Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation makes grants for community development, the environment, bioscience and arts and culture with a strong focus on its home state of Washington.
IP TAKE: Best known as a funder of cutting-edge biological research and conservation, the Paul G. Allen Foundation also gives broadly in its home state of Washington for community development, arts and culture. This funder emphasizes innovation and collaboration across all giving areas, often handing the reigns to partner organizations when it comes to direction and decision making. Unfortunately, the Paul G. Allen Foundation does not respond to unsolicited inquiries for funding. This is a tough funding nut to crack, but network with other recent grantees of this family foundation to see how to get on its radar.
PROFILE: Established in 1988 by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his sister Jody Allen, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation is based in Seattle, Washington. The foundation “invests in communities across the Pacific Northwest to enhance the human experience of arts & culture, center under-served populations, and mobilize young people to make impact.” Its four grantmaking programs focus on Communities, Arts & Culture, the Environment and Bioscience. Grantmaking prioritizes the Pacific Northwest, but grants to national organizations, as well as organizations operating in other parts of the U.S., have increased over the past several years.
Grants for Public Health, Diseases, Brain and Scientific Research
Bioscience is the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation’s largest area of engagement and giving, with grants and signature programs for research accounting for almost half of its total giving. A major thrust of this giving is the affiliated Allen Institute and its Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group. The Allen Institute maintains a broad mission of supporting research “to understand the principles that govern life, and to advance health.” It runs an array of science programs including the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, the Allen Institute for Cell Science, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Allen Institute for Immunology, as well as the Frontiers Group.
Within the institute, the Frontiers Group sits at the forefront of scientific research, “push[ing] the limits of science” by “identifying and supporting researchers engaged in cutting-edge science at its very earliest stages.” The group runs two major giving programs.
Allen Discovery Centers are investments in “leadership-driven, compass-guided research centers” in “new fields” of biological research. Discovery centers are generally housed at leading research universities and institutes in the U.S. and abroad. An initial investment of $10 million over four years may be followed by “a second four year phase with an additional $10 million, matched by partner support, for a potential total scope of activity of $30 million.”
The latest center, launched in 2023, is the Allen Discovery Center for Neuroimmune Interactions at the Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai campus in New York. The project aims “to accelerate discoveries centered around how immune and nervous systems communicate.” Previously, Allen funded the the Allen Discovery Center for Cell Lineage Tracing, a collaboration among the University of Washington Medical School, Cal Tech and the University of Basel, and the Allen Discovery Center for Human Brain Evolution, a collaboration between Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard University Medical School.
The Allen Distinguished Investigators program awards grants ranging from $1 to $1.5 million for work that has the potential to achieve “world changing breakthroughs.” Past recipients include researchers at Columbia University, the Murdock Children’s Research Institute, the University of Illinois and the University of Melbourne in Australia, among others. Between 15 and 20 grants are awarded each year. In addition to these grants, the group regularly posts open calls for proposals on specific scientific topics. Guidelines are not currently linked to the program page, but the group suggests grantseekers sign up for its newsletter to stay abreast of upcoming and new opportunities.
The foundation also supports public health through two subinitiatives of its Communities grantmaking program.
The foundation supports Medication-First Opioid Disorder Treatment in Washington. The medication-first method involves the administration of buprenorphine, an opioid medication, to patients as they recover and has been shown to “improve patient outcomes while reducing the usage and mortality rate of those with opioid-use disorder.” The foundation’s main recipient in this area is the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute at the University of Washington.
Allen’s COVID-19 Pandemic Response funding consisted of $12.6 million in grants that supported “testing sites, vaccines, and community-based organizations on the front line supporting the most vulnerable communities in Washington state.” COVID-19 funding also supported research on serology and immune response at the University of Washington Medical School’s Virology Laboratory and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Grants for Climate Change, Clean Energy, Environmental and Animal Conservation
Allen’s Environment program works broadly to protect “biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystems” with acknowledgement of climate change and related environmental degradation. The foundation supports several signature and other initiatives in these areas. Some of the foundation’s major commitments are listed here:
The National Science Foundation Partnership to Advance Conservation Science and Practice is an $8 million commitment for six NSF conservation and research projects focusing on “threatened or endangered species and habitats.” Current projects concern “the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, Hawaiian land snails, desert tortoises, North American bats, crystal skipper butterflies, and secondary species in coastal restoration.” This program accepts research proposals through the program’s NSF page.
