de Beaumont Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The de Beaumont Foundation is primarily a public health funder, but also funds the intersection between health, disease prevention and research, as well as between a variety of fields, such as community and economic development, nonprofit development, housing, human services, and higher education.
IP TAKE: A major national health funder, the de Beaumont Foundation is a supportive funder that addresses public health philanthropy from a variety of prospectives. It also likes to partner with other established organizations that can scale. Given its size and high number of requests, this nontraditional funder prefers a proactive approach to grantmaking making it unfortunately inaccessible. It does not accept unsolicited grant applications. However, one method of getting on its radar includes reaching out to its previous grantees to learn more about how they got on this funder’s radar.
PROFILE: Founded in 1998 by Pierre S. (Pete) de Beaumont, the founder of the Brookstone Company, the de Beaumont Foundation works to “advance policy, build partnerships, and strengthen public health to create communities where people can achieve their best possible health.” Mr. de Beaumont was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from Harvard in 1938 to become a mechanical engineer with Packard Motor Car Co. (where he was granted several patents) and General Motors. He temporarily paused this work during WWII to serve as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. After the war, de Beaumont continued as an engineer at Apex Electrical Manufacturing Company and Bostic. In 1965, Mr. de Beaumont and his wife, Mary Deland (Robbins), founded the Brookstone Company, retiring in 1980 when they also sold the company to the Quaker Oats Company.
The de Beaumont Foundation is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Since its inception, the Foundation’s mandate was created to be purposefully expansive in the public health space. Consequently, this large public health funder features current and past programs that touch on public health and health advocacy through nontraditional health areas, including housing, community and economic development, human services, nonprofit development and higher education. De Beaumont approaches questions of health through a multi-pronged approach.
Grants for Public Health and Diseases
de Beaumont centers building healthier communities in all their grantmaking and that includes supporting organizations focused on bodily health and illness. The foundation supports hospitals and health centers all over the country and does not appear to favor one region over another. It developed new initiatives, such as the Public Health Communications Collaborative, founded with the CDC Foundation and Trust for America’s Health, as well as the Health Action Alliance, focused on businesses and public health, which was co-founded with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the CDC Foundation, the Business Roundtable, and the Ad Council.
Recent public health grantees in this space include multiple grants to Big Cities Health Coalition FS: Vose River Charitable Fund (a recent grant totaled $1,443,000) and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Other grantees include ChangeLab Solutions, Delta Health Alliance, and Florida Institute for Health Innovation.
The foundation has also addressed disease-specific causes. The de Beaumont Foundation has sought to address vaccine hesitancy among groups of Americans by working with the White House, the CDC and other philanthropic foundations. Recent disease-specific grantees include the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and International Eye Foundation, to help prevent eye disease.
While many of the foundation’s regional, smaller public health grantees include Jackson Medical Mall in Mississippi, Kentucky Public Health Institute, New Brunswick Tomorrow, The Jewish Healthcare Foundation of Pittsburgh, Spokane Regional Health District, Texas Department of State Health Services, and Cabin Creek Health Center in Dawes, West Virginia.
Grants for Community Development, Economic Development, and Housing
Included in the de Beaumont Foundation’s definition of community health is a number of human services and economic development organizations. It also routinely gives to groups working with the unhoused and focused on increasing access to affordable housing and ending homelessness.
Some recent grantees in this space include The Community Builders in Boston, Covenant House, Strong City Baltimore, Crossroads Community Services, and The Civic Canopy in Denver, Colorado. It has also given to Parkside Business and Community In Partnership in Camden, New Jersey, for development of affordable housing.
Grants for Higher Education
This funder’s grants for higher education always have a focus on community health and improvement. Most recipients here tend to be larger, public universities, especially those with a vibrant public health program.
Sarah Lawrence College has seen support in recent years, as has The City University of New York’s Research Foundation. Other grantees include Tufts College, University of Miami, University of Chicago’s Medical Center, University of Otago in America, University of Washington, and University of California’s Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health for graduate education in the field.
Grants for Nonprofits
While it makes these grants in much smaller numbers than in other areas, the de Beaumont Foundation occasionally gives to philanthropic nonprofits whose mission and direction coincide with its own. Some of these organizations include NEO Philanthropy, which has received millions, and Council on Foundations in Washington, D.C. Other grantees include Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, which has seen steady support, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations.
Other Grant Opportunities:
While not major areas of giving, the de Beaumont Foundation sets aside some funding for journalism and communications, typically that which is focused on providing clear journalism on health issues. It also works to address the causes and impact of misinformation in the United States, including calling for potential professional consequences for physicians who have spread COVID disinformation.
Important Grant Details:
The de Beaumont Foundations grantmaking tends to range widely from $5,000 to $1 million, though most grants average about $100,000 to $500,000, rather sizeable amounts. It does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding. Instead, it prefers to self-select its grantees.
It offers general and programmatic support through cash grants, and looks to “invest in measurable, replicable, scalable projects that have the potential for systemic impact.”
Its Board typically meets in February, May, August and October. While many of the foundation’s public health grantees are larger national organizations, it also supports smaller, regional groups.
Each team at the de Beaumont Foundation is responsible for its own programmatic area, so reach out accordingly.
Grantseekers can reach out with general inquiries at info@debeaumont.org, or by phone at 301-961-5800.
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