OVERVIEW: The Brinson Foundation prioritizes organizations that are based in or whose work emphasizes Chicago. Higher education and research in the areas of astronomy, cosmology, biology, geophysics and medicine are main priorities for this funder.
IP TAKE: Given family foundations’ penchants for keeping a low public profile, the Chicago-based Brinson Foundation is something of an outlier, as it operates with a level of transparency we’ve come to demand from much larger foundations. On the upside, Brinson likes to support its grantees on multiple fronts. Application begins with an inquiry form; the foundation will contact organizations that are eligible for funding. The Brinson Foundation typically make single-year grants that can be renewed at the board’s discretion. It accepts unsolicited grantseeker inquiries—a pre-application screening step—in education and scientific research, but not endorsement or medical research, year-round. However, new potential grantees should be aware that new funding is only being made available as established grantees phase out.
In a climate where we’ve come to expect milquetoast Giving Pledge-esque letters heavy on familiar platitudes, Brinson’s statement, in which he describes himself as a libertarian who “values individual liberty and what Ayn Rand calls objectivism,” reads more like a manifesto, in which he argues that large inheritances “diminish individual initiative and self-esteem” and higher estate tax rates disincentivize giving. Writing in his founder’s statement, Brinson said the foundation “is likely to receive considerable future funding, the size of which will be a function of investment returns, targeted allocations for my heirs, and deductions for estate taxes and administrative expenses.”
The foundation’s president, Christy Uchida, assumed the role in 2020 after serving as a senior program officer for the previous eight years. Uchida also sits on MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving open call evaluation panel.
PROFILE: The Brinson Foundation was established in 2001 by Gary Brinson. Brinson is the founder of the Chicago-based investment and money management firm Brinson Partners. The Horatio Alger Association described him as one of “the world’s most influential investment managers.” He earned his bachelor’s degree in finance at Seattle University. After graduating, his mentor, Dr. Khalil Dibee, helped him get a teaching assistant position at Washington State University, which helped him finance is MBA. Brinson went on to make a fortune in the investment management world, where he founded Brinson Partners, which was acquired by Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS) in 1994 for $750 million. He retired in 2000 and started his own private investment firm, GP Brinson Investments.
The foundation’s mission involves “encouraging personal initiative, advancing individual freedoms and liberties, and positively contributing to society in the areas of education and scientific research.” Brinson has not signed the Giving Pledge, but in a Founder’s Statement, he has said he is limiting the amount he leaves to his heirs because he believes excessive inheritance will hurt their initiative and self-esteem. Brinson’s two main program areas are Education and Scientific Research.
Grants for K-12, Higher Education and STEM
Brinson’s Education program focuses on supporting “programs that make quality education accessible to those who are personally committed” and names six specific areas of focus.
- The Health Care Development program supports programs that “spark students’ interest” in health-related careers, as well as professional development and accreditation programs for professionals in the field.
- High School, College and Career Success supports programs that help “motivated students” with financial, academic and other supports as they move through high school, college and on to careers.
- Liberty, Citizenship, and Free Enterprise grants focus on civics education for K-12 and postsecondary students. Note that this program tends to support conservative and libertarian organizations.
- The Literacy focus area targets reading programs for people of every age, as well as teacher development programs in the area of literacy.
- STEM grants, similarly, go to programs that provide educational opportunity for children and adults, with a focus on career development. STEM teacher development is also an area of interest.
- Student Health grants support efforts to help students stay healthy so they can “stay enrolled and be productive in school.” These grants target PreK-12 programs.
- Education grantees include the Chicago Public Education Fund, the Digital Inquiry Group’s Digital Education Project, Room to Read, Inner-City Computer Stars and the Ayn Rand Institute, which received funding for its Free Books to Teachers Program.
- Note that the foundation does not name educational research as an area of interest, but it has made some large grants to support research on K-12 learning. Grantees include the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the Strategic Education Research Partnership.
Grants for Science Research
Brinson’s Scientific Research grantmaking supports “basic, cutting edge research” in areas of interest to the foundation that may be “underfunded or at a stage in which they are unlikely to receive government funding.”
- Grants for Astrophysics/Cosmology support the study of “celestial objects and related phenomena,” as well as the research on the origin and structure of the universe.
- Evolutionary Developmental Biology grants support this specific field of biology which addresses “the evolution of biodiversity at a mechanistic level.”
- Grantmaking for Geosciences supports research in geology, seismology and volcanology.
- Medical Research grants target the work of early-career researchers pursuing effective treatments for chronic and treatable conditions that “negatively impact the productivity of large segments of the population.” The foundation notes that its funding supports research that aims to ‘improve the quality of life as distinct from solely extending life.”
- Past research grants have gone to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the University of Utah Department of Geology, University of Chicago Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
- The foundation also bankrolled the establishment of the Brinson Exploration Hub at Caltech with a gift of $100 million. The Hub is collaborative effort between CalTech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to “further space exploration and the scientific and technological advances to power it.”
- Brinson also runs the Brinson Prize Fellowship program to support early-career cosmologists at participating institutions, and the Brinson Postdoctoral Fellowship, which supports astronomers, astrophysicists and cosmologists working in “important areas of inquiry.”
Grants for Arts and Culture, Chicago
A very small proportion of Brinson’s grantmaking supports arts and culture organizations in Chicago.
- Grantees include the Chicago Historical Society, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Important Grant Details:
Grant amounts typically range from $250 to $600,000 and average around $50,000. Many grantees, however, receive multi-year support that approaches $1 million over the duration of the project. Recent annual giving has topped $100 million, with over 100 grants awarded to organizations of every size.
- This funder’s science grants tend to go to leading universities and research institutes. Education grants, meanwhile, focus on evidence-based programs with as strong record of success.
- Chicago, where the foundation is based, and California are clear geographic priorities.
- Proposals area accepted by invitation only, but grantseekers may fill out the grant inquiry form linked here. The foundation will reach out if they feel your organization may qualify.
- For lists of past grantees organized by year and funding area, see the Grants page.
- Submit general inquries to mail@brinsonfoundation.org or by phone at (312) 799-4500.
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