Special Projects

Address special needs not covered by our programs and strategies to better respond to opportunities that advance our philanthropic values, incubate new ideas and strengthen our field.

Special Projects grantmaking helps foster partnership with other foundations.

In 2015, for example, the foundation made a $3 million grant for general operating support to the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, in association with the Bay Area’s Sandler Foundation, to examine how structural changes in the U.S. economy, particularly related to economic inequality, affect economic growth.

We have made collaborative grants to organizations that improve the practice of philanthropy in specific areas of operational expertise, such as the PEAK Grantmaking and the Communications Network.

The foundation also makes “good citizen” grants to support organizations whose work diffusely serves our core interests, such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and nonprofit public media such as NPR, PBS Newshour, and ProPublica.