OVERVIEW: The Ballmer Group broadly supports programs and policy to increase economic development and opportunity for children and families nationally, along with giving for housing and homelessness, criminal justice reform, racial equity, education, and environmental giving. Along with its national giving, Ballmer has regional programs that invest more deeply in Southeast Michigan, Los Angeles County and Washington state.
IP TAKE: The Ballmer Group has rapidly evolved into one of the largest U.S. philanthropies and an important climate and anti-poverty funder. Along with its significant national giving, Ballmer invests heavily in the three locations where it also has offices: southeast Michigan, Los Angeles County and Washington state. Kim Pattillo Brownson, Ballmer’s strategy director, told IP that the “overarching focus is always on economic mobility.” Ballmer has also expanded quickly into global climate change funding and other new areas of giving. Ballmer tends to make large, unrestricted and multi-year grants, though it also supports smaller community organizations, sometimes by working with intermediaries to vet and select grantees. Ballmer’s largest partnership to date has been its ongoing, large-scale support for Blue Meridian Partners, a funding intermediary that finds and funds “scalable solutions to the problems that limit economic and social mobility for America’s young people and families in poverty.”
Ballmer Group is not a particularly transparent funder. While it includes a relatively detailed grants database at its website, it’s unclear if this database covers all of Ballmer’s grants, and Ballmer’s partnerships with for-profits may not be listed. Grantseekers may find it difficult to get on this funder’s radar, and Ballmer does not accept unsolicited grant proposals or inquiries. The Ballmer website includes little information about grantmaking priorities and strategies. Despite this, Ballmer is an important funder to know about for nonprofits working in climate, education, racial equity, youth programs, and housing and homelessness, particularly those within Ballmer’s three geographic areas of focus.
PROFILE: The Bellevue, Washington-based Ballmer Group was established in 2015 by Steve and Connie Ballmer, after Ballmer’s retirement from his position of CEO at Microsoft. The group is “committed to improving economic mobility for children and families in the United States.” The Ballmer Group is structured as a limited liability company (LLC), and as such, gives to nonprofits as well as for-profit enterprises. Ballmer Group is one of the fastest-growing philanthropies ever: since its founding, Ballmer has given over $4 billion to charitable enterprises, with hundreds of millions going out the door annually. As of this writing, the Ballmers are ranked #8 on Forbes’ list of worldwide billionaires.
The Ballmer Group’s website is not as detailed as sites for some of the other major philanthropies, and does not provide separate pages defining its giving areas and grantmaking priorities. According to its grants database, giving is organized both thematically and by geographic region.
- Thematic interests include Behavioral Health, Black Family Economic Mobility, Career Success, Child Welfare, Community Impact, Criminal Justice, Early Childhood and Families; Housing, K-12 Education, Public Safety and Tech and Data.
- The group’s stated geographic priorities are Southeast Michigan and Los Angeles County, although significant giving also takes place nationally and in the state of Washington.
Grants for Economic Development
The Ballmer Group is one of the largest anti-poverty funders in the U.S., and a significant portion of its work is geared towards creating “economic opportunity for all” by funding “leaders and organizations that have demonstrated the ability to reshape opportunity and reduce systemic inequities.” Career success, economic mobility and equitable economies are common themes in this vein of funding.
- Two main priorities that emerge for almost all of Ballmer’s giving are increasing economic opportunity and eliminating widespread and persistent inequities. Successful grantees tend to serve BIPOC groups and/or are BIPOC-led.
- In this light, the Ballmer Group has joined a coalition of “foundations and philanthropists,” which include the “Ballmer Group, Gates Foundation, Stand Together, Valhalla Foundation, and John Overdeck.” This coalition reflects a $1 billion joint initiative that NextLadder Ventures will oversee. Over the next 15 years, NextLadder Ventures will “invest in entrepreneurs who are developing personalized solutions that help individuals and families navigate critical moments— like job loss, housing instability, or health crises. These approaches will be designed with and for the people who need them most. The initiative will offer a mix of grants, equity, and revenue-based financing to back both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.”
- The Black Economic Alliance Foundation (BEA) received a $31 million multiyear grant over the course of 2024 to 2027 to support “its Center for Black Entrepreneurship, designed to help Black business owners grow their enterprises via technical assistance, access to capital and markets, and policies promoting economic growth within Black communities.”
