How to get a grant from the Ballmer Group

OVERVIEW: Ballmer Group broadly backs programs and policy aimed at expanding economic opportunity for children and families. Its giving spans housing and homelessness, criminal justice reform, racial equity, education and, through related vehicles, climate and environmental work.

IP TAKE: Ballmer Group has quickly become one of the country’s major anti-poverty funders, with a growing presence in climate and other emerging areas. Alongside its national giving, it invests heavily in three places where it has offices: Southeast Michigan, Los Angeles County and Washington state. As strategy director Kim Pattillo Brownson told Inside Philanthropy, the “overarching focus is always on economic mobility.”

Ballmer often makes large, unrestricted, multiyear grants, while also reaching smaller community groups through intermediaries. Its largest partnership to date is with Blue Meridian Partners, an anti-poverty intermediary that backs scalable solutions for young people and families facing poverty.

Despite a detailed grants database, Ballmer remains a hard funder to read. As an LLC, not a conventional private foundation, it does not publish a complete Form 990-PF grant list, and its database may not capture every grant or for-profit partnership. It also does not accept unsolicited inquiries. The best prospects are established organizations, public-private partnerships and intermediaries with scale, strong data, public-sector relationships and a clear fit with Ballmer’s economic mobility agenda for low-income children and families. Cold proposals are unlikely to land; visibility through Ballmer-aligned networks is the more realistic path.

In July 2026, the Ballmers announced the launch of three independent, locally led philanthropies: MoveUp Southeast Michigan, MoveUp LA and MoveUp Washington. Funded by the Ballmers but operating separately from Ballmer Group, the new organizations will continue the family’s core mission of expanding economic mobility for children and families.

As these regional philanthropies take shape, Ballmer Group is expected to concentrate more of its own work on a smaller set of large, scalable national initiatives tied to economic mobility. Still, this remains a fast-moving funder worth watching closely.

PROFILE: The Bellevue, Washington-based Ballmer Group was established in 2015 by Steve and Connie Ballmer, after Ballmer’s retirement from his position of CEO at Microsoft. The group is “committed to improving economic mobility for children and families in the United States.” The Ballmer Group is structured as a limited liability company (LLC), and as such, gives to nonprofits as well as for-profit enterprises. Ballmer Group is one of the fastest-growing philanthropies ever: since its founding, Ballmer has given over $4 billion to charitable enterprises, with hundreds of millions going out the door annually. As of this writing, the Ballmers are ranked in the top ten of Forbes’ list of worldwide billionaires.

Ballmer Group’s redesigned website brings a sharper frame to its giving, naming new core funding areas: Early Childhood & Families, K-12 Education, College & Career, New Initiatives, Child Welfare, Housing & Homelessness, Criminal Justice Reform, and Place-Based Partnerships. At the same time, the Ballmer Group no longer names clear priorities across funding areas, instead blurring funding across cross-sectional tags in its grants database, which offers clues on how it funds.

The group’s stated geographic priorities are Southeast Michigan and Los Angeles County, although significant giving also takes place nationally and in the state of Washington.

Grants for Economic Mobility and Success

Ballmer Group is one of the country’s largest anti-poverty funders, with much of its work aimed at expanding “economic opportunity for all.” Its grants back leaders and organizations positioned to widen access, reduce systemic inequities and build more equitable economies. Across this portfolio, career success and economic mobility are recurring through lines.

Across Ballmer Group’s giving, two priorities consistently surface: expanding economic opportunity and reducing entrenched inequities. Many of its grantees serve BIPOC communities, are BIPOC-led, or work directly on racial and economic mobility.

That lens helps explain Ballmer’s role in NextLadder Ventures, a $1 billion initiative backed by a coalition that includes Ballmer Group, the Gates Foundation, Stand Together, Valhalla Foundation and John Overdeck. Over 15 years, NextLadder will use grants, equity and revenue-based financing to support nonprofit and for-profit ventures helping people navigate pivotal moments such as job loss, housing instability and health crises.
Other major commitments follow the same vein:
- The Black Economic Alliance Foundation received a $31 million multiyear grant to support its Center for Black Entrepreneurship, which helps Black business owners access technical assistance, capital, markets and pro-growth policy.
- Acumen Fund is slated to receive $7.6 million by the end of 2026 for its work with early-stage companies serving low-income people.
- Ballmer is also Blue Meridian Partners’ largest backer, with more than $500 million pledged to the anti-poverty intermediary.
- Additional grantees include the Center for Employment Opportunities, Jobs to Move America and Year Up United, which has received tens of millions for expanding access to education, work and economic mobility.

Grants for Education

Education has consistently been one of Ballmer’s largest giving areas, with funding supporting early childhood, K-12 and higher education initiatives.

Grants for Early Childhood Education and Maternal Health

Ballmer says Early Childhood & Families grants build systems of support and care for young children by promoting equity in prenatal and maternal health, supporting families engaged with child welfare and helping families access high-quality childcare and early education.

In November 2025, Ballmer announced a major $1 billion commitment to Washington’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, a comprehensive pre-K program for children from low-income families. The investment will help create up to 10,000 new school-day seats, with annual support reaching as much as $170 million. If fully realized, the expansion would grow the program from roughly 14,500 children in 2026-27 to nearly 25,000 statewide.The funding is “contingent on the state maintaining or increasing its own annual ECEAP investments” and is not meant to replace public funding for early childhood.
Other early childhood grantees include the First Five Action Funder, the Sobrato Early Academic Language Program in Los Angeles, the LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment, Educare Los Angeles, Washington’s Imagine Institute and California’s Children Now, which works to advance universal childcare in the state of California.

Grants for K-12 Education

Ballmer says K-12 Education grants seek to reduce inequities in student achievement through in-school academics, wraparound and afterschool support, strong schools and a more representative, racially diverse educator workforce.

General Ballmer K-12 funding is invitation-only. For the CIS pathway, school district leaders and educators were directed to contact their local CIS affiliate.
In April 2026, Ballmer expanded a free full-day summer learning initiative to Washington under DiscoverWorks. The Washington program serves students entering grades 1-9 at participating public, charter and tribal schools in Yakima and Puget Sound regions where at least 50% of students qualify for free lunch; it projected service to about 10,000 students in summer 2026.
In 2025, the Ballmer Group gave a $20.8 million grant to the Young Men’s Christian Association of Greater Seattle to “empower YMCAs throughout Washington State to significantly expand their diverse and inclusive programs for low-income youth, enhancing their opportunities for personal growth, academic success, and social-emotional development.”
In 2023, Ballmer Group pledged nearly $165 million to Communities in Schools, a national organization that “improves graduation rates by establishing integrated student supports that meet the unique needs of children and families, and connecting students with a range of existing services, like tutoring, health services, or basic needs, to help them stay in school.”
Charter schools are another area of strong interest. Ballmer has provided ongoing support to organizations including Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools, Los Angeles’s Camino Nuevo Charter Academy and KIPP SoCal Public Schools.
With help from the philanthropic advisory firm Building Impact Partners, the Ballmer Group created Summer Discovery, a fund that makes grants to educational nonprofits and schools in Southeast Michigan for the purpose of running summer learning and enrichment programs for K-8 students in Macomb, Wayne and Oakland Counties in Michigan.

Grants for Higher Education and College Access

Ballmer Group’s College & Career grants focus on postsecondary credentials, career training and apprenticeships, with higher education folded into a broader strategy for connecting people to good jobs. The portfolio emphasizes community colleges, career pathways, employer-linked training and student supports that improve college completion and economic mobility.

No open application process is published; grants appear to be proactive or invitation-only, often moving through Ballmer staff and intermediaries. Community colleges have been a visible focus, especially institutions offering free or low-cost pathways for eligible students.
Recent grantees include the Institute of College Access and Success, College Unbound, Southern California College Attainment Network, Henry Ford College, College Advising Corps and College Possible, among many others.
In 2022, Ballmer Group also gave $425 million to the University of Oregon to create the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health.

Grants for Housing and Community Development

Ballmer says Housing & Homelessness grants address the “relationship between stable housing and economic mobility, with a focus on policies to undo systemic racism in housing, increasing housing supply and reducing homelessness through long-term partnerships with nonprofits and government.”

