OVERVIEW: A major U.S. funder, Arnold Ventures gives broadly for health, education, economic development, journalism, criminal justice and more.
IP TAKE: Arnold Ventures is one of the largest philanthropies in the U.S., making hundreds of millions in grants annually. Its signature approach is to correct “systemic failures through evidence-based solutions.” The Arnolds are dedicated to maximizing impact, and aren’t shy about engaging with political giving, funding 501c4 organizations, joining funding collaboratives, and participating in public-private partnerships. In a recent year, Arnold Ventures gave over $160 million in grants.
This transparent funder exercises a proactive approach to grantmaking and generally does not accept unsolicited proposals, though Arnold Ventures does “periodically issue calls for projects.” Most grants invest in research and policy work. Grantees, which tend to be large and well-established organizations, tend to receive support for specific projects, as opposed to general operations. While many recipients receive ongoing funding for their work, Arnold does not appear to be averse to taking on new grantees, so long as their work aligns with their goals for evidence-based reform across interest areas. RFPs tend to be highly specific, but grantseekers can stay informed by subscribing to Arnold Venture’s newsletter.
PROFILE: Established in 2008, Arnold Ventures originally took the form of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) after the couple signed the Giving Pledge in 2010. In 2019, the Arnolds created Arnold Ventures, a limited liability corporation (LLC) that oversees the grantmaking operations for the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Action Now, Inc., and the Arnolds’ donor-advised fund. The LLC works to “invest in evidence-based solutions that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice.”
Arnold Ventures has evolved and expanded significantly in a short period of time, as its prolific grantmaking embraces new areas of interest. The LLC currently divides its approach to grantmaking across six areas: Criminal Justice, Health, Higher Education, Infrastructure, Public Finance and Evidence and Evaluation, through which Arnold Ventures supports research and analysis across all areas of interest. The organization’s 990s reveal several additional intersecting issue areas, including democracy, climate change, journalism and affordable housing.
Grants for Health Care Access, Reproductive and Maternal Health
Arnold Ventures’ Health focus area is its largest, with grants supporting overarching goals to “improve health care delivery, lower costs, and reduce disparities in access.” A significant portion of this grantmaking supports research and evaluations aimed at improving efficiency and reducing costs related to health care services. Arnold Ventures names the following priority areas for its giving and engagements:
- Grantmaking supports research and policy related to the ongoing inflation of Drug Prices in the U.S. Grants support investigations of “key drivers of high drug pricing” like patient abuse, doctor incentives, anti-competitive policy and “government-granted monopolies.”
- Related giving supports research and policy toward lowering and standardizing Commercial Sector Prices for heath care. Efforts in this area are currently pursuing reform of health care prices related to hospital and provider consolidation that allows providers “to charge Medicare and commercial insurers higher prices.”
- The Complex Care focus area targets initiatives that coordinate care for people who are covered by both Medicare and Medicaid and who “account for a disproportionately high share of government health spending and often experience poor health outcomes.”
- Provider Payment Outcomes refers to efforts to improve health care delivery by reforming the “fee-for-service payment model” toward models that offer “higher quality, less costly care.”
- The Medicare Sustainability program overlaps significantly with other health giving areas by pursuing policy change that will “bring the program’s spending in line while ensuring the program continues to meet beneficiaries’ needs.”
- Arnold Ventures supports initiatives for Contraceptive Choice and Access for all people. Support focuses on affordability and access through “primary care, specialty care, and other delivery channels like pharmacies.”
- The focus area for Organ Donation aims to improve the transparency and accountability of organ donation contractors and enforcement of ethical practices by the Department of Health and Human Services.
- The Opioid Epidemic is another major area of concern, with grants supporting treatment, recovery and overdose prevention.
- Arnold Ventures also supports a broad range of Clinical Trials for medications, devices and diagnostics across many medical specialties.
Arnold Ventures makes hundreds of grants in these areas each year to research programs at universities and institutes, think tanks and other health and policy organizations. Grantees include Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the United States of Care Campaign and Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which received millions for research on the coordination of drug policy and “meaningful drug innovation” through clinical trials.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform
Arnold Ventures’ Criminal Justice program “supports research and policy to reduce crime and put those who interact with the criminal justice system on a better path.” The foundation focuses on rigorous, evidence-based policy and targets problems at every stage of the justice process across three main areas of interest:
- Grants for crime prevention and deterrence focus on strategies including fair and strategic policing; youth development, mental health and employment programs; the expansion of existing DNA databases; shifting the focus of the justice system from revenue generation to public safety; and the broad reduction of intimate partner violence and related mortality rates.
- Grants for accountability and support strategies provide funding for programs that reduce pretrial detention and lengthy prison sentences for defendants who are not high-risk for violent offenses; preventing unnecessary use of police force; efforts to minimize excessive and ineffective probation programs; and efforts to align legal fines and penalties to individual means.
- Arnold Ventures also supports initiatives for the rehabilitation of formerly incarcerated individuals. Strategies include health and mental health care support for recent reentries; in-prison rehabilitation and counseling programs; the evaluation and piloting of programs that offer alternatives to incarceration; prison education and post-release employment assistance.
- Grantees of the criminal justice giving area include the R Street Institute, the Urban Institute, the American Conservative Union and the Fines and Fees Justice Center, among many others.