- Another multi-million-dollar commitment is to the Acumen Fund, which will receive $7.6 by the end of 2026. Acumen provides support to “early-stage companies working to improve the lives of low-income people.”
- Ballmer is a major backer of Blue Meridian Partners, an anti-poverty funding intermediary. To date, Ballmer group has pledged over $500 million and is Blue Meridian’s largest backer.
- Additional grantees include Michigan’s Center for Employment Opportunities, Los Angeles’s Jobs to Move America and Year Up United, which has received tens of millions over the years for its work “ensuring equitable access to economic opportunity, education, and justice for all young adults—no matter their background, income, or zip code.”
Grants for Education
Education has consistently been one of Ballmer’s largest giving areas, with funding supporting early childhood, K-12 and higher education initiatives.
Grants for Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education grants tend to focus on providing support to low-income and vulnerable children and families, as well as helping families gain access to “high-quality child care and early education.”
- Washington STEM received a $3 million grant to for its early childhood education (ECE) initiatives, specifically “enhancing access to and use of data to inform policy decisions. This investment will help improve data tools and advocacy efforts, ultimately expanding access to high-quality early care and education for priority populations.”
- In 2023, Ballmer announced a $43 million commitment to “build, strengthen, and diversify Washington State’s early childhood education workforce,” with early grants supporting teacher education programs at the University of Washington, as well as Child Care Aware Washington and Pathwaves WA.
- Other early childhood grantees include the First Five Action Funder, the Sobrato Early Academic Language Program in Los Angeles, the LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment, Educare Los Angeles, Washington’s Imagine Institute and California’s Children Now, which works to advance universal childcare in the state of California.
Grants for K-12 Education
The previous goal of Ballmer’s K-12 Education giving was to “reduce and eliminate inequities that shortchange student achievement.” According to recent grants, the Ballmer Group continues to focus on in- and out-of-school learning, the development of “strong schools” in underserved neighborhoods and support for “a more representative, racially diverse workforce of teachers and school leaders.” Recent giving has emphasized secondary education and urban schools.
- In 2025, the Ballmer Group gave a $20.8 million grant to the Young Men’s Christian Association of Greater Seattle to “empower YMCAs throughout Washington State to significantly expand their diverse and inclusive programs for low-income youth, enhancing their opportunities for personal growth, academic success, and social-emotional development.”
- Ballmer Group has pledged nearly $200 million to Communities in Schools, a national organization that “improves graduation rates by establishing integrated student supports that meet the unique needs of children and families, and connecting students with a range of existing services, like tutoring, health services, or basic needs, to help them stay in school.”
- Charter schools are another area of strong interest. Ballmer has provided ongoing support to organizations including Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools, Los Angeles’s Camino Nuevo Charter Academy and KIPP SoCal Public Schools.
- With help from the philanthropic advisory firm Building Impact Partners, the Ballmer Group created Summer Discovery, a fund that makes grants to educational nonprofits and schools in Southeast Michigan for the purpose of running summer learning and enrichment programs for K-8 students in Macomb, Wayne and Oakland Counties in Michigan.
- Additional K-12 funding has gone to the Koreatown Youth and Community Center in Los Angeles, Education Service District 105, City Year Detroit’s programming for grades three through nine, Heart of Los Angeles Youth, the Inner City Education Foundation, Summer Discovery of Southeastern Michigan and Education Service District 105 in Yakima, Washington.
Grants for Higher Education
Ballmer’s higher education grantmaking supports opportunities for young people to “pursue post-secondary education that leads to a degree or certification.” Giving also targets “career training and apprenticeship programs with a direct pipeline to local employers.”
- Community colleges, especially those offering free programs to eligible students, have been a focus in recent years. Grantees include the Foundation for California Community Colleges, the Compton Community College District in Los Angeles, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and Michigan’s Oakland Community College.
Other grants support organizations that increase career opportunity and college completion through student support systems and employment pipelines. Recipients include the Campaign for College Opportunity, College Possible Washington, iMentor and the Michigan College Access Network.
- In March 2022, Ballmer Group donated $425 Million to the University of Oregon to create the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health
Grants for Housing and Community Development
Housing is a significant component of Ballmer’s commitment to fighting poverty and creating economic opportunity. Grantmaking has supported the development of policy addressing “undue systemic racism in housing” and initiatives to increase the supply of affordable housing and reduce homelessness. Grants support both national and local efforts.
- In 2024, the Ballmer Group awarded $15 million in flexible, multi-year support to three organizations in Washington that shelter and assist homeless and vulnerable people. Grantees include the Chief Seattle Club, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and the Downtown Emergency Service Center, which assists people facing “challenges related to homelessness, substance use disorders, and serious mental illness.”
- Other housing grants have supported the Housing Partnership Network, Enterprise Community Partners, Funders for Housing Opportunity, Homestart and the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.
Grants for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform
Ballmer has demonstrated an ongoing interest in criminal justice reform and programs that help formerly incarcerated people reenter the workforce and attain financial stability.
- Grants have gone to organizations that support victims of violent crimes, gun control policy and programs for fair policing. Recipients include the University of Chicago Crime Lab, Detroit Life is Valuable Every Day, Los Angeles’s Urban Peace Institute and Cities United, which works with representatives of large cities across the country “to reduce homicides and shootings among young Black men and boys by 50%, and build safe, healthy, and hopeful communities.”
- Another grantee, Los Angeles County’s A New Way of Life Reentry Project, provides housing, case management, pro bono legal services, advocacy, and leadership development for women rebuilding their lives along with the children they care for after incarceration.
- Grantees also include the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, the Marshall Project, the Juvenile Law Center and the Alliance for Safety and Justice.
Grants for Environment, Climate Change and Clean Energy
Climate is a major area of emerging interest. In 2023, the Ballmer Group announced its commitment of $431 million for “solutions […] to address and halt our climate emergency.” Early grantmaking has focused on limiting and preventing deforestation and “lessening global dependence on fossil fuels,” but giving is likely to evolve according to emerging needs. The Ballmer’s latest climate giving has positioned them as major funders in the field.
- Ballmer’s climate grants are usually awarded in the millions and support large, established organizations. Brazil has been an early geographic focus.
- Many of the grantees across this focus area overlap with those of the Sea Change Foundation and Rainer Climate. Climate regrantors, policy outfits and large-scale projects are the big winners here.
- Grantees include the Environmental Defense Fund, the Climate Reality Project, Brazil’s Intituto Clima e Sociedade and FUNBIO, the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund.
Grants for Mental Health
The Ballmer Group also makes grants for Behavioral Health, although this is as yet a smaller area of giving. Grants tend to focus on training and education programs to “build the workforce necessary to meet increasing need” and initiatives that integrate behavioral health into schools “so that more children, families and communities can access high-quality mental healthcare.”
- Ballmer’s mental health grants support services, training, infrastructure support and policy. Most grantmaking is place-based in the group’s geographic areas of interest and prioritizes underserved populations.
- Grantees include Michigan’s Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, the Washington Council for Behavioral Health, the Southern California Counseling Center and the Children’s Institute of Los Angeles County.
- Children’s mental grantmaking prioritizes children and families in the welfare and foster systems. Most of this grantmaking stays in Washington, where recipients include FIRST Clinic, the Kindering Center and the Mockingbird Society, which serves foster youth and families.
Grants for Public, Reproductive & Maternal Health
The Ballmer Group does not specifically name health as an area of grantmaking interest, but funding has supported pediatric, maternal and family health initiatives.
- Grantees include Los Angeles’s Black Women for Wellness, Cherished Futures for Black Moms & Babies, the Healthcare Anchor Network and the Washington State Hospital Association, which received a grant to support its TeamBirth program “to improve equity and outcomes for birthing families across the state.”
Important Grant Details:
The Ballmer Group’s grants can range from $50,000 to over $400 million, however, most grants fall in the $250,000 to $5 million range. The most common grant amount is $1.5 million. Grantmaking has topped $400 million a year in recent years.
Grants tend to support either regranting intermediaries or large, well-established nonprofits and universities.
Larger grants tend to represent three- to five-year commitments.
Regional funds and regranters number significantly among the group’s recipients.
About half of all grants support organizations in Ballmer’s target geographic areas of Los Angeles County, Southeast Michigan and Washington State.
For additional information about past grants, see the Ballmer Groups grants database page.
The Ballmer Group does not run an open application program or offer a direct avenue for getting in touch.
- Grantseekers may wish to network with specific team members working in a specific region or area of interest via social media.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS: