Mary Kay Foundation

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OVERVIEW: The Mary Kay Foundation’s grantmaking centers around two issues affecting women, cancer and domestic violence.

IP TAKE: Mary Kay invites research hospitals and medical schools to submit applications for its cancer research grants, but it does accept applications for its domestic violence grants from January through April each year. The foundation makes about 60 grants a year to small- to medium-sized shelters and women’s programs around the country, making it a great source of support in this area.

PROFILE: The Mary Kay Foundation, also known as the Mary Kay Ash Foundation, was founded in 1996 by Mary Kay Ash, founder of the multilevel-marketing cosmetics company, after her husband, Mel Ash, passed away from lung cancer. The foundation “raises and distributes funds to invest in breakthrough cancer research and clinical trials to find a cure for women-related cancers and ending domestic violence.” In addition to the U.S. foundation, Mary Kay Foundations operate in Brazil, Canada and China.

Grants for Women and Girls

While the foundation does not maintain specific programs for women, its grants prioritize support for them across all areas of its grantmaking. Every year, the foundation’s Research Review Committee selects top researchers and accredited medical schools whose work merits a grant from the foundation’s Cancer Research Grant program. Grants support investigators researching cures for cancers affecting women including, but not limited to, breast, cervical, uterine and ovarian cancers. The foundation also makes grants to organizations working to end Domestic and Gender-Based Violence.

Grants for Diseases

Mary Kay’s Cancer Research program is primarily concerned with “eliminating cancers affecting women,” including breast, cervical, uterine and ovarian cancers, among others. Mary Kay generally supports individual researchers at major medical schools and institutions conducting translational research. Grantees include researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Brown University, the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill and the University of Southern California, among others. To get a broader sense of the type of research Mary Kay supports, explore its Cancer Grant Recipients page.

The Mary Kay Foundation also funds a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship in translational cancer research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Five fellowships are awarded to researchers from around the globe each year.

Grants for Violence Prevention

The Mary Kay Foundation’s Domestic and Gender-Based Violence grantmaking program is “committed to stopping the violence, breaking the silence, and making a difference,” for women and children suffering from and surviving domestic violence. Grants support shelters and other organizations that support women and children across the country, including Indiana’s Kosciusko County Shelter for Abuse, New Mexico’s Valencia Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence, the Family Crisis Center of South Dakota and the House of Ruth in Washington, D.C. For additional information, see the foundation’s domestic violence grantees page.

Important Grant Details:

With only a few exceptions, grants are made in amounts ranging from $20,000 to $50,000.

  • Domestic violence grants tend to support smaller, community-based organizations serving women, while cancer research grants support individual researchers at leading hospitals and medical schools across the country.

  • For cancer research grants, the foundation invites institutions to submit applications for affiliated researchers working in relevant fields.

  • The foundation accepts applications for its domestic violence grants through its grant portal in the months of January through April each year. See the application guidelines before submitting information.

  • See the foundation’s program pages and its grant impact stories for additional information about past grants.

Inquiries may be submitted to the foundation via its contact page at any time.

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