The Carter Center
/OVERVIEW: The Carter Center is a nonpartisan organization with a global purview. It prioritizes projects that promote peace and combat disease.
IP TAKE: This funder works closely with corporations, governments, nonprofits, and grassroots organizations, but it tends to stick with the same partners for the long haul, making it a crowded grant space that’s not as welcoming. Grant seekers without an established footprint in a field that overlaps with one of Carter’s funding priorities will find it difficult to receive funding here; however, the center does invite organizations seeking to work with the Carter Center to contact its Development Office. This can be a bureaucratic funder, but it does like to form partnerships, especially with grassroots partners.
PROFILE: Founded in 1982, The Carter Center was created by former President Jimmy Carter and his late wife, Rosalynn, to promote human rights and fight human suffering. It is a nonpartisan organization that actively collaborates with groups at all levels of government and within the private sector. The center prioritizes “action and measurable results” and seeks to “prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.” It divides its grantmaking into two massive global initiatives, a Peace Program and a Health program.
Grants for Global Peace
The Carter Center’s Peace Programs broadly support the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights which affirms humanity’s right to freedom, justice, and peace throughout the world.
Grants for Civic and Democracy
The Carter Center’s initiatives for civics and democracy prioritize elections and access to information, both of which the center considers a basic human right. The Democracy Program supports democratic elections and governance via the use of impartial, credible election observers. The Rule of Law Program seeks to increase access to information worldwide. The Carter Center argues that “access to information improves governance and lives, making public administration more transparent and accountable and enabling citizens to understand policies, help determine public priorities, and use information to ensure the exercise of their other human rights, including the rights to education, employment, and a safe environment.”
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
The Carter Center does not have a dedicated program for immigrants and refugees, but it does support displaced peoples through some of its other initiatives. The center’s Human Rights program seeks to “support individuals and nations striving to realize the civil and political rights and responsibilities enumerated by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a growing body of public international law.” Carter’s Support for Peace in Syria initiative is housed within the Conflict Resolution Program and “supports research and dialogue to prevent further violence in Syria with the aim of supporting reform, economic recovery, reconstruction, and the return of refugees.”
Grants for Security and Human Rights
The Carter Center prioritizes support for human rights causes, especially those that adhere to the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Human Rights program works with individual activists, organizations, and nations striving to address civil and political rights deficiencies across the globe. The Rule of Law Program “works in partnership with governments, civil society, and international and regional bodies to improve governance and transform lives through a meaningful right of access to information and justice.” Carter’s China Program seeks to advance “U.S.-China relations by building synergy between China and the United States” and foster “greater cooperation between them and other nations.” The Latin America and Caribbean Focus initiative seeks to “strengthen regional capacities to uphold democracy, transform and prevent conflicts, and improve governance.” The Preventing Violent Extremism program seeks to defuse violent extremist movements in Africa and the Middle East, and right-wing ethno-nationalist extremism in Europe and the United States. Finally, Carter’s Conflict Resolution Program “works in countries around the world to prevent, mitigate, and resolve conflicts to build transformative and sustainable peace.” While this program has a global focus and is not limited to efforts in the Middle East, it currently contains two initiatives exclusive to the region: Supporting Peace in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Support for Peace in Syria.
Grants for Women and Girls
The Carter Center prioritizes women and girls around the world through its Conflict Resolution Program, which employs a “gender-conscious approach [that] includes constructive change initiatives that go beyond the resolution of conflicts, reaffirming the importance of women’s participation and involvement at all levels of the peace and security agenda and the development of local solutions to global problems.” Carter also supports women and girls through its Mobilizing Faith for Women and Girls initiative, which works “closely with influential Christian, Muslim, and traditional leaders across West and North Africa” to address “gender-based human rights abuses, including child marriage, female genital cutting, domestic violence, wartime rape, and restricted access to education and economic and political participation.”
Grants for Journalism
Carter supports journalism with its Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism program. Applicants must have a minimum of three years’ experience as a professional journalist. The center does not consider blogging or academic writing as journalism experience.
These competitive fellowships provide a $10,000 stipend. Fellowships last for one year and require two expense-paid visits to the Carter Center in Atlanta, one visit at the beginning of the fellowship and one at the end. Applicants must have a minimum of three years professional journalism experience. New grant seekers should view the fellowship’s searchable database of past fellows and their projects before applying. View FAQs here.
Grants for Health
Carter’s Health Programs’ disease and global health initiatives are ambitious and prioritize efforts to address the spread and eventual elimination of a handful of infectious diseases across Africa and in the Caribbean. The center’s mental health programs are more focused and support mental health initiatives in Liberia and the state of Georgia.
Grants for Global Health and Diseases
Many of Carter’s global health initiatives address diseases and other health concerns caused by parasites. The Schistosomiasis Control Program focuses on schistosomiasis in Nigeria. This disease is caused by a waterborne parasitic infection that damages internal organs. It is most commonly transmitted through contaminated water. Guinea Worm Eradication Program seeks to eradicate guinea worm disease, a parasitic infection caused by a roundworm parasite and spread by drinking water from stagnant sources contaminated with Guinea worm larvae. The Hispaniola Initiative “works with the ministries of health in Haiti and the Dominican Republic to accelerate the elimination of malaria and lymphatic filariasis from the countries’ shared island of Hispaniola.” The Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program, in partnership with national ministries of health in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the island of Hispaniola, seeks to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic disease caused by thin worms spread by mosquito bites in tropical and subtropical regions.
The Carter Center supports programs and organizations working to eliminate two of the leading causes of preventable blindness in the world. Carter’s Trachoma Control Program partners with the ministries of health in five African countries (Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Sudan) to eliminate trachoma infection, the world's leading cause of preventable blindness. Through its River Blindness Elimination Program, Carter partners with national ministries of health in Latin America and Africa to eliminate river blindness, caused by a parasitic infection spread by the bites of infected black flies that breed in rapidly flowing rivers.
The Public Health Training Initiative prioritizes support for Nigeria and Sudan. It seeks to “increase quality health care in rural areas to meet the health needs of mothers and children.”
Carter also has a program for Mental Health in Liberia.
Grants for Mental Health
Carter makes grants for Mental Health to “promote awareness about mental health issues, inform public policy, achieve equity for mental health care comparable to other health care, and reduce stigma and discrimination against those with mental illnesses.” Mental Health in Liberia seeks to “build a sustainable mental health system through workforce development, policy, and anti-stigma programming in partnership with the Liberian government.” The Georgia School-Based Behavioral Health program seeks to make School-Based Behavioral Health (SBBH ) “as common in Georgia's schools as the provision of school lunch and for Georgia to be the preeminent state in SBBH.” Additionally, this initiative attempts “to optimize limited resources, decrease fragmentation, and expand the work currently being conducted primarily in the public sector so that all of Georgia’s children have the opportunity to benefit from SBBH.” Finally, Carter promotes responsible journalism about mental health with its Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism program.
Important Grant Details:
Carter partners with corporations, governments, foundations, international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, national ministries of health, “and most of all, with people at the grass roots.” View program partners here.
Carter Center grants tend to be small, most under $10,000, although International Medical Corps received a grant of over $100,000 for international relief.
With the exception of the mental health journalism fellowship and a handful of Education Programs, limited to internships and graduate assistantships, this funder does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding. However, it does invite organizations seeking to work with the Carter Center to contact the Development Office at 1 (800) 550-3560 ext. 109. View FAQs for the Peace and Health programs here.
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