OVERVIEW: The Snap Foundation supports arts, education and youth in Los Angeles, California.
IP TAKE: A newer foundation on the Los Angeles grantmaking scene, the Snap Foundation has only a handful of years worth only of available information it’s funder’s strategies and priorities. Snap Foundation is considerably more transparent about its priorities than it was in its early years. The foundation now maintains a standalone website, publishes annual reports and grantee stories, and clearly identifies three strategic focus areas. The throughline is straightforward: Snap wants more underrepresented young Angelenos to have meaningful access to the region’s creative economy.
Additionally, IP has recently named the Snap Foundation’s co-founders, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, as two of the most influential people in philanthropy under 40.
That increased transparency does not translate into an open direct application process. Snap’s latest available Form 990-PF indicates that the foundation only makes grants to preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited applications. Still, grantseekers have more ways to get on the foundation’s radar than they once did. Snap now invites LA-based creative arts nonprofits to submit basic organizational information through its website, including mission, budget, geography and the number of people ages 0 to 25 served. This appears to function as an introduction or prospect-identification channel, rather than a formal grant application.
The best prospects will have a strong Los Angeles footprint and a clear connection between underrepresented young people and creative careers. Organizations providing arts and media education, mentorship, internships, apprenticeships, workforce training, career exposure, industry connections, job placement or systems-level work around equitable creative employment should be particularly relevant. Snap also works through partnerships and collaboratives, making relationships with its existing grantees and the broader Los Angeles arts and creative-workforce ecosystem useful entry points.
Overall, this is still a relationship-driven funder, but it is no longer the black box it once was. A tightly aligned organization should use Snap’s nonprofit intake form, cultivate connections within its LA creative-economy network and keep a close eye on LA2050 rather than simply sending a cold proposal. The foundation is entering a new strategic period. Its current materials reference a 2026–2030 strategic plan, so grantseekers should continue watching for changes to priorities, leadership and access practices.
PROFILE: Established in 2017, the Snap Foundation is a Los Angeles-based private independent foundation. Snap Inc. and company cofounders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy pledged lasting financial support to the foundation, but Snap Foundation operates as a separate philanthropic entity.
Snap Inc. founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy created this foundation as a separate entity that operates outside the company to pursue charitable goals. Born in Pacific Palisades in 1990, Spiegel completed design classes at the Otis College of Art and Design and at the ArtCenter College of Design. He attended Stanford University and, in 2011, cofounded Snapchat with Murphy, his fraternity brother. Snapchat allows users to send photos and messages that disappear after a short period. Spiegel became one of the youngest public-company CEOs when Snap began trading in March 2017.
The company and cofounders pledged to donate shares of stock to the foundation for many years into the future. Snap’s 2017 IPO prospectus said the company planned to donate up to 13 million Class A shares to the foundation over 15 to 20 years.
The foundation aims to “develop pathways to the creative economy for underrepresented youth in Los Angeles”. Snap says it works toward that mission through grantmaking, field building and advocacy, education and innovation, and collaboration across Los Angeles. Its current strategy emphasizes resourcing nonprofit organizations and collaboratives that can improve outcomes for young people while reducing systemic inequities in the creative economy.
The foundation’s strategy is now considerably clearer. Snap divides grantmaking between Strategic Initiatives and Responsive Initiatives. Its 2025 annual report says the foundation adopted a “responsive, trust-based model,” while its current materials emphasize long-term field building alongside the ability to respond to urgent community needs.
Grants for Arts and Creative Education
Creative Education and Skills is one of Snap’s three strategic focus areas. The foundation supports opportunities for young people to gain exposure to the arts, develop creative skills and participate in creative education.
- Recent foundation materials highlight organizations such as Ryman Arts, Inner-City Arts, Ghetto Film School, Girls Inc. of Los Angeles, Venice Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, reflecting interests that range from traditional visual and performing arts education to filmmaking, storytelling and career-oriented creative programming.
- These gifts should not be treated as examples of Snap Foundation grantmaking. Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr’s Spiegel Family Fund is a separate philanthropic vehicle. For example, Otis College explicitly identifies the 2022 student-debt gift as a donation from the Spiegel Family Fund. Prospect researchers should distinguish between the two funders when assessing past grants and eligibility.
- Older grants may still be useful for historical context, but current prospects should give substantially greater weight to Snap’s present creative-economy strategy and recent grantee portfolio.
Grants for Creative Economy Career Exploration and Readiness
A second strategic area focuses on helping young people understand and prepare for careers in the creative economy. Snap specifically names skills development, career exposure, mentorship, internships and externships as examples of relevant work.
