Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation

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OVERVIEW: The Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation supports initiatives for trafficked, disabled and refugee children around the world. It also makes a few grants each year to support sustainable development.

IP TAKE: Most of this funder’s grants support organizations working with vulnerable children in developing and least developed countries. Organizations must be U.S.-based, so international groups require a presence in the United States to receive funding. While this funder doesn’t accept unsolicited applications, it does consider a brief letter outlining your work that aligns with the foundation’s mission.

PROFILE: Headquartered in Pennsylvania, the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation was established by the late Dorothea Haus Ross in 1997 with the mission of supporting “nonprofit organizations that seek to ensure basic needs and human rights including sustenance, education, healthcare and security to the most vulnerable children throughout the world.” Dorothea was the daughter of Simon Victor Haus, who was “George Eastman’s General Manager for Eastman Kodak Company’s European factories.”

The foundation’s grantmaking currently focuses on “disabled, trafficked and refugee children” around the world. The foundation also makes a limited number of grants to support “organizations that enable entrepreneurs to build sustainable economic communities for their children and families.”

Grants for Global Development, Health, Human Rights, Women and Girls, Immigrants and Refugees

The Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation’s main area of grantmaking supports initiatives to protect and heal the world’s most vulnerable children. The foundation names trafficked children, children with disabilities and refugee children as its main areas of focus.

  • Grants for trafficked and exploited children work on several levels to prevent trafficking of children, rehabilitate victims and, when possible, return them to safety. The foundation also supports organizations that advocate for more stringent laws on trafficking and “the related scourge of child marriage.”

    In India, the foundation supported Suprava Panchashila Mahila Uddyog Samity, an organization run by former victims who help trafficked women and girls escape captivity and who advocate to end trafficking and child marriage. Another grantee, the National Federation of Female Communities of Kyrgyzstan, is led by youth who work to empower young women against sexual abuse, forced marriage and gender-based violence.

  • Grantmaking for children with disabilities prioritizes children in parts of the world where disability leads to social stigma and neglect. Priorities of this program include support for family-based care models, inclusive education, rehabilitative therapies and building capacity and infrastructure for supports including assistive technologies, mobility aids and prosthetics.

    Disability grantees include the Thai Child Development Foundation, which used funding to train teachers and healthcare professionals in rural areas to “to create improved models of care” and “foster inclusion” for disabled children. The foundation also gave to the Range of Motion Project, which received a grant to expand its work in Guatemala providing prosthetic devices and rehabilitative surgeries to poor and Indigenous children.

  • Grants for displaced and refugee children supports “organizations that provide housing, stability and education to children to help them survive the difficult and dislocating conditions in which they are forced to live.” Areas of priority include housing, safety, family reunifications, therapy and counseling services, and education.

    Grants in this area have gone to Choose Love/Help Refugees, which is working to “identify, vet and fund” refugee organizations in Poland, Romania and Moldova to provide protective services and shelter to child refugees from Ukraine. The foundation also supports the Global Fund for Children’s operations in Ukraine, which Ukrainian children displaced with the country.

Grants for Climate Change, Clean Energy, Work and Opportunity

Sustainable economic communities is a smaller area of giving for the Haus Ross Foundation. Grants support “a very limited number of community based organizations that empower village-level entrepreneurs to provide a sustainable livelihood for their families and which strengthen the fabric of community health and education.” Targets of this initiative include models of “entrepreneur-led economic development” and communities that are especially vulnerable to “climate change and political upheaval.”

Grants from this program have supported the Cooperative Development Foundation and Trickle Up, which provides seed funding, training and financial services to women living in poverty.

Important Grant Details:

This funder’s grants mainly range from $10,000 to $55,000.

  • While grantmaking is global and many grantees work in the developing world, grantees must US Government recognized 501(c)(3) organizations to be considered for funding.

  • Across all areas, giving prioritizes vulnerable children and communities.

  • Many grantees receive multi-year grants.

  • The foundation makes program grants and usually does not offer general operating support.

  • The foundation receives a large volume of inquiries and regrets that it can not respond to all of them.

  • Organizations that believe they are good fit for this funder may reach out via the foundation’s contact form.

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