OVERVIEW: Allen Family Philanthropies makes grants for community development, youth programs, climate and the environment, bioscience research, and arts and culture. The Seattle-based philanthropy invests in communities across the Pacific Northwest but also gives nationally and globally.
IP TAKE: Best known as a funder of cutting-edge biological research, conservation, and environmental giving, Allen Family Philanthropies also gives broadly across the Northwest where it is based, and continues to ramp up its giving for youth programs and arts and culture. This philanthropy was formerly known as the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. AFP has given $1 billion across the globe since its founding. In a 2024 interview with Inside Philanthropy, AFP executive director Lara Littlefield said the foundation is evolving with new interests while continuing to remain focused on environmental, climate and conservation giving. While AFP prioritizes the Pacific Northwest, particularly for its arts and youth programs, grants also support organizations across the U.S and around the world. A significant portion of the foundation’s annual grantmaking goes to the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, which supports bioscience research.
AFP emphasizes innovation and collaboration across all giving areas, often handing the reigns to partner organizations when it comes to direction and decision-making. AFP expects the same rigor of its grantees as it expects of itself. This funder takes a proactive approach to grantmaking and does not respond to unsolicited inquiries for funding. It does, however, occasionally post RFPs, primarily for its science research funding. Otherwise, getting through the funding door will require either deep networking or staying ahead of new opportunities by following the foundation’s social media, which are linked at the bottom of its website.
PROFILE: Established in 1988, Allen Family Philanthropies, formerly the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, is a private family foundation based in Seattle, Washington. Allen Family Philanthropies was founded by the late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and Jody Allen, his sister. Paul Allen was an early signer of the Giving Pledge in 2010 and was named one of the world’s most generous philanthropists with lifetime giving of more than $2B, including charitable giving separate from the foundation.
Jody Allen Allen serves as board chair and president of Allen Family Philanthropies. She also chairs the Vale Group (formerly known as Vulcan), which she co-founded with brother Paul G. Allen in 1986; she is the founding director of MoPOP; and the co-founder and chair of the board of the Allen Institute, serving on the board of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). As trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust, she “works to ensure Paul’s vision is realized for generations to come.” In 2016, Jody founded Wild Lives Foundation and is also deeply committed to arts and culture, serving on the boards of several museums and cultural institutions.
Allen Family Philanthropies invests in “communities across the Pacific Northwest to strengthen arts and culture, empower the next generation of changemakers, and support a global network of partners dedicated to protecting wildlife, preserving ecosystems, and creating lasting change.” In addition to its core program areas of Youth, Arts & Culture, the Environment, the foundation funds bioscience via the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group and contributes to a wide range of sponsorships and community grants across Washington state.
Grants for Science Research, Neuroscience and Biomedical Research
The newest and, perhaps, most comprehensive organization among Allen family philanthropies is the Fund for Science and Technology. It pursues a broad mission to “enable accelerated discovery and catalyze progress for people and the planet.” In an interview, however, the foundation president Lynda Stuart told IP’s Paul Karon that funding will focus on “three areas of bioscience, the environment and AI” not individually, but “where they intersect.”
- As of 2025, the new fund has an endowment of $3.1 billion and planned to make $500 million in grants in the next four years with grants in the millions.
- This new vehicle plans to bypass funding for individual research projects and, instead, make grants to “empower institutions to drive progress in broad fields of research.”
- Inaugural grantees, all of which are located in the Seattle area, include the University of Washington’s College of the Environment, the Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle Children’s and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
- This new entity has yet to flesh out exactly how it will select future grantees but has indicated that its giving will be global in scope.
As part of a larger 2025 rebrand, AFP has closed its former bioscience program in order to focus related giving through the affiliated Allen Institute, primarily through its Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group.
- The Allen Institute runs an array of science programs including the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, the Allen Institute for Cell Science, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Allen Institute for Immunology, as well as the Frontiers Group.
- Within the Institute, the Frontiers Group sits at the forefront of scientific research, “push[ing] the limits of science” by “identifying and supporting researchers engaged in cutting-edge science at its very earliest stages.” The group runs two major giving programs.
- Allen Discovery Centers are investments in “leadership-driven, compass-guided research centers” in “new fields” of biological research. Discovery centers are generally housed at leading research universities and institutes in the U.S. and abroad. An initial investment of $10 million over four years may be followed by “a second four-year phase with an additional $10 million, matched by partner support, for a potential total scope of activity of $30 million.”
- The latest center, launched in 2024, is the Allen Discovery Center for for Neurobiology in Changing Environments at the University of California, San Diego. The project aims “to investigate how rapid and unpredictable changes to the environment accelerated by human activity are impacting life at all levels in unprecedented and complex ways.”
- The Allen Distinguished Investigators program awards grants ranging from $1 to $1.5 million for work that has the potential to achieve “world changing breakthroughs.” Past recipients include researchers at Columbia University, the Murdock Children’s Research Institute, the University of Illinois and the University of Melbourne in Australia, among others. Between 15 and 20 grants are awarded each year. In addition to these grants, the group regularly posts open calls for proposals on specific scientific topics. Guidelines are not currently linked to the program page, but the group suggests grant seekers sign up for its newsletter to stay abreast of upcoming and new opportunities.