- This is an important distinction from general arts education. Competitive organizations will often connect creative learning to real-world professional exposure, networks and career preparation. Snap’s recent grantee stories include Ready to Succeed, which connects foster care-affected young people to professional pathways, and Inevitable Foundation, which works to expand career opportunities for disabled creatives through fellowships, research, productions and advocacy.
- The foundation also supports field-building efforts intended to connect young people, nonprofits and creative industries. Its Creator’s Compass, launched in 2026, shares jobs, skill-building opportunities and events with LA creatives ages 14 to 24 and the adults who support them. This is not a grant program, but it illustrates Snap’s interest in strengthening the broader creative-career ecosystem.
Grants for Creative Economy Workforce Entry and Advancement
Snap’s third strategic area moves beyond career exploration to actual employment. The foundation supports training and certification programs as well as efforts involving job placement, hiring and career advancement in the creative economy.
- Organizations that pair arts or media programming with apprenticeships, paid employment, technical training, employer relationships or concrete routes into film, television, music, design, digital media and other creative industries are particularly well aligned.
- Recent foundation materials highlight Manifest Works, which prepares people affected by foster care, homelessness and incarceration for creative-industry employment, as well as broader collaborative efforts intended to expand equitable creative jobs in Los Angeles.
Responsive Initiatives
Snap also makes shorter-term grants in response to urgent community needs. According to the foundation, responsive initiatives must benefit youth education or art, support pathways into the creative economy, address a time-sensitive need and connect to the Los Angeles community.
- The foundation’s response to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires illustrates this approach. Snap supported recovery work and highlighted organizations helping artists and communities affected by the fires. This flexibility is useful for grantseekers to understand, although Snap does not publish a standing rapid-response application or RFP.
LA2050 Grants Challenge
Snap Foundation is a current funding partner of the LA2050 Grants Challenge, which is organized by the Goldhirsh Foundation. Snap supports projects that develop pathways into the creative economy for underrepresented Los Angeles youth.
- This collaborative represents the clearest competitive application pathway associated with Snap. In 2026, LA2050 used a two-stage process. Registered nonprofits, fiscally sponsored organizations, for-profits and government organizations serving Los Angeles County could enter the first stage; only selected applicants advanced to the invitation-only funding proposal stage.
- For the 2026 cycle, Snap specifically sought projects creating pathways to creative-economy employment for underrepresented youth ages 12 to 25. Relevant fields included architecture, arts and crafts, design, fashion, film, video, photography, music, performing arts, publishing, game design, advertising, engineering and television and radio, among others.
- The 2026 application cycle is closed, with funding decisions scheduled for fall 2026. Grantseekers should monitor future LA2050 competitions and verify Snap’s continued participation each year rather than assuming that the same opportunity will recur unchanged.
Important Grant Details:
The latest available 2024 Form 990-PF data shows 61 grants, a median grant of $100,000 and a range of $10,000 to $250,000. Grant amounts vary considerably by recipient and purpose, so these figures are more useful than the profile’s older $25,000-to-$75,000 range.
The foundation’s 2024 Form 990-PF reports approximately $139.7 million in year-end net assets and about $6.8 million in charitable disbursements.
- Grantmaking focuses on Los Angeles, California. The foundation’s mission explicitly centers underrepresented youth in Los Angeles, and Snap’s own nonprofit intake form asks applicants which areas of Los Angeles they serve.
- Recent foundation materials feature organizations including Inner-City Arts, Venice Arts, Ghetto Film School, Manifest Works, Ryman Arts, Arts for LA, Inevitable Foundation and Ready to Succeed, among others.
- Snap’s latest available tax filing indicates that it only makes grants to preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited applications. This is no longer because the foundation is in a research phase; Snap now has a clearly articulated grantmaking strategy.
- LA-based creative arts nonprofits can nevertheless submit organizational information directly to the foundation through its website. The form asks for an organization’s mission, annual budget, geography and the number of people ages 0 to 25 served. There is no indication that submitting the form constitutes a grant application or guarantees consideration for funding.
- The most realistic route to direct funding is to establish a strong strategic fit and get into Snap’s relationship network. Connections through existing grantees, LA creative-workforce coalitions, arts intermediaries and collaborative initiatives may provide stronger introductions than cold outreach.
- Snap appears especially interested in organizations that link creativity with measurable pathways toward skills, mentorship, professional networks, internships, workforce training and employment. Traditional arts education can fit, but organizations with no Los Angeles connection or no meaningful link to youth and the creative economy appear substantially less competitive.
- Use the foundation’s current website and nonprofit intake form for outreach rather than relying on the older telephone contacts.
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