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Private Foundation and Organization Funding Opportunities

There are over 85,000 foundations in the United States. The list below is a small fraction of that total but includes those of greatest interest to Moravian faculty. If you are aware of other opportunities and have questions about them, contact Dr. Rob Breckinridge in the Grants Office at breckinridger@moravian.edu or 610-861-1478.


Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The Foundation funds research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics

Programs include chemistry of indoor environments; microbiology of the built environment; Deep Carbon Observatory; Sloan Digital Sky Survey; economic institutions, behavior, and performance; STEM higher education; digital information technology; public understanding of science, technology, and economics; working longer; and energy and environment.


American Council of Learned Societies

ACLS supports scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences

Programs include collaborative research fellowships, digital extension grants, fellowships, China Studies, African Humanities, residential fellowships for recently tenured scholars, Buddhist Studies, and others.


American Historical Association

AHA is the largest professional organization serving historians in all fields and all professions. 

For AHA members: AHA Research Grants and Fellowships


American Philosophical Society

APS supports research and discovery in all fields of knowledge through grants and fellowships, lectures, publications, prizes, exhibitions, and public education, and serves scholars through a research library of manuscripts and other collections internationally recognized for their enduring historic value.

Programs include Research Grants and Library and Museum Fellowships.


Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation

The Foundation's mission is to advance the science of chemistry, chemical engineering and related sciences as a means of improving human relations and circumstances throughout the world.

Programs include the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program and the Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions.


Charles E. Kaufman Foundation

The Foundation awards annual research grants to carry out fundamental research in the areas of biology, chemistry, and physics. Limited to colleges and universities in Pennsylvania.

Programs include New Investigator Research and New Initiative Research.


Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation

The Foundation promotes the advancement and perpetuation of humanistic inquiry and artistic creativity by encouraging excellence in scholarship and in the performing arts, and by supporting research libraries and other institutions which transmit our cultural heritage.

The Humanities Program supports work in history; archaeology; literature; classic and modern languages; philosophy; ethics; comparative religion; the history, criticism, and theory of the arts; those aspects of the social sciences which share the content and methods of humanistic disciplines. The Venetian Program supports historical research on Venice and the former Venetian empire, and the study of contemporary Venetian society and culture.


Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation

The Foundation is dedicated to improving the health of the public by advancing the education and training of health professionals.

Programs include interprofessional education and teamwork, new curriculum content, new models for clinical education, career development in health professions education, education for the care of underserved populations.


Research Corporation for Science Advancement

RCSA aids basic research in the physical sciences (astronomy, chemistry, physics, and related fields), providing catalytic and opportunistic funding for innovative scientific research and the development of academic scientists.

The Cottrell Scholars Program provides significant discretionary awards for research. Applications are accepted from eligible faculty in their third academic year of their first tenure-track position.


Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Foundation is the nation's largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health, and is working to build a national Culture of Health, raising the health of everyone in the U.S. to the level that a great nation deserves, by placing well-being at the center of every aspect of life.

Programs include health systems; healthy communities; healthy children, healthy weight; and leadership for better health.


Russell Sage Foundation

The Foundation is devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences. It serves as a research center for academics and journalists, and a funding source for studies by scholars at other academic and research institutions. It also publishes books and a journal that derive from the work of its grantees and visiting scholars.

Programs include behavioral economics; the future of work; race, ethnicity, and immigration; and social inequality, along with special initiatives.


Social Science Research Council

SSRC fosters innovative research, nurtures new generations of social scientists, deepens how inquiry is practiced within and across disciplines, and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues.

Programs are organized around general themes of digital knowledge, media, and data; economic and social policy; global and regional connections; governance, democracy, and civil society; health and environment; higher education; and peace, conflict, and security. Abe Fellowship themes are threats to personal, societal, and international security; growth and sustainable development; social, scientific, and cultural trends and transformations; and governance, empowerment, and participation.


Spencer Foundation

The Foundation is committed to supporting high quality investigation of education through its research programs and to strengthening and renewing the educational research community through its fellowship and training programs and related activities.

Programs include Lyle Spencer Research Awards, Small Research Grants, Research-Practice Partnership Program, Conference Grants, and Fellowships.


Wenner-Gren Foundation

The Foundation supports significant and innovative anthropological research into humanity's biological and cultural origins, development and variation; fosters the international community of research scholars in anthropology; and provides leadership at the forefronts of the discipline.

Programs include research grants and fellowships.


Whitehall Foundation

The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology, defined as invertebrate and vertebrate (excluding clinical) neurobiology, specifically investigations of neural mechanisms involved in sensory, motor, and other complex functions of the whole organism as these relate to behavior, in order to better understand behavioral output or brain mechanisms of behavior.

Programs include research grants and grants-in-aid.


Fellowships and Other Federal Funding Opportunities

In addition to fellowships available through some of the private foundations and organizations listed above, many more organizations also have fellowship programs that may be of interest for sabbatical leave. View a list of some of those organizations and brief descriptions of their fellowship opportunities.


If you have questions or need additional information on private grant opportunities, contact Dr. Rob Breckinridge in the Grants Office at breckinridger@moravian.edu or 610-861-1478.