Thiel Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Thiel Foundation supports science and technology, new inventions, and mimetic theory across social sciences.
IP TAKE: The Thiel Foundation is best known for “disrupt[ing] the traditional path to success” with its Thiel Fellowships. Much of the foundation’s past giving skews conservative, although Thiel has announced that he is taking a break from politics. Additionally, the foundation has narrowed the scope of its giving in recent years from support for several causes down to its two core programs.
The Thiel Foundation’s website is skeletal and does not provide much information at all; however, it does include the cryptic sentence, “We also back people working on hard problems that won’t otherwise get solved,” followed by the contact information for press inquiries. And while the direct meaning of the statement is unclear, it does seem to imply that the foundation is open to hearing from grantseekers about their projects. It’s worth a shot anyway. This funder’s two named programs accept applications via their individual websites.
PROFILE: The Thiel Foundation is a science and technology funder created by Peter Thiel that supports many Bay Area nonprofits. It seeks to “support science, technology, and long-term thinking about the future.” After attending Stanford for undergrad and law school, the German-born and conservative donor Thiel served as an appeals court clerk and a derivative trader for Credit Suisse before founding Thiel Capital Management and co-founding PayPal. PayPal eventually went public and was later sold to eBay, making Thiel's shares worth roughly $55 million. Thiel used part of this fortune to found Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund. He also co-founded Founders Fund, a venture capital firm, with other PayPal co-founders. Thiel was also an early backer of OpenAI, DeepMind, and Cognition Labs. The Thiel Foundation supports science and technology, new inventions, and mimetic theory across social sciences.
Grants for Science Research
The Thiel Foundation’s website is a bare-bones single page, but it lists two separate funding programs that focus on:
The Thiel Fellowships provides $100,000 of funding over two-years for young people to drop out of school to build new things.
Imitatio promotes the idea that imitation drives human behavior. These grants further research and application of René Girard's mimetic theory across the social sciences.
Grantseekers can apply here.
The Thiel Foundation also makes other grants outside of its two giving programs. Most of these have gone to science and technology-focused organizations. The foundation gave $3.5 million to the Methuselah Mouse Prize foundation’s anti-aging research and heavily supported Methuselah Foundation. It gave $1.627 million to Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Thiel has also given over $1 million to the Seasteading Institute to support building floating communities on the ocean. It has also given to mimetic organizations such as the Colloquium On Violence and Religion and The Cornerstone Forum.
Grants for Democracy and Civic Engagement
According to a recent interview, Thiel “has lost interest in democracy” and intends to step away from supporting politicians for the foreseeable future. Direct donations for candidates aside, the foundation has provided funding for thinktanks and conservative policy groups in the past. The foundation has given at least $400,000 to The Ayn Rand Institute the Center for the Advancement of Objectivism, a nonprofit thinktank dedicated to promoting the work and ideas of the controversial writer. It has also given to Preaching Peace and Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace.
Grants for Higher Education
Counterintuitively, considering the nature of the Thiel Fellowships, the foundation has given to several colleges and universities in the past. It is important to remember, however, that higher education does not appear to have received any real support since Thiel established the fellowships. Nevertheless, past grantees include Leland Stanford Junior University, Claremont Mckenna College, King’s College, Haverford College, and Cambridge
Important Grant Details
While the Thiel Foundation is currently focused on the fellowships and Imitatio grants, in past years, annual grantmaking has averaged $4 million to $8 million. $50,000 is the most common amount.
Thiel does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding; however, it does provide a way to contact the foundation with questions at jeremiah@torchcomllc.com.
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