Grants for Education and Economic Development
Arnold Ventures names Higher Education as one of its main giving areas and promotes ““improving return on investment in higher education for both students and taxpayers.” Grants support both state and federal policies to improve access to data, quality assurance, and identifying and scaling evidence-based student success programs. Arnold Ventures has also invested in research on the impacts of programs to improve college readiness at the K-12 level and promote career and economic development.”
- A subprogram for Data in Higher Education supports research and evaluation of higher education quality and accountability and effective student success practices.
- Through its related Higher Education Quality and Accountability grantmaking, Arnold Ventures supports the adoption of “stronger quality control policies” for colleges and universities that “consistently fail and prey on students.”
- Grants also support research that aims to identify and scale Effective Student Success Practices toward the broad improvement of academic and career outcomes, especially for underserved and underrepresented students.
- A smaller area of giving addresses college readiness at the K-12 level. Grants have emphasized research on achievement in mathematics, as well as interventions to improve outcomes for at-risk students.
- Education grantees include the Project on Predatory Student Lending, the Research Foundation of the City University of New York, Colorado’s State Higher Education Executive Officers Association and Johns Hopkins University, which received funding for an evaluation of the My Brother’s Keeper Mentoring Program, and
Grants for Housing, Community Development, and Clean Energy
Arnold’s Infrastructure focus area addresses capacity and efficiency of public and private stakeholders in the U.S. to build and expand in the areas of housing, transportation systems and clean energy production and delivery. Like Arnold’s other giving areas, grants support research, analysis to “identify workable solutions” and “translate those solutions into meaningful public policy.”
- Housing grants focus on making it easier to build homes of all shapes and sizes in the U.S., and making the homebuilding process shorter, simpler, and more transparent.
- In the area of transportation, the philanthropy focuses on the cost and time involved in constructing new and efficient systems to support economic growth.
- Grantmaking for energy is increasing, with a focus on reducing unnecessary regulatory barriers and accelerating the development of energy solutions that ensure long-term economic growth, national security and global leadership – while keeping energy affordable and reliable for American families and businesses.
- In 2024, the Houston Chronicle reported that Arnold provided vital investment in Fervo Energy, a for-profit geothermal energy startup based in Houston.
Grants for Public Finance
A program for Public Finance represents Arnold Ventures’ concerted efforts to support the development of policy that “promote[s] both fiscal stability for government and economic opportunity, mobility, and security.”
- Arnold’s Federal Tax Policy focus prioritizes reforms for increased effectiveness of the Child Tax Credit, closing loopholes that benefit corporate taxpayers and high net-worth individuals, and strengthening tax incentives for investment in Opportunity Zones and low-income areas.
- Program Integrity grants aim to ensure that government spending is “effectively and efficiently channeled to the intended recipients.” Funding has supported the development and piloting of programs that work to avoid abuse and fraud in public programs.
- And Fiscal Sustainability grantmaking works toward the control of government spending to “avoid unmanageable levels of debt.” Grants from this subprogram tend to support efforts to “educate” lawmakers on fiscal sustainability.
- Grantees include the Center for Taxpayer Rights, the National Bureau of Economic Research and research on policies to identify and reduce tax evasion at the London School of Economics.
Grants for Journalism & Democracy
Arnold Ventures recognizes that a free press is essential to sustaining a functioning democracy. As financial challenges weaken the for-profit journalism sector, Arnold Ventures’ grantmaking supports nonprofit news-gathering organizations that advance the values of freedom of the press and produce high-quality journalism. Like the organization’s other giving areas, these grants aim to strengthen democratic institutions by ensuring newsrooms have the resources to investigate, research, and report on critical issues.
- Grants support statehouse and local news outlets that track policy and legislative activity, ensuring government accountability at all levels.
- Arnold Ventures funds investigative journalism organizations that conduct in-depth reporting on complex issues, exposing corruption and systemic failures.
- Issue-specific news organizations also receive support to produce high-quality reporting on topics aligned with the philanthropy’s research interests, leveraging subject-matter expertise.
- In addition to newsroom funding, Arnold Ventures invests in innovative models that create sustainable futures for nonprofit journalism, filling gaps in coverage and enhancing news accessibility.
- Beyond investigative journalism and accountability reporting, Arnold Ventures also funds initiatives that defend press freedom, provide journalism education and training, and support associations that protect journalists.
- A recent grantee includes the Missouri School of Journalism Statehouse Reporting Project.
Important Grant Details:
While Arnold Ventures awards grants of up to $10 million, most awards fall in the $50,000 to $500,000 range.
- Arnold Ventures’ grantmaking heavily supports quantitative research and analysis that it uses to drive evidence-based reform in public policy across its areas of interest.
- Grantmaking is mainly limited to the U.S. and national concerns like health care, taxation, finance and education.
- Arnold Ventures does not accept unsolicited proposals, but grantseekers may find opportunity among its requests for proposals. To keep up with the latest opportunities and announcements, sign up for the organization’s newsletter at the bottom of the website.
- For additional information about Arnold Ventures’ grantmaking and investments, see the Our Work, News and 990s sections of the website.
Submit general inquiries to Arnold Ventures via its contact page or reach out to staff members via their LinkedIn accounts, which are linked to their profiles. Arnold Ventures’ phone number is listed as (713) 554-1955.
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