OVERVIEW: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports education, economic opportunity, health, food systems and equity across the U.S. and in Mexico and Haiti.
IP TAKE: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is surprisingly accessible for a foundation of this size. Equity, wellness and opportunity for children from marginalized groups runs through each of the foundation’s areas of focus, and grants support everything from national policy groups to direct services at the community level. Kellogg asks grantseekers to review its priorities prior to submitting an LOI, but will respond within 30 days with an invitation to submit a full proposal in cases of interest. It is crucial that grant seekers confirm whether their work aligns closely with Kellogg’s in order to be more likely to get a grant. As well, it helps if your organization has published financials or impact reports in order to gain attention here and establish yourself as a transparent leader in your area. Phone numbers for regional offices are available at the contact page.
PROFILE: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 by “breakfast cereal pioneer” Will Keith Kellogg. Based in East Battle Creek, Michigan, this foundation’s mission is to support “children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society.”
Kellogg names four main grantmaking priorities: education, health, food and workforce systems. The foundation approaches these areas as “integrated systems” and seeks to support “holistic solutions” that function across these areas of focus. Additionally, the foundation emphasizes racial equity “through everything we do and in all our grantmaking.” Grantmaking supports organizations anywhere in the U.S., but the foundation names “generational commitments” to Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and the greater New Orleans area. Outside of the U.S., giving prioritizes “Chiapas and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and in central and southwest Haiti.”
Grants for Early Childhood and K-12 Education
Kellogg’s Good Early Care and Education focus area prioritizes equitable access to high-quality and “culturally affirming” programs and schools. The foundation also aims to be responsive to the needs of individual communities and varies its approach by location.
- In Michigan, where the foundation is based, the foundation has made major investments in Battle Creek Public Schools and the Calhoun Intermediate School District in Marshall.
- A significant portion of funding for early childhood education supports policy development and large national organizations including the Alliance for Early Success, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the Northern Mississippi Education Consortium and the National Association for Family Child Care.
- Programs for teacher education and educational research at colleges and universities have also received major support. Grantees include Michigan’s Grand Valley State University, the University of Notre Dame du Lac, Western Michigan University and the University of Mississippi.
- While Kellogg’s largest grants run in the millions, its giving for smaller, community-based schools and education providers is also robust. Grants of less than $100,000 have supporting organizations like Detroit’s Bing Youth Institute, the Washington School for Girls in the District of Columbia, the Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum of New Mexico and Sol y Luna of Merida, Mexico, which serves children with learning differences.
Kellogg’s signature program Every Child Thrives documents the work of the foundation and its grantee partners through narrative content that highlights “the learning, voices and lived experiences that drive our work.”
Grants for Economic Development
Working in tandem with its education grantmaking, the Good Jobs and Employment Equity focus area acknowledges that “[c]hildren thrive when their parents thrive.” Giving prioritizes low-income communities and communities of color across the U.S., and addresses issues including:
- Training and access for jobs in high-growth industries;
- Workers’ benefits, rights and opportunities to build multigenerational wealth;
- Entrepreneurship and equitable access to capital for business development; and
- Reinvestment in communities that have been historically and systemically marginalized.
The foundation names the U.S. South as a geographic focus for this work, but a significant portion of Kellogg’s grants for economic opportunity support initiatives in Michigan and other areas of the U.S.
- Some of Kellogg’s largest grants have gone to Kalamazoo’s W.E. Upjohn Unemployment Trustee Corporation, the NAAPC’s Empowerment Programs, Goodwill Industries of Central Michigan and the Foundation for the Mid South, which works to end poverty in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
- Grants for vocational and career education have supported many community colleges and other training programs. Grantees include the Mississippi Coding Academies, the National Skills Coalition, Grand Rapids Community College, Jobs to Move America, Haiti’s La Fondasyon Kole Zepòl and Salish Kootenai College, a tribal community college in Montana.
- Grants for entrepreneurship and small business development have supported Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans, Prosperous Detroit Micro-Lending and IGNITE Alabama.