Grants for Climate Change, Environmental and Wildlife Conservation
Allen’s Environment program works broadly to protect and restore “our planet’s biodiversity through scientific solutions rooted in community partnerships.” Funding supports: piloting community-based natural resource management; improving human-wildlife coexistence; and supporting high-integrity natural climate solutions. Environmental grants support “community-led projects working to advance research and implement technology solutions here in the Pacific Northwest and globally.” Some of the foundation’s major commitments include:
- The foundation is a founding partner of the Earthshot Prize, which “aims to unite people to drive innovation to protect the Earth.” This global contest awards £1 million prizes to five of the “most innovative solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges.”
- The foundation launched a National Climate Solutions RFP in 2024, with the expectation of funding as many as five “rigorous, place-based Natural Climate Solutions efforts in the Pacific Northwest.” This opportunity named programs led or conducted by Indigenous groups as a priority.
- Another grantee, the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, receives funding for its work on 80 “underground exploration” projects to study networks of mycorrhizal fungi and their role in plant and ecosystem protection.
- The Puget Sound Integrated Modeling Framework is a $4.8 million collaboration among environmental grantmakers in Washington. The collaborative aims to create “a cohesive picture of the entire Sound ecosystem under future conditions of climate change and population growth.”
- The National Science Foundation Partnership to Advance Conservation Science and Practice was an $8 million commitment for six NSF conservation and research projects focusing on “threatened or endangered species and habitats.” The program ended in 2025.
Grants for Youth Development, K-12 Education, LGBTQ and Indigenous Causes
The Allen Foundation’s Youth program, its newest, looks to young people as “changemakers” and supports efforts to “youth changemakers to “strengthen and move (its) communities forward.” Funding here tends to prioritize Washington State.
- Youth funding focuses on “increasing youth awareness and access to opportunities in the Pacific Northwest”; strengthening local and regional networks for youth organizing; and bolstering “evidence and best practices for greater investment and support.”
- Through a partnership with the National Geographic Society, the foundation provides ongoing support to the Slingshot Challenge. The challenge invites young people between the ages of 13 and 18 from anywhere in the world to “submit a one-minute video describing their idea for solving environmental issues.” Winners receive a cash prize of $10,000 and significant publicity through the program’s award recipients page.
- The foundation has also supported the Washington State Pilot of the Rhizome Civic Service Fellowship program, which names fellows seeking “to perceive and engage in civic service as a lifelong commitment.” The foundation’s support helped the program expand to high schools across the state.
- Support has also gone to the Pride Foundation, which received funding for capacity, movement-building, leadership development and “to provide unrestricted sub-grants for nonprofits that primarily serve LGBTQ+ youth.”
- And in Renton, Washington, the foundation supports the Family First Community Center, which uses community input to coordinate programs, health and mental health services for youth and families.
- Another Washington grantee, the Setting Sun Institute’s Tribal Youth Leadership Program, received funding to “to develop the next generation of culture-bearers, and to support the tribal crisis response to the opioid epidemic.”
Grants for Arts and Culture
The foundation’s Arts and Culture program is focused on communities in Washington state, and supports “essential artist services, strengthens artist and cultural networks, advocates for the wellbeing of artists and culture bearers, and helps us all learn about diverse cultures and their ways of life.”
- Arts and culture grantmaking tends to invest in “supporting arts and culture bearers”; bolstering capacity and infrastucture; and strengthening the public’s commitment via research and advocacy.
- In 2023, the Allen Foundation collaborated with Washington’s ArtsFund to launch a Community Accelerator Grant Program. Since its inception the program has awarded about $20 million in grants to hundreds of organizations in every county in the state. Inclusion is a main priority for this program, with many grants supporting small BIPOC, LGBTQ+, rural and disabled communities.
- Other grantees of the foundation’s arts and culture program include the Seattle Children’s Theatre, the Scan Design Foundation and the Cultural Space Agency, which helps arts organizations find and maintain affordable space for their operations.
Important Grant Details:
Allen Family Philanthropies’ grants typically range from $$100,000 to $800,000. In a recent fiscal year, AFP held over $1 billion in assets. It typically gives around $50 to $60 million in grants a year. How much money from the Allen estate will ultimately find its to AFP there remains to be seen.
- The foundation’s largest giving area is bioscience. Science grantees tend to receive grants in the hundreds of thousands.
- Allen’s home state of Washington is a clear geographic priority, with several grantmaking programs limiting grantmaking to organizations based in the state.
- Follow the foundation’s social media accounts, linked to the bottom of the website, for the latest.
- AFP does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding and does not respond to inquiries, but it tends to run its grantmaking programs in collaboration with other organizations, some of which run application programs.
- Contact the foundation via email at info@allenphilanthropies.org or by telephone at (206) 342-2000.
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