OVERVIEW: The Heising-Simons Foundation is a large family foundation whose grantmaking spans climate and clean energy, early childhood education, human rights, the physical sciences, journalism and youth homelessness. Its work is primarily U.S.-focused, with especially strong ties to California.
IP TAKE: In a recent update on Heising-Simons’ new president, Brian Eule, IP’s Michael Kavate notes that the foundation has long spent more annually than its endowment size would suggest. That generosity reflects a deep commitment to early childhood education, criminal justice reform and the physical sciences, even as priorities sharpen under new leadership. Grants support research, policy, systems change and, sometimes, general operations.
Heising-Simons is sophisticated, transparent and largely proactive. It does not accept unsolicited applications and discourages cold proposals. Program staff identify potential grantees through research, conferences, current partners, peer funders, advisors and issue networks. Open calls are rare but do appear, especially through the Science and Education programs, and are typically announced on the foundation’s website, LinkedIn and email newsletter.
The best way onto Heising-Simons’ radar is to become visible in the ecosystem it already funds: join aligned coalitions, publish credible research or policy work, build genuine relationships with grantees and show a clear role in advancing its strategies. For most nonprofits, this is a long-term relationship prospect, not a cold-application opportunity.
PROFILE: The Heising-Simons Foundation was established in 2007 by Simons family heiress Liz Simons and her spouse, Mark Heising, the founder of Medley Partners, which manages the investments of the Simons family and its affiliated philanthropies. Liz Simons has extensive experience as an educator, specializing in bilingual education. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s in education from Stanford University. She worked in Spanish-bilingual and ESL classrooms, and later founded Stretch to Kindergarten, a spring-summer early childhood education program. Based in Los Altos, California, Heising and Simons signed the Giving Pledge in 2016.
Based in Los Altos, California, the Heising-Simons Foundation works to “advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of our youngest learners and support human rights for all people.”
Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy
The foundation’s Climate and Clean Energy program supports policies and practices that make energy cleaner, safer, more affordable and more reliable while reducing the harms of climate change.
- Its current strategies include:
- Advancing and implementing climate policy
- Transforming heavily polluting energy sectors
- Reducing potent pollutants such as methane
- Pursuing timely opportunities for large-scale emissions reductions
- Grants support policy advocacy, coalition building, communications, research, implementation and work that protects the rights and interests of affected communities.
- Grantmaking is primarily national, although state and regional organizations may be competitive when their work advances broader policy or sector-change goals.
- Recent large grantees include the Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council, each of which received multiple multimillion-dollar awards in 2024.
- Best fits: Strong prospects include established climate-policy organizations, clean-energy coalitions, community-centered environmental groups and organizations with a credible role in implementing or defending major climate policies. Local environmental groups without a policy, coalition or systems-change dimension appear less likely to receive support.
Climate change grants also stem from Heising-Simons’s science initiative, which names climate change as an areas of interest.
Grants for Science
The Science program supports fundamental research and field-building in astronomy and cosmology, fundamental physics, climate change science and pathways into the physical sciences.
- The foundation is particularly interested in innovative, early-stage or interdisciplinary work that may fall between conventional funding categories. It also supports scientific infrastructure, instrumentation, collaborations and opportunities that broaden participation in the physical sciences.
- Institutional grantmaking is generally proactive, but Science offers some of the foundation’s clearest open-entry opportunities.
Fellowships and Events
The 51 Pegasi b Fellowship supports postdoctoral scientists conducting theoretical, observational or experimental research in planetary astronomy.
- The fellowship currently provides up to $492,000 over three years, with the possibility of seeking support for a fourth year.
- Scientists apply directly through an open competition.
Launched in 2026, the Astronova Fellowship supports postdoctoral scientists developing astronomical instruments for astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology and planetary science.
- The fellowship provides four years of support, with the possibility of an additional year.
- Beginning in the second year, fellows may seek an Innovation Grant of up to $150,000 for early-stage or difficult-to-fund instrumentation concepts.
The 2026 Science Events and Gatherings call offered grants ranging from $20,000 to $80,000 for events connected to astronomy, planetary science, cosmology, fundamental physics, climate science and efforts to broaden participation in these fields. The foundation expressly encouraged applications from organizations that had not previously received its support.
Recent science grantees include Las Cumbres Observatory, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, San Diego, and San Francisco State University. Grants have supported astronomical instrumentation, fundamental physics research, the Simons Observatory and scientific facilities.
Grants for Education
The Education program concentrates on early learning from birth through third grade. It supports policies, systems and practices that strengthen the adults, institutions and environments responsible for young children’s development. The program currently organizes its work around two broad portfolios:
- Enabling Conditions: This portfolio supports the systems, policies, financing structures, workforce conditions and public infrastructure required for high-quality early learning. Likely grantees include early childhood policy organizations, workforce advocates, research institutions, intermediary organizations and coalitions working on child care access, affordability and quality.
- Effective Practice: This portfolio supports practices in the settings where young children learn and develop. Grants may involve educators, families, early learning systems, instructional practice, family engagement and preschool-to-third-grade alignment.
- The program is national but maintains a particularly strong California presence.