The Kellogg Foundation also runs a signature program, Expanding Equity, which offers training and other programs to business leaders and private companies to improve diversity, equity and inclusion goals and practices.
Grants for Public Health, Maternal and Reproductive Health
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s focus area for Good Health and Health Equity names two main areas of focus:
- Public Health and Health Care grantmaking addresses health equity at both the policy level and through direct services to improve access, affordability and quality of care. Grantees include American Indian Health and Family Services of Southeastern Michigan, the Grand Rapids African American Health Institute, the Trust for America’s Health, Health Connect One of Chicago and ChangeLab Solutions, a health policy organization based in Oakland.
- Maternal and Child Health grants, meanwhile, focus on maternal, prenatal, infant and early childhood health care. In addition to direct services, the initiative makes grants to expand health coverage, strengthen the maternal and pediatric care workforce and address systemic disparities in care and access. Recipients include Birth Detroit, Boston’s Partners in Health, the Spectrum Health Foundation in Grand Rapids, the Michigan Breastfeeding Network and the Mississippi Department of Health.
Grants for Food, Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture
The foundation’s fourth major grantmaking focus is Good Food, Strong Equitable Food Systems. This initiative works to address root causes of food and nutritional inequity and makes grants that aim to “transform food systems to better serve communities, farmers, workers, businesses, families, children and our natural environment.”
- A significant portion of Kellogg’s food systems grants address sustainable agriculture and the equitable distribution of affordable, locally-grown produce to communities that need it. Grantees include the National Young Farmers Coalition, the Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development and Akiptan, which provides financing and technical assistance to Indigenous agricultural projects and enterprises in South Dakota.
- Grantees working in the areas of equitable food access and distribution include Nebraska’s Center for Rural Affairs, Three Sisters Kitchen of New Mexico, the Heart of West Michigan United Way, the San Diego Food System Alliance and Project South: the Institution for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide.
- A portion of Kellogg’s grantmaking for food and agricultural systems supports organizations outside of the U.S. Recipients include Mexico’s El Hombre Sobre La Tierra and the Instituto Internacional de Recursos Renovables. The foundation has also supported Partners in Agriculture, an organization that works to improve sustainable agriculture in Haiti.
Grants for Racial Equity, Indigenous Rights and Community Development
While Kellogg indicates that it supports equity across all giving and prioritizes BIPOC, low-income and marginalized communities, its Promise of an Equitable Future focus area supports organizations that address racial healing and equitable community development. Giving prioritizes groups that “develop strategies for creating more just and equitable systems, build community power, change narratives about the role of racism in shaping people’s experiences.”
- National policy, advocacy and organizing grantees working for racial and Indigenous equity number significantly among Kellogg’s grantees. Recipients include the Indian Law Resource Center, the Center for Empowered Politics Education Fund and the Showing Up for Racial Justice Education Fund.
- Other grantees working toward anti-discrimination goals include New York’s Race Forward Action, the National Compadres Network, the Women’s Foundation of the South, the Michigan Advocacy Program and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.
- Kellogg also supports many smaller organizations working to promote justice and equity at the community level. Recipients include Oakland’s Justice Outside, the New Orleans Youth Alliance, the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation and Ngage New Mexico, which works to support the diversity, resilience and well-being of Southern New Mexico.
Kellogg runs several signature programs for racial equity and social justice. These programs generally present opportunities for grantees, communities, funders and others to participate in learning, organizing or networking activities toward common goals for equity, social justice, leadership, healing, wellness and more.
Important Grant Details:
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s grants range from $1,000 to about $6 million. It is worth noting that this funder makes thousands of grants each year ranging from a few hundred dollars on the low end up to $70 million on the high end. The majority of grants fall in the $25,000 to $600,000 range.
- Across all grantmaking areas, this funder prioritizes children, racial equity and marginalized communities.
- Grants support organizations of all sizes.
- Michigan, where the foundation is based, is an area of focus as are Mississippi, New Mexico and the greater New Orleans area.
- A few grants also support organizations in select geographic areas in Mexico and Haiti.
- The foundation accepts letters of inquiