Irving Harris Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Chicago-based Irving Harris Foundation’s mental health grants support groups that address social and emotional well-being of young children ages birth to three.
IP TAKE: A major mental health and early childhood funder, the Irving Harris Foundation likes to invest in organizations that have long-term impact in their respective fields through an intersectional Jewish lens. This organization’s grantmaking strategies take a multi-pronged approach. While this is not the most accessible foundation, it does tend to give multi-year grants to grassroots groups with which it is already familiar. It likes to invest in its grantees long-term, making this a more crowded grant space. It’s also razor-focused on its geographic and interest areas, so grant seekers beyond it’s scope will not find much luck. Much of Irving Harris’s work focuses on BIPOC populations, taking an intersectional approach to funding.
PROFILE: The Irving Harris Foundation was established in 1946 by businessman Irving Harris. The foundation operates in accordance with his traditional Jewish values, specifically that of giving back to one’s community. To this end, the foundation works to fuel “ideas, leaders, and movements led by and for people most impacted by harm.” The foundation originally focused on early childhood and middle-school education, before expanding into arts, community and social justice efforts. The foundation’s grantmaking is inspired by the founder’s “Jewish values—especially the tradition of giving back to communities and the imperative to seek Tzedek or Justice. As it is written, Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof, Justice, Justice you shall pursue.”
Based in Chicago, Illinois, the Irving Harris Foundation prioritizes organizations that work in its hometown through a racial justice lens. It currently has give giving areas: Arts and Culture, Jewish Values, Early Childhood, Early and Infant Mental Health, Reproductive Health and Justice.
Grants for Early Childhood Education and Mental Health
The Irving Harris Foundation’s Early Childhood giving area prioritizes the health and emotional well-being of infants and young children. This program invests in “organizations, leaders, and movements that are transforming systems, policies, and practices to shift power and center equity so that all pregnant and birthing people, infants, toddlers, families, caregivers, and communities can thrive.”
Infant health refers to the social and emotional development of children ages birth to three. The foundation addresses racial and economic disparities as well as gender inequality with respect to the reproductive, maternal, and infant health outcomes of families.
Irving Harris also invests in infants and young children’s mental health, through it’s dedicate mental health program, which “invests in grassroots mental health, maternal and paternal mental health, and birth justice interventions that are shifting power, resources, and systems so that all pregnant and birthing people, infants, toddlers, families, caregivers, and communities can thrive.”
Grants for Women and Health
In addition to infant and child mental health funding outlined above, the Irving Harris Foundation’s Reproductive Health and Justice giving area approaches family planning and maternal health as a critical component to promoting social and emotional health and to creating a more equitable world for very young children and their families. Irving Harris invests in the “reproductive justice* movement, supporting efforts led by impacted communities to build grassroots power, dismantle barriers to respectful care, and advance gender, reproductive, and birth justice,” especially as it relates to its Early Childhood work and infant well-being.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Irving Harris Foundation’s Arts and Culture giving area works to create “a vibrant and accessible cultural life for all” in Chicago and beyond. It generally makes unrestricted grants to arts organizations and cultural institutions in order to promote “an environment where artists have the opportunity to create works that shift expectations, provide social and political context through creative acts, and contribute to new ways of experiencing the world.” It especially seeks to support individual artists, composers, choreographers, and “media makers,” as well as projects that engage underrepresented audiences and produce “politically and socially engaged exhibits, films and performances.”
In 1993, Joan and Irving Harris established the Harris Theater in Chicago, a multipurpose performing arts venue that houses local, national, and international artists. In addition to resident companies such as Hubbard Street Dance, Music of the Baroque and the Chicago Opera Theater. The Harris Theater also engages in collaborations with institutions like the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Grants for Jewish Causes
Through the Jewish Values program, the Irving Harris Foundation works to bring an “intersectional Jewish lens to issues of social justice by building bridges between diverse groups, combating antisemitism and bigotry, and fostering a more vital, humane, and inclusive community.”
This program focuses on fighting “antisemitism, racism, and bigotry; bridging connections between diverse groups; and advancing social justice and equity through an intersectional Jewish lens to create more vibrant, humane, and inclusive communities in the U.S. and Israel.”
In Israel, IHF also funds early childhood and child trauma training programs and a small number of pro-democracy organizations.
Important Grant Details:
Grant amounts range from $100 to over $1 million, but most tend to fall in the $10,000 to $150,000 range.
While much of the foundation’s giving centers around the Chicago area, it also supports national initiatives and groups based in other cities.
Grantmaking prioritizes BIPOC and woman-led organizations.
Past grantees are listed on the foundation’s grantmaking page.
The Irving Harris Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding. Instead, it prefers to contribute to organizations with which it is already familiar. Submit general inquiries to the foundation’s staff at the contact page.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