The new Washington Family Housing Fund invites potential partnership conversations through the fund website, and intermediary initiatives like Communities in Schools, DiscoverWorks/Summer Discovery and Blue Meridian may create indirect access points. The multi-year initiative aims to build 10,000+ affordable homes for Washington families.
- Eligible units must have at least two bedrooms, be affordable to families earning about 50% AMI, offer rents at a significant discount to comparable market-rate housing, and remain affordable for at least 60 years.
- The fund offers up to $150,000 in zero-interest forgivable financing per eligible unit, and Ballmer says potential partners can visit the fund website to start a conversation.
Other housing grants have supported the Housing Partnership Network, Enterprise Community Partners, Funders for Housing Opportunity, Homestart and the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

Grants for Criminal Justice Reform and Public Safety

The Ballmer Group’s Criminal Justice Reform work seeks to “transform adult and youth justice systems through advocacy, community-led violence intervention, automatic expungement and career opportunities for affected individuals and families.”

Ballmer’s grants database still uses “Public Safety” as a grant tag, and the grants page says Public Safety grants support leaders and organizations advocating for and scaling effective public safety initiatives.
Grants have gone to organizations that support victims of violent crimes, gun control policy and programs for fair policing.
2025 recipients include the Community Based Public Safety Collective, National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, Community Partners, University of Chicago Crime Lab, about $11 million to the Urban Peace Institute, and multiple multi-million dollar grants to Cities United, among many other grantees.

Other opportunities:

Grants for Climate

Climate has become a major emerging interest for the Ballmers, but that work now appears to sit outside Ballmer Group. In 2024, they launched Rainier Climate as a separate vehicle for climate and energy giving, leaving Ballmer Group’s portfolio focused elsewhere.
In 2023, Ballmer Group announced a $431 million commitment to climate solutions aimed at confronting what it called “our climate emergency.” Early grants focused on curbing deforestation and reducing global dependence on fossil fuels. The commitment positioned the Ballmers as major funders in climate philanthropy.

Grants for Mental Health

Ballmer says under New Initiatives , it makes behavioral health and public safety grants. It treats behavioral health as foundational to mobility rather than a standalone traditional health program. The Ballmer Group does not otherwise name health as a formal grantmaking priority, but its grants database has pointed to some support for maternal, pediatric and family health as they intersect with wellness and mental health.

Ballmer’s mental health grants support services, training, infrastructure support and policy. Most grantmaking is place-based in the group’s geographic areas of interest and prioritizes underserved populations.
This is not an area with an open RFP, but is instead a systems-change/state-capacity support given through national intermediaries.
In November 2025, Ballmer committed $72 million to expand access to Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics in Illinois, Kansas and Michigan. The grant went to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors for technical assistance and state-based capacity.
Children’s mental health grantmaking has, in past tax years, prioritized children and families in the welfare and foster systems. Most of this grantmaking stays in Washington, where recipients include FIRST Clinic, the Kindering Center and the Mockingbird Society, which serves foster youth and families.
Maternal and children’s health grantees include the MomsRising Education Fund.

Grants for Tech and Data

Tech and data appear to be a newer area of interest for the Ballmers, functioning both as a grants-database category and a cross-cutting tool rather than a standalone program. Ballmer Group’s current “Our Work” page frames this work around helping nonprofits and government programs use technology more effectively to carry out their missions.

Its Data & Technology team also supports and scales tech and data solutions for the nonprofit and social-service sectors.
No open application process was found. Grants include large national tech and data commitments to groups such as the Beeck Center and Digital Harbor Foundation, as well as to the Tech Talent Project.

Ballmer has also supported NPR, donating $80 million in April 2026 to help ensure “NPR transforms its technology to meet the needs and serve the interests of public media audiences on whatever platforms or devices they may seek it.”

Important Grant Details:

The Ballmer Group’s grants can range from $50,000 to over $400 million, however, most grants fall in the $250,000 to $5 million range. The most common grant amount is $1.5 million. Grantmaking has topped $400 million a year in recent years.

Grants tend to support either regranting intermediaries or large, well-established nonprofits and universities.
Larger grants tend to represent three- to five-year commitments.
Regional funds and regranters number significantly among the group’s recipients.
About half of all grants support organizations in Ballmer’s target geographic areas of Los Angeles County, Southeast Michigan and Washington State.
For additional information about past grants, see the Ballmer Groups grants database page.
The Ballmer Group does not run an open application program or offer a direct avenue for getting in touch.
Ballmer’s active grants database lists Blue Meridian Partners grants of $237.4 million from 2020-2026 and $350 million from 2024-2029. Blue Meridian describes itself as a partnership of results-oriented philanthropists investing in strategies that work for young people and families in poverty. This is an intermediary/regranting pathway, not a Ballmer open application.

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Last updated on July 1, 2026