The foundation is a founding partner of the Earthshot Prize, which “aims to unite people to drive innovation to protect the Earth.” This global contest awards £1 million prizes to five of the “most innovative solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges.”
The foundation is also a co-founder of the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, a UN Impact Fund that works “to catalyze a sustainable financial system for the conservation of coral reefs and the sustainable development of the communities that depend on them.preserving underwater life.”
Allen made a $1.2 grant to the Earth Species Project for the development of “AI-based tools to understand animal behavior and communication” to be used in conservation efforts.
Another grantee, the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, receives funding for its work on 80 “underground exploration” projects to study networks of mycorrhizal fungi and their role in plant and ecosystem protection.
The Puget Sound Integrated Modeling Framework is a $4.8 million collaboration among environmental grantmakers in Washington. The aims to create “a cohesive picture of the entire Sound ecosystem under future conditions of climate change and population growth.”
Grants for Housing Homelessness and Community Development
The foundation’s Communities initiative works broadly to support “healthy, vibrant, inclusive communities” with a focus on the Pacific Northwest. One of the foundation’s main initiatives in the area of housing and homelessness is Seattle’s Gardner House and Allen Family Center. In partnership with Mercy Housing Northwest, the center supports homeless and vulnerable families with “permanent supportive housing, affordable housing, onsite services, and a Family Resource Center.” The project represents a $30 million gift from the foundation, a response to Seattle’s enduring housing and homelessness crisis.
Other grantees working in the areas of housing, homelessness and community development include the City of Seattle, Mary’s Place, the Refugee Women’s Alliance and Child Care Resources, all of Seattle, Washington.
Grants for K-12 Education, Youth Development and LGBTQ Causes
This funder supports initiatives for K-12 populations via its Communities grantmaking area.
Through a partnership with the National Geographic Society, the foundation provides ongoing support to the Slingshot Challenge. The challenge invites young people between the ages of 13 and 18 from anywhere in the world to “submit a 1-minute video describing their idea for solving environmental issues.” Winners receive a cash prize of $10,000 and significant publicity through the program’s award recipients page.
The foundation has also supported the Washington State Pilot of the Rhizome Civic Service Fellowship program, which “to perceive and engage in civic service as a lifelong commitment.” The foundation’s support helped the program expand to high schools across the state.
Support has also gone to the Pride Foundation, which received funding for capacity, movement building, leadership development and “to provide unrestricted sub-grants for nonprofits that primarily serve LGBTQ+ youth.”
Grants for Arts and Culture and Arts Education
In 2023, the Allen Foundation collaborated with Washington’s ArtsFund to launch a Community Accelerator Grant Program—a $10 million commitment to support arts organizations across the state. The program’s goal is to “advance recovery toward a stronger, more inclusive, and thriving arts and culture sector in our state.” Priorities include “organizations serving BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and rural communities, as well as people with disabilities.” Grantees were selected by a community advisory panel. The program made 671 grants ranging from $2,500 to $25,000 in its first year and was renewed in 2024. Accelerator recipients include the Power House Theatre of Walla Walla, Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, the Spokane Folklore Society, the American Asian Performing Arts Theater and the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, among others.
Important Grant Details:
With only a few outliers, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation’s grants range from $2,500 to $100,000.
The foundation’s largest giving area is bioscience. Science grantees tend to receive grants in the hundreds of thousands.
The Allen foundation’s newest giving area is arts and culture. It makes hundreds of grants to small- and medium-sized arts organizations in Washington, but these grants are much smaller, topping off at about $20,000.
Allen’s home state of Washington is a clear geographic priority, with several grantmaking programs limiting grantmaking to organizations based in the state.
The Allen Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals. However, it tends to run its grantmaking programs in collaboration with other organizations, some of which do run application programs.
The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding and does not respond to inquiries. The foundation’s phone number is (206) 342-2000.
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