Grand Circle Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Grand Circle Foundation is the philanthropic offshoot of the Grand Circle Travel Company. This funder makes grants and supports hands-on partnerships in the areas of global development, environmental conservation, clean energy, arts and culture and humanitarian and disaster relief.
IP TAKE: With roots in the travel industry, the Grand Circle Foundation is able to connect to and support grassroots efforts for development, conservation, solar energy generation, historical preservation and disaster relief. This funder does not accept unsolicited applications for funding. It’s not an accessible funder.
PROFILE: Established in 1992, the Boston-based Grand Circle Foundation’s founders Harriet and Alan Lewis invested in their first travel company back in the early 1970s. In 1985, they purchased Grand Circle Travel and bought another travel company, Overseas Adventure Travel, eight years later. Their foundation seeks to “[h]elp change people’s lives in the world we travel and where we live and work.” It pursues its mission through partnerships and grantmaking in the areas of global development, environmental conservation, clean energy, arts and culture and humanitarian and disaster relief in 71 countries around the world. The Lewis family also runs Alnoba, a separate organization that organizes retreats and seminars for leaders in the fields of conservation and clean energy at a 600-acre property in Kensington, New Hampshire.
Grants for Global Development
The Grand Circle Foundation supports global development in the areas of education, community development and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene programs). Education grantmaking focuses on working with communities to provide basic educational needs in underserved and developing areas of the world, with many recent grants going to school communities in Africa. The foundation has partnered, for example, with the Massai community in Amboseli, Kenya, to improve its primary school and establish a secondary school. In addition to funding the building project, Grand Circle helped the community raise money for technology, books and solar panels to provide electricity to the new school. In Zimbabwe, the foundation partnered with Book Aid International to provide children’s books for reading areas at primary schools. The foundation also funds scholarships for promising elementary and secondary students in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Grand Circle’s WASH funding supports efforts to provide plumbing, water filtration systems and hygiene education to the schools and communities in Africa, Asia and South America. In a recent year, WASH grants accounted for about 45% of the foundation’s total grantmaking. Funded projects include a water tank for the village of Tin Keo in Laos, toilets and water systems for the town of Cheuteal in Cambodia and a partnership with Community Pure Water to improve water supply and quality in the Mirzapur District of Uttar Pradesh in India.
Another area of global development funding concerns sustainable and inclusive community development in areas of high need. Grantees in this area include programs that invest in small business development and women’s and minorities’ leadership initiatives. Past grantees include India’s Dhonk Women’s Collaborative and the Ladies’ Goat-Rearing Committee of Zimbabwe.
Grants for Environmental Conservation and Climate Change
Grand Circle works with grassroots and indigenous groups to protect and preserve land and natural resources that are vital to the global struggle against climate change. Past grantees include Bears Ears National Monument and Education Center in Bluff, Utah, which used funding to run conservation education programs, and a Massai community in Tanzania, which collaborated with the foundation in an effort to prevent the killing of endangered wildlife and use sustainable methods to protect livestock.
The Grand Circle Foundation’s grants for clean energy and climate change often support projects that have brought solar-generated electricity to schools, communities and industrial and commercial buildings. In Colombia, the foundation helped El Laurel, a school in the country’s coffee-growing region, to implement a solar power generation system, and in India, the foundation partnered with the Solar Village Project on a micro-finance solar energy project for energy impoverished rural communities.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Arts and culture are smaller areas of grantmaking for the Grand Circle Foundation. Funded projects generally support historic preservation projects involving buildings, artifacts, cultures or traditions. In Japan, the foundation supported efforts to improve accessibility and sustainability of the Senko-ji Temple in Hiroshima, and in Bali, the foundation partnered with the local community to preserve and improve accessibility to the Temple of Sudamala. Other preservation grantees include Israel’s City of David, the World Monuments Fund, the State Museum of Auschwitz in Poland and Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.
Grants for Humanitarian and Disaster Relief
Grand Circle’s disaster relief funding targets natural disaster relief efforts in areas where “local governments cannot adequately provide basic needs.” Rather than supporting large-scale relief efforts, Grand Circle works with smaller, regional organizations with strong leadership and knowledge of local resources. In response to the Australian brush fires of late 2019, the foundation gave to the Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria and the Kangaroo Island Mayoral Fund. After the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the foundation supported the Nepal Orthopedic Hospital and 7 Summits Women.
Important Grant Details:
The Grand Circle Foundation grants range from about $5,000 to $250,000. In a recent year, the foundation made over $800,000 in grants, with an average grant size of about $25,000. Most grants take the form of partnerships and serve organizations or local communities in the developing world. Some projects in the U.S. have also been funded. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s What We Do and Who We Partner With pages.
The Grand Circle Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications for funding, but general inquiries may be directed to foundation staff via email or telephone at 800-859-0852.
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