Launched in 2025, the California Child Care Justice Network is a five-year initiative supporting organizing, advocacy, applied research, communications and narrative change related to California’s child care system.
- The network seeks to increase public investment, improve affordability and access, strengthen working conditions and compensation for early educators, and center the experiences of parents and child care providers.
- The foundation held an open application cycle in 2026 for California-based organizations and fiscally sponsored projects. That cycle closed on June 18, 2026. Current network members include organizations working in early childhood policy, racial equity, workforce advocacy, parent organizing and public finance.
Grants for Human Rights: Immigrants and Criminal Justice
The Human Rights program supports people and organizations working to dismantle systems of mass criminalization and build community-defined approaches to safety, justice, healing and accountability.
- Its three current strategies are:
- Building grassroots movement power and capacity
- Strengthening ecosystems centered on grassroots organizing
- Advancing alternatives to existing punishment systems
- The program supports work addressing incarceration, policing, surveillance and other systems that criminalize communities.
- It prioritizes leadership by people directly affected by these systems and supports organizing, movement infrastructure, advocacy, leadership development, narrative work and cross-movement collaboration.
- Grantmaking is national, with particular attention to California, Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.
- Promising applicants include grassroots organizing groups, directly affected leadership organizations, criminal justice and immigrant justice coalitions, movement intermediaries and groups developing non-carceral approaches to community safety. Organizations offering conventional criminal justice services without a broader organizing, advocacy or systems-change strategy may be less competitive.
- The foundation has also supported collaborative vehicles. Its 2024 tax filing, for example, lists a grant of roughly $2.1 million to Amalgamated Charitable Foundation for the Democracy Frontlines Fund. Such grants demonstrate an interest in pooled and intermediary funding, but they should not be assumed to represent open regranting opportunities.
- See IP’s recent reporting on this program for more insight.
The foundation hosts an annual International Human Rights Day gathering in San Francisco. The event brings together movement leaders, advocates and philanthropic partners but is not presented as an application-based grant program.
Grants for Journalism
The foundation’s Journalism initiative supports journalism and media that contribute to an informed public and a functioning democracy. It is also interested in journalism that deepens understanding of the foundation’s other areas of concern.
- The current program page does not divide grantmaking into formal subprograms. Earlier language emphasizing investigative journalism and underrepresented voices may still describe observed interests, but these should not be treated as current named portfolios.
- Institutional journalism grants appear to be invitation-only. Strong prospects include nonprofit newsrooms, investigative journalism organizations, public-interest media projects and outlets with expertise in climate, education, human rights, science or underrepresented communities.
The annual American Mosaic Journalism Prize awards two unrestricted prizes of $100,000 to freelance journalists.
- The prize recognizes long-form, narrative or deeply reported print, audio or photography work concerning underrepresented or misrepresented communities in the United States.
- Journalists cannot apply. Candidates are nominated confidentially by journalism leaders and do not know they are under consideration.
Grants for Youth Housing
The Youth Housing initiative focuses exclusively on preventing and ending homelessness among young people and young adults in San Francisco.
- The initiative supports:
- Prevention and early identification
- Transitional and long-term housing
- Flexible financial assistance
- Wraparound services
- Coordination across housing, education, health and justice systems
- Research, policy and advocacy
- The program is especially interested in young people leaving foster care, juvenile justice or behavioral health systems and in efforts that address the institutional pathways that contribute to homelessness.
- This work is geographically narrow. Organizations outside San Francisco are unlikely to fit unless they are contributing directly to a relevant research, policy or systems initiative.
- The program does not advertise a conventional application process. However, it explicitly invites youth advocates, nonprofit leaders, community partners and researchers to share relevant work and ideas with the foundation. This makes Youth Housing one of the few areas where a well-targeted introductory email may be appropriate.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
A webpage for the foundation’s former Technology and Society/CEO Fund remains online. The fund addressed automated decision-making, privacy, surveillance, disinformation and technology’s disparate effects on communities.
- However, Technology and Society is not included among the foundation’s current programs and initiatives. Its present status is unclear.
- Grantseekers should not treat this as an active opportunity without confirmation from foundation staff.
The separately incorporated Heising-Simons Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization with overlapping leadership and issue interests. It has supported policy and legislative advocacy involving climate and clean energy, education and human rights. The Action Fund should not be confused with the private foundation, and no general public application process was located.
Important Grant Details:
The foundation’s 2024 Form 990-PF reported approximately $810.5 million in assets. The median grant was approximately $148,000. Awards varied widely, from relatively modest project grants to several multimillion-dollar commitments.
For a broader sense of the types of organizations receiving funding from Heising-Simons and the kind of work grantees are conducting, explore the foundation’s grants overview page.The records show a mix of national advocacy organizations, California policy and systems organizations, universities, scientific institutions, grassroots movement groups and intermediary funders.
- The Heising-Simons Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications. Cold proposals, generic letters of inquiry and broad requests for meetings are unlikely to succeed. During due diligence, staff may consult other funders, grantees and people working in the relevant field. A credible referral from a respected partner is therefore more valuable than a polished cold proposal.
Heising-Simons occasionally posts RFPs via LinkedIn, its blog or newsletter.
- General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation via email or its contact page.
PEOPLE:
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LINKS:
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