Higher Learning

Registration deadline:

Higher Learning Institutions Exploring Democracy and Environmental and Social Justice 

How and what we fund

Frequently asked questions

In an abstract illustration, a figure stands before a large canvas with a circle. The illustration evokes a person standing in a gallery or other space and viewing a work of art before them.

Art and artists are essential to human connection.

Arts and Culture

An abstract illustration of a bird flying in the sky with clouds. The bird is made of folded, lined paper in an Origami style. 

An abstract illustration in which two human figures stand together in embrace in a deserted landscape space with hills or mountains visible in the background. A sun is in the sky. 

How and where we tell our stories matters.

Humanities in Place

An abstract image of a series of 18 door frames with open doors float. A line evoking a string connects then doors, and is tied on door knobs, wrapped around door frames, and other features.

Public Knowledge

Our four grantmaking areas

Grantmaking across all areas supports ideas and organizations that contribute to a more connected, creative, and just society.

Awarded in 2021

Mellon actively works with our grantee partners, and we are deeply immersed in the fields in which we invest.

Grantees in 2021

The Foundation makes grants in four core program areas—Higher Learning, Public Knowledge, Arts and Culture, and Humanities in Place—and through its signature Presidential Initiatives.

Grantmaking areas

We make grants to actively unlock the power in the arts and humanities that helps connect us all.

Mission

We make grants through our core program areas and signature Presidential Initiatives, including Imagining Freedom, our grantmaking in Puerto Rico, and The Monuments Project.

Since 1969, Mellon has awarded more than 18,000 grants.

Carter Stewart: How We Make Our Grants

Grant Resources

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.

Civic Engagement

Civic engagement navigation image - A large crowd of people who are far away and anonymous

Evolving Higher Education

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

Expanding Public Knowledge

Expanding Public Knowledge Navigation Image

Monuments and Memory

A large statue of a confederate general is covered in markings and graffiti. 

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" 

University Everywhere

Two scholars dressed in all black face the camera.

Mission AdobeStock 420526748 1440x1800V

History iStock-1313300194 vert

History

Grantmaking Areas

People iStock-1311055822 vert

People

Financials navigation image

Financials

News iStock-1406026883 vert

News

Events iStock-1323998165 vert

Events

Grant Resources

$510M+

360

4

1