F. M. Kirby Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The F.M. Kirby Foundation’s largest giving areas are education, health and human services. It also supports neuroscience research, disease-related organizations, hospitals, land and wildlife conservation, the arts and civic engagement.
IP TAKE: While it is more challenging to win its support, Kirby is a thoughtful funder that spends its money wisely. It’s an accessible funder that considers applications on a rolling basis. Although Kirby awards grants to nonprofits across the United States, those located along the Eastern Seaboard—namely New Jersey and North Carolina— have an increased chance in obtaining a grant.
The foundation primarily supports smaller, local outfits, but also donates a significant amount to major national non-profits each year. Its education funding prioritizes elite private schools as opposed to public schools, an omission that may reflect the foundation’s broader values.
This funder is not particularly open-minded and appears risk adverse in its grantmaking.. This is also a funder that leans conservative, so if your work is progressive in nature, this funder will not be interested in your work.
PROFILE: The F.M. Kirby Foundation of Morristown, NJ, was founded in 1931 by one of the early players in the F.W. Woolworth Company. Its primary mission is to effectively “manage and utilize that which has been entrusted to it over multiple generations of the Kirby family” by investing in “opportunities that foster self-reliance or otherwise create strong, healthy communities.” The foundation has a number of different funding interests, including arts, culture and humanities; education; environment and animals; health; human services; public affairs and religion. The foundation does not name specific goals for its grantmaking within each area, making it somewhat difficult to understand its specific goals. Kirby’s largest areas of giving are education, health and human services.
Grants for K-12 and Higher Education
The Kirby Foundation’s largest giving, with approximately $3.5 million in grants going to 49 organizations and schools in a recent year. In higher education, one of Kirby’s main beneficiaries is Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where Kirby funds the Kirby Foundation Scholars Fund, the Kirby Athletic Merit Scholarship Fund, and the Kirby Athletic Enhancement Endowment. It has also made donations to Drew University, Fairfield University, and Rutgers University.
K-12 giving primarily benefits private schools on the East Coast, such as Durham Academy, Greensboro Day School, Gill St. Bernard School and Phillips Exeter Academy. It also supports education-related non-profits like Literacy Volunteers of Morris County, JerseyCAN, and Students2Science.
Grants for Brain, Cell and Disease Research
Kirby’s health grantmaking focuses on on research. The foundation made over $2 million in grants for disease and other types of medical research in a recent year. One grant went to the Alzheimer’s Association for “Support for Early-Career Investigators through the International Research Grant Program.” Kirby has also given to the Children’s Hospital Corporation’s F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center and established the F.M. Kirby Foundation Brain Tumor Research Fund at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where it concentrates much of its brain-related grantmaking. Other recent grantees include research initiatives at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Rockefeller University and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The Kirby Foundation also makes donations to major national disease-related organizations such as the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Scheie Eye Institute.
Grants for Public and Mental Health
Kirby’s human services grants have supported health and mental health organizations and initiatives in recent years. Grantees include Alzheimer’s New Jersey, the Cancer Hope Network, the Center for Child and Family Health and the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris Counties in New Jersey. The foundation has also given to several local and regional chapters of Planned Parenthood.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development
Kirby’s human services grantmaking has also supported organizations working to prevent homelessness, provide affordable housing and support health and safe communities. Grantees include several local chapters of Habitat for Humanity, Housing for New Hope, Employment Horizons and several local chapters of Boys and Girls Clubs and the United Way.
Grants for the Environmental Conservation, Animals and Wildlife.
The Kirby Foundation supports a broad range of environmental conservation initiatives and organizations via its environmental giving area. New Jersey and New York appear to be geographic priorities here, with recent grants going to the New Jersey Audubon Society, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the Adirondack Council, the Central Park Conservancy and the Greater Newark Conservancy. Grantees hailing from other areas include American Rivers, The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the Conservation Trust for North Carolina and the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Kirby names arts, culture and humanities as areas of grantmaking interest, and supports visual arts, performing arts and cultural organizations with a strong focus on its home state of New Jersey. The foundation does not names specific grantmaking interests in these areas. Recent grantees include the Mayo Performing arts Center, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, ArtPride New Jersey, the Newark Museum, the Morris Museum and the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. The foundation also provides ongoing support to the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in Pennsylvania.
Grants for Civic and Democracy
The Kirby Foundation’s public affairs grantmaking primarily supports national organizations, primarily right-leaning ones, that claim to advocate for legal and civil rights of American citizens, such as Atlantic Legal Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute, the Center for Individual Rights and the Institute for American Values. It is worth noting that the foundation also supports several public radio and television outlets, including New York Public RAdio, NJ PBS and North Carolina Public Radio.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
Kirby also names religion as one of its interests, although this is the smallest of its grantmaking areas. Recent grants have gone exclusively to Episcopal congregations. Grantees include Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, New Jersey; St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, New Jersey; and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Durham, North Carolina.
Important Grant Details:
F. M. Kirby’s Health grants generally range from $40,000 to $250,000. More than half of all grants serve organizatiosn in the foundation’s home state of New Jersey. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s Past Grants for more information on its grantmaking habits in this and other areas.
The F.M. Kirby Foundation does not have a required grant application format; however, grantseekers may submit unsolicited requests for funding by submitting a letter of inquiry (LOI). Guidelines and instructions are provided on Kirby’s application page. The foundation accepts LOIs on a rolling basis throughout the year. Submissions made after October 31 are held for grant consideration until the following year.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
