Christopher D. Smithers Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Smithers Foundation awards grants to a wide range of projects associated with alcoholism and substance abuse.
IP TAKE: This laser-focused funder is a great one to know in the substance abuse and behavioral health space. It views addiction as a “treatable medical illness from which people can and do recover.” This approachable funder accepts proposals by mail at any time.
PROFILE: R. Brinkley Smithers founded the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation in 1952, in honor of his late father, to carry on the elder Smithers' legacy of giving. However, that all changed in the mid-1950s when R. Brinkley Smithers decided to refocus the Foundation’s giving on alcoholism after studying at the Yale School of Alcohol Studies and his own recovery from alcoholism.
Today, the Foundation’s three-pronged mission is “[e]ducating the public that alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder are respectable, treatable medical illness from which people can and do recover; encouraging prevention programs and activities, with an emphasis on high risk populations; and continually fighting to reduce and eliminate the stigma that is associated with the medical illness of addiction. Grants support prevention, education and treatment programs, as well as research on addiction and recovery.
Grants for Public Health and Mental Health
The Smithers Foundation’s recent grantmaking has supported a broad range of health and mental health organizations involved in awareness, prevention, treatment and research on substance abuse. The Foundation has collaborated with Columbia University Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry to create #StoptheSpiral, a campaign to promote the awareness and accessibility of medical treatments for addiction. Other grantees include the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the National Council of Addiction and Drug Dependency’s Westchester County Chapter.
Important Grant Details:
This funder’s grants generally range from $750 to about $56,000, with only a few large, addiction prevention organizations having received larger sums over the years.
In addition to treatment and aftercare related to substance abuse disorders, this funder supports education and prevention programs of all shapes and sizes.
New York, California and Maryland appear to be areas of geographic priority, although grantmaking is not strictly limited to these states. More than half of all grants are directed toward organizations in New York.
For additional information about past grants, see the foundation’s recent tax filings.
This funder accepts letters of inquiry at any time through the mail. Letters should include information about the applicant’s organization and/or program, proof of non-profit status and a copy of the organization’s most recent annual report. General inquiries may be submitted via the foundation’s contact page.
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