserves or endowments, or project costs that would not be funded by the Foundation. Please ensure that the budget has been reviewed by someone at your organization who is responsible for financial reporting.

The budget description should summarize the costs included in each expenditure category. Please only enter the information requested; there is no need to provide additional substantiation or details. If there are multiple expenses or expenses for more than one budget period within the same category, please provide sub-totals. If it is helpful to provide supporting calculations in a spreadsheet format, a supplementary file may be uploaded with the proposal documents.

Please note that the Foundation’s program areas may not fund certain types of grant activities. For information on what program areas do and do not fund, please visit the Foundation’s website.

The Foundation uses set expenditure categories (listed below). Up to five additional custom categories can be added for each proposal. If the proposal is accepted, financial reporting must follow the same expenditure categories outlined in the grant budget.

A budget should be added for each reporting period, with the name of the period (e.g., Year 1) and the start and end dates of the period clearly indicated. Reporting periods are typically one year long but can vary, if needed. There should be no gaps between budget periods.

Salaries, wages, and benefits: Please indicate the title, base salary or hourly wages, the number of people and/or the FTE percentage allocation, benefit calculations, and any anticipated periodic increases for each position funded by the proposed grant (e.g., Program Director: $100,000 / yr base salary, 20% benefit cost, 50% allocation to the project for 2 years, 3% increase in year 2 = $121,800).

Note: Funding for fellowships, artist fees, and consultants should be presented within the corresponding expenditure categories below.

Fellowships and residencies: Please indicate the base salary or stipend amount, the number of people in each position and/or the FTE percentage allocation, and any benefit calculations for each fellow, resident, or scholarship funded by the proposed grant (e.g., Example Fellowship: $50,000/yr base salary, 20% benefit cost, 2 fellows/yr for 3 years = $360,000).

Artist fees: Please indicate the rate of compensation, name o f artist(s) if known, and number of artists, and what fees would be used for. If exact amounts are not yet known or finalized, please provide an estimate. If artists are on salary (receiving W-2s), the related expense should be included in the Salaries, Wages, and Benefits category, but if artists are receiving 1099 tax forms, the expense should be included in this category (Artist Fees).

Consultants and other professional services: Please provide the names (if known) of third parties such as consultants, vendors, honoraria, or other third parties, the total amount budgeted for each, the services they will provide, and whether agreements are existing or anticipated. If applicable, please also indicate whether amounts are based on a fixed price, or hourly or per diem rate, and whether anticipated travel or other additional expenses are included. In addition, the Proposal Narrative document should elaborate further on the roles and responsibilities of consultants and vendors. For grants where a significant portion of the budget will be paid to a third party, please also refer to the Foundation’s “Guidelines for Grants Involving Consultants and/or Contractors” on our website.

Subgrants/regrants: Please indicate the names and amounts of funds allocated for each subgrant recipient and/or the amounts expected to be awarded to each organization and/or individual regrant recipient. In addition, the Proposal Narrative document should elaborate further on the roles and responsibilities of any subgrantees.

Conferences, meetings, and travel: Please provide a breakdown of the costs for expenses for registration, facility fees, meals, transportation or mileage reimbursements, lodging, and/or per diem payments. Please also note the activity/event and the number of people attending and/or traveling. Travel costs should be reasonable and in accordance with your organization’s internal policies.

Promotion, marketing, and advertising: Please describe any promotion, marketing, or advertising expenses that are directly attributable to the proposed project.

Equipment and supplies: Please describe any equipment or supplies expenses that are directly attributable to the proposed project.

Construction costs: All construction budgets should include a line item or percentage for contingency. Funding for equipment/supplies and consultants/other professional services that are associated with construction projects should be presented within those expenditure categories.

Indirect costs: Generally, the Foundation will fund indirect costs at a rate of 20% of direct costs for all spendable project support grants, with certain exceptions. This rate is calculated based on the total direct costs and not on the total amount to be awarded. Indirect costs do not need to be quantified or described in the budget description; this section can be left blank. Please also note the following:

Administrative costs (Colleges and universities only): Colleges and universities may include up to 10% of the grant amount for funding towards administrative costs that are directly attributable to grant activities—for example, occupancy costs, institutional administrative fees, and/or salary support for specific foundation relations or finance personnel’s direct work on the grant. Please specify how these funds would be allocated and indicate the amounts appropriated to each.

Fiscal sponsor fees: If this is a fiscally sponsored project, please describe the rate at which fiscal sponsor fees would be calculated.

Custom budget categories: You can create up to five custom budget categories to describe the amount and purpose of costs that do not fit within any of the budget categories provided above. Please add the custom budget category name to each grant budget period, even if there is no expenditure in that period.

Updated March 2025