Wallace H. Coulter Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Coulter Foundation supports biomedical engineering advancement and the institutions and societies with which its founder was affiliated.
IP TAKE: This funder awards both program specific and general operating support grants, but getting the foundation’s attention can be difficult. This is a confusing funder that can be a bit bureaucratic in its approach. Not an ideal funder for grassroots organizations, but strong for those conducting particular veins of science research or other work the foundation has outlined.
This funder is very accessible and accepts applications on a rolling basis, but guidelines are not clear, requiring interested grant seekers to contact it’s approachable staff to learn more about how the foundation makes grants. They want to discuss your work with you before you apply. This grantmaker swings left of center, so conservative causes will be pressed to secure funding here.
Grantmaking serves the local, national and global levels. Lately, local funding has concentrated on civic and democracy work related to voting. However, this foundation gives across all of its areas. It is not a grassroots funder though, preferring to give big in its focus areas.
This funder also likes to partner with organizations that are established and can scale their work, so partnering with this funder is another option if your work closely aligns with theirs.
PROFILE: Established in 1998, the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation is a private foundation based in Miami, Florida. Coulter was an inventor, engineer and entrepreneur who founded a medical diagnostics company called Coulter Electronics (later Coulter Corporation and Beckman Coulter, Inc.) and developed flow cytometers and blood cell counters. The foundation aims to support " risk capital for innovative initiatives through its grants.” Coulter funds local efforts for science, medicine, quality of medical care, research, innovation and Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations. Grant programs include Translational Research, Colleges, Universities & Societies and Sharing the American Dream.
Grants for Science Research and Diseases
The foundation’s Translational Research program supports “best practices of industry to accelerate academic innovations to the market to improve patient care.” Coulter’s Colleges, Universities & Societies program also awards grants to support scientific research programs; however, grantees must have a connection with Mr. Coulter or the foundation to receive funding. Past science research grantees include Johns Hopkins University and the Louisville Research Foundation. Both institutions received grants to “enhance and support research directed at promising technologies with the university research laboratory that are progressing toward clinical practice.”
The foundation has given widely across the U.S. to establish multiple centers and departments to memorialize it’s founder. For instance, Coulter’s alma mater of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri houses a science and mathematics building named the Coulter Science Center. At Clarkson University, the school renamed its engineering school The Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering to honor both Coulter’s time there as a trustee and as a scientist. The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University are also named after him. In 2017, the American History Museum in Washington D.C. created a permanent exhibition called the Wallace H. Coulter Unity Square.
Although the foundation does not have a grantmaking program specifically dedicated to diseases and disease organizations, it supports such organizations through its Translational Research program, which works to decrease the time it takes for academic innovations to reach patients. Past disease related grantees include European Hematology Association, which received funding to support its translational research in hematology and oncology; and the Lupus Foundation of America, which received a grant to support its Lupus research activities.
A newer development, the foundation’s Coulter Investment Forum is a healthcare innovation forum is a one-day “start-up pitch competition and investment forum co-hosted by Drexel University, Penn Center for Innovation and the University City Science Center that brought together the brightest innovative companies in the areas of medical devices, therapeutics and diagnostics, healthcare IT, and delivery solutions. “ The competitors are vetted using the Coulter Commercialization Process.
Grants for Higher Education
The Coulter Foundation supports higher education through the translational research and colleges, universities and societies programs. The translational research program aims to “accelerate academic innovations to the market to improve patient care” and funds academic research to this end. The colleges, universities and societies initiative works exclusively with institutions and societies with which Coulter was affiliated in his lifetime. Grantees include Johns Hopkins University; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Duke University and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Grants for Civic and Democracy, Racial Equity and Immigrants
The founder was very interested in Asian culture, and accordingly, the foundation regularly supports Asian American and Pacific Islander groups through its Sharing the American Dream program to help these populations attain the “American dream.” These grants typically support programs and organizations working to improve the health, education and welfare of all Asian- Americans which occurs through an equity lens. Related giving occurs here for civic engagement, democracy and immigrant justice work.
Past grantees related to civic engagement and democracy have focused on voter registration and voting rights, such as the Florida Philanthropic Network, the Urban League of Broward County, the Ventus Charitable and Miami Foundations, the Health Foundation of Southern Florida, and the NALEO Educational Fund.
The Coulter Foundation also created the Coulter Consortium, which is a collection of national, state and local Asian organizations. Among its goals, the consortium works to unite the disparate groups, eliminate barriers to success, promote civic engagement, and encourage participation in the U.S. Census. Past grantees include Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Voter Registration Project, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles. Other nonprofits focused on immigrant justice that have received grants here include the New York Immigration Coalition, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights,
Important Grant Details:
Coulter Foundation grant amounts generally range widely from $1,000 to nearly $10 million. The majority of grants fall in the $25,000 to $250,000 range.
The foundation accepts unsolicited grant applications and requests for funding; however, its guidelines, eligibility requirements and grantmaking processes are unclear. Grant seekers are encouraged to contact foundation staff for additional information.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
