OVERVIEW: The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation supports direct-service nonprofits working in housing, health, jobs, education and aging. Grantmaking primarily serves people experiencing poverty in the United States and Israel, with a strong emphasis on Baltimore, Hawaiʻi, Israel and Northeastern Pennsylvania. The foundation also identifies New York City and San Francisco as priority communities on its grants landing page.
IP TAKE: The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is a major funder of housing, aging, health, education and workforce development, with poverty reduction at the center of its work. In an Inside Philanthropy interview, President Rachel Garbow Monroe put it clearly: “The entire frame of our grantmaking is to give grants to nonprofits supporting individuals and families experiencing poverty, period. No advocacy, no policy, no fundraising.”
Weinberg primarily funds direct-service organizations in its priority geographies, making location and program fit essential. It is transparent but not a cold-proposal prospect: The foundation publishes detailed guidelines and a searchable grants database, yet does not accept or review unsolicited proposals.
Capital funding is a defining feature of its portfolio. Since 2018, Weinberg reports roughly $460 million across 696 capital grants, compared with about $234 million in operating support and $237 million in program grants. Recent awards favor organizations pairing direct service with durable infrastructure, including affordable housing, health facilities, workforce centers and coordinated service systems.
The strongest route onto Weinberg’s radar is through a current grantee, collaborative, community foundation, United Way, public agency or peer funder. Competitive prospects demonstrate measurable results, sound finances and a clear role within an established local service network.
PROFILE: Established in 1959, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is a private foundation based in Owings Mills, Maryland and in Honolulu, Hawaii. Harry Weinberg was an immigrant who came to the U.S. in the early 1900s and built a career as a successful entrepreneur and investor in transportation and real estate. Its current mission centers on helping people achieve economic stability and well-being by securing affordable housing, leading healthy lives, obtaining quality employment, accessing educational opportunities and aging independently. It works with both Jewish and general-community organizations in the United States and Israel.
The foundation makes capital, program and operating grants. Eligible organizations generally must hold 501(c)(3) status—or the Israeli equivalent—provide direct services to people with low incomes and submit audited financial statements or an external financial review. Weinberg’s How We Give page says fiscally sponsored organizations may qualify, while its FAQ says applications are accepted only from registered nonprofits. Fiscally sponsored groups should therefore confirm eligibility rather than assume they qualify.
Grants for Housing
Weinberg’s Housing program supports three priorities:
- Housing With Supportive Services: Affordable and permanent supportive housing that integrates services helping residents achieve and maintain stability. Funding may support development, predevelopment and the capacity of nonprofit housing developers.
- Community-Led Development: Community land trusts, shared-ownership models, community wealth-building strategies and mixed-income housing designed to prevent displacement and preserve affordability.
- Coordinated Responses to Homelessness: Partnerships that improve coordination across public systems and service providers, incorporate the leadership of people who have experienced homelessness and develop sustainable funding for supportive services.
A current initiative, Building Developer Capacity, supports nonprofit developers’ predevelopment work, real estate teams and access to loan capital.
Weinberg is also a member of the national Fund for Housing and Opportunity, formerly known as Funders for Housing and Opportunity. This collaborative supports renter protections, homelessness solutions, policy and advocacy, organizing, narrative change and field alignment. Its work is broader and more systems-oriented than Weinberg’s core direct-service portfolio.
Grants for Health
The foundation’s Health program focuses on:
- Health Care Access: Community health centers, primary care expansion, oral and behavioral healthcare and healthcare transitions for young adults with developmental disabilities. Weinberg does not fund hospitals or free clinics.
- Nutrition and Food Access: Medically tailored or home-delivered meals, nonprofit food-delivery models and capital improvements for regional food banks. The foundation generally does not fund individual food pantries or routine feeding programs.
- Trauma, Abuse and Safety: Domestic-violence services, shelter, counseling, legal assistance and programs addressing child abuse, trafficking, neglect, sexual assault and exposure to family or community violence.
Its Community Health Centers initiative primarily supports federally qualified and other community health centers, including capital expansion and operational support that improves access to dental and behavioral healthcare.
Grants for Jobs and Workforce Development
Weinberg’s Jobs program supports workforce development that leads to employment, wage growth and economic stability.
- Job Training grants support sector-based training, industry-recognized credentials, job placement, retention services and training facilities or equipment.
- Priority sectors include healthcare, manufacturing, construction, food service, information technology and biotechnology.
- Employers are expected to help shape program content and support placement.
- Grantees should track wages and job retention for at least one year, preferably two.
- Youth Employment and Career Support serves young people ages 14 to 24 through career exploration, paid internships, summer employment and customized opportunities for young adults with disabilities or those disconnected from school and work.
- Key initiatives include the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and a Maryland wage-record study conducted with the Abell Foundation and Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Grants for Education
The foundation’s Education program supports young people primarily in middle and high school through three priorities:
- College and Career Pathways: Programs serving youth ages 11 to 21 that lead toward high school completion, postsecondary training, college completion or well-paying employment. Areas of interest include STEAM learning, college access and completion, real-world work experience and reengagement programs for youth who are not in school or working.
- Academic Success and Opportunity: Evidence-based academic programs helping middle and high school students improve core skills, make successful school transitions and access advanced or enrichment opportunities.
- Adolescent Health and Well-Being: Sports-based youth development, mentoring, academic support and mental-health programs, including work serving LGBTQ+ youth, young people experiencing homelessness and youth disconnected from school or employment.
Weinberg does not fund colleges or universities directly, postsecondary scholarships or academic research. It may, however, support nonprofit college-access and completion programs.
Current initiatives include the Baltimore Elementary and Middle School Library Project and the Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative. The Summer Funding Collaborative pools resources from multiple funders and runs its own application process for free or fee-waived programs serving Baltimore City youth. The 2026 cycle awarded $4.9 million to 57 programs across 54 organizations.
Grants for Aging
Weinberg’s Aging program supports capital projects for older adults throughout the United States. Program and operating grants are limited to priority communities.
- Safe and Accessible Homes supports home modification, repairs, occupational therapy, case management and other services that help older adults remain safely at home and avoid hospitalization or institutional care.
- Aging in Community supports affordable housing with services, coordinated medical and social care, abuse-related services and inclusive housing for LGBTQ+ older adults.
- Key initiatives include Community Aging in Place—Advancing Better Living for Elders, or CAPABLE; the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE; and Housing for LGBTQ Older Adults, undertaken in partnership with organizations including SAGE.
Grants for the Jewish Community
Weinberg has a formal Commitment to the Jewish Community, although these grants generally align with its five main focus areas. In the United States, the foundation’s current strategies are:
- Addressing poverty in Jewish communities
- Strengthening Jewish nonprofits
- Combating antisemitism
Named initiatives and partners include Together Ending Need, created with the Jewish Funders Network; Leading Edge, which works to strengthen leadership and talent within Jewish nonprofits; and organizations building safety, education and relationships across religious, ethnic and racial communities.
In Israel, Weinberg supports services for older adults, employment programs, trauma and mental-health care and initiatives that strengthen leadership and cross-sector collaboration.
Important Grant Details:
Grants range between about $20,000 and $2 million, with many larger grants representing multi-year commitments.
- Geographic priorities are Baltimore, Hawai’i, Israel, New York City, Northeastern Pennsylvania, San Francisco and rural communities throughout the U.S.
- These places have ties to the legacy of Harry Weinberg or current foundation trustees.
- Baltimore receives the foundation’s largest place-based commitment.
- Weinberg says nearly one-quarter of its approximately $140 million in annual grantmaking supports Greater Baltimore organizations.
- It also reports annual investments of approximately $12 million in Hawaiʻi and $18 million in Israel, although these figures should be treated as approximate and may change.
- Organizations outside the foundation’s active geographies face much longer odds. The principal exception is Aging, which considers capital projects serving older adults anywhere in the United States. Certain national initiatives and Jewish-community grants also extend beyond the core regions.
- The application process is invitation only. Weinberg does not accept or review unsolicited proposals.
- Grants support capital projects, programs, general operations and selected small-grant activity.Applicants must provide direct services to people experiencing poverty and have audited financial statements or an external financial review.
- The foundation does not fund individuals, arts and culture, colleges or universities, postsecondary scholarships, debt reduction, religious institutions or facilities, think tanks, endowments, political action groups, publications, academic or health research, fundraising events or—generally—annual appeals.Weinberg supports direct services but also funds capacity building, cross-sector coordination, leadership development and selected systems-oriented collaboratives. It should not be characterized as categorically opposed to all advocacy, policy or systems-change work.
- Grantseekers may search the foundation’s grants database for more information on its grantmaking habits.
- Direct general questions through the foundation’s contact page or call its Maryland office at 410-654-8500 or Hawaiʻi office at 808-924-1000.
Getting on this Funder’s Radar
Weinberg does not accept unsolicited proposals. A cold email, LOI or full proposal is unlikely to receive consideration. The most realistic path is a substantive introduction through:
- A current Weinberg grantee or nonprofit partner
- A public agency working with the foundation
- A regional community foundation or United Way
- A funder collaborative in housing, workforce development, youth services or aging
- A Jewish federation, Jewish Funders Network participant or Jewish human-service organization
- A fiscal sponsor or intermediary already trusted by the foundation
Grantseekers should begin with Weinberg’s searchable grants database and identify organizations working at the intersection of their issue, geography and target population. The goal is not merely to obtain an introduction, but to demonstrate that the organization fills a credible gap in a network or strategy Weinberg already supports.
The Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative is the clearest recurring open pathway connected to Weinberg. Smaller organizations may also become visible through community foundations, United Ways, collaborative funding pools and fiscal sponsors. Weinberg’s own materials permit fiscal sponsorship in some circumstances, but the foundation does not describe this as a general application route.
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