Funder Spotlight: The John Templeton Foundation Wants to Delve into Life’s "Big Questions”

IP Funder Spotlights provide quick rundowns of the grantmakers that are on our radar, including a few key details on how they operate and what they’re up to right now. Today, we take a look at an affluent and somewhat controversial funder with big plans to ramp up its grantmaking to explore the intersection between science and the spiritual.

What this funder cares about

The folks at the John Templeton Foundation (JTF) believe that science can be harnessed to understand the deepest questions facing humanity. And so the West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based foundation funds projects that explore issues like morality, free will, forgiveness, immortality, unconditional love and the possibility we live in a multiverse. You know, pretty basic stuff.

Its largest grantmaking issue, Science & the Big Questions, addresses these weighty topics in fields like the natural sciences, human sciences, philosophy and theology. JTF has five other—and slightly less profound—priority areas, which include Character Virtue Development, Individual Freedom & Free Markets, Voluntary Family Planning, Genetics and Exceptional Cognitive Talent & Genius.

To be clear: this foundation isn’t for everybody. Organizations unwilling to probe, say, the “fundamental structures of reality,” can pitch their ideas to an array of more conventional grantmakers. And organizations looking to peg JTF as a “religious funder,” a “conservative funder” or even a “science funder” may wind up disappointed. Its eclectic priorities make it difficult to pinpoint JTF’s position on any typical ideological spectrum. But researchers, philosophers and theologians who wake up every morning pondering the big questions will find comfort in knowing this foundation is on the lookout for projects that push the envelope.

Why you should care

JTF is one of those rare funders that can leverage formidable resources to advance a wholly unique mission. With an endowment of $3.8 billion, it has awarded $1.8 billion in grants to organizations in 195 countries since its inception. It’s also pretty much the only major grantmaker supporting work that integrates the spiritual and the secular.

This approach has enabled the foundation to support major discoveries in the basic sciences and move the needle in areas where many of its peers fear to tread. For example, thanks to JTF support, the number of accredited American medical schools offering courses in spirituality and health jumped from three in 1992 to over 100 in 2005. More recently, Heather Templeton Dill, the founder’s granddaughter and JTF’s president, said she views the foundation as a bulwark for the humanities against philanthropy’s surging support for STEM causes.

But here’s the real kicker: The foundation aims to increase its total grants and donations to approximately $313 million during 2021 and 2022. This figure represents a 186% increase over its grantmaking in 2020.

While this is good news for cash-strapped philosophy and theology programs, critics have argued that by funding interdisciplinary work that adds an air of scientific credibility to the field of religion, the foundation’s mission incentivizes applicants to draft proposals aligned with the idea that science can “prove” spiritual phenomena. With the foundation planning to ramp up its grantmaking in the next couple of years, we doubt these concerns will dissipate anytime soon.

Where the money comes from

Born in 1912 in rural Tennessee, John Templeton attended Yale and studied in England as a Rhodes Scholar before landing in 1938 in New York City for a finance career. He became what Money magazine called “arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century”—and a billionaire—by pioneering the use of globally diversified mutual funds. In the 1960s, Templeton moved to the Bahamas and renounced his U.S. citizenship to avoid paying $100 million in taxes.

Templeton channeled that windfall into three charitable entities—JTF, the Templeton Religion Trust and the Templeton World Charity Foundation, all of which remain active with the shared goals of promoting religious understanding and scientific knowledge. Templeton established JTF in 1987. In 2005, he donated another $500 million to the foundation. Templeton passed away in 2008 at the age of 95, having given away over $1 billion during his lifetime. A devout Presbyterian, Templeton espoused an idealist and humble interpretation of Christianity that suffuses his foundation’s grantmaking.

Where the money goes

Most of the foundation’s funding flows through its largest grantmaking area, Science & the Big Questions. In 2019, the foundation announced it would devote approximately $325 million to 12 strategic priorities over the next five years. These include Intellectual Humility, Religious Cognition and Cultural Evolution. Approximately 80% of funding in the Science & the Big Questions area will support projects linked to these priorities. That said, the foundation will continue to accept proposals that do not fit into these priorities but still fall within its Science & the Big Questions rubric.

The foundation awarded a total of $109.3 million in grants in 2020; the average grant size was $1 million. JTF tries to prioritize proposals that would not normally receive support from more conventional grantmakers, suggesting that the more contrarian the project, the better.

Open door or barbed wire?

The foundation’s website includes its staff, board of trustees, a welcoming contact page, a grants database and a helpful FAQ page for grantseekers. The site makes it easy for applicants to submit project ideas through an online portal.

Here are a few things to know before you take that step. First, the foundation distinguishes between two types of requests—“small” ones eligible for grants totaling $234,800 or less, and “large” ones that exceed that amount. In either case, the foundation will ask for a project title, request amount, relevant dates, why the project is important, a brief description of the activities and information on relevant partners. If the foundation likes what it sees, it will ask the applicant to submit a full proposal. “Small” and “large” grants have their own sets of submission and announcement dates.

While robust and accessible, the foundation’s site does not include links to Form 990s or a recent annual report, which, in an ideal world, would provide applicants with a granular breakdown of giving across its priority areas.

Latest big moves

The foundation recently issued a $15 million request for proposals from organizations that seek to strengthen their understanding and practice of character development through communities of practice. It is also currently requesting proposals from theologians, philosophers of religion and other scholars in religious studies who wish to cross-train in psychological sciences, with a total of up to $8 million available over five years.

In conjunction with its plan to allocate $325 million toward initiatives in its Science & the Big Questions area through 2023, the foundation published updated guidance to applicants interested in funding for the following areas: Mathematics & Physical Sciences, Science of Purpose, Cultural Evolution, Islam, Science, & Society, Science-Engaged Theology, Individual Freedom & Free Markets, and Programs in Latin America.

In June 2021, the foundation awarded one of its largest grants ever: $11 million to researchers based at the University of Bristol (U.K.) to explore the role of religion and spirituality in shaping and influencing health over the human lifespan.

One cool thing to know

In 1972, Templeton established the world's largest annual award given to an individual, the Templeton Prize, to honor a person who “harnesses the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe.” But here’s the cooler thing: The foundation periodically adjusts the $1.5 million prize so that it exceeds the award amount of the Nobel Prize, which John Templeton believed ignored spirituality. Previous prize winners include Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and the 2021 winner, ethologist and conservationist Jane Goodall. (Bonus cool things: The foundation funded the research team that took the first-ever picture of a black hole and the film documenting how they made the discovery.)

What we hope it does next

JTF publishes findings from research it supports on its site—even if the results don’t suggest a scientific link between the spiritual and the secular. That’s a good thing, and we hope it continues to maintain this practice as it dramatically increases its grantmaking in the next few years. There’s really no such thing as too much transparency.

Also on the transparency front, some applicants may have trouble getting a handle on how their work fits into the foundation’s six priority areas and 12 strategic priorities. So while the foundation’s grants database is both user-friendly and, presumably, comprehensive, applicants could also benefit from an accessible annual report showing where all that new money is flowing across these channels.

It’s also important to frame the foundation’s mission and imminent ramp-up against broader social and philanthropic trends. Funders are increasingly concerned about the psychological—and, yes, spiritual—health of a society riven by social-media-induced divisiveness, loneliness and political partisanship. By funding projects that accentuate our common humanity, the JTF can continue to offer meaningful contributions to this larger conversation.

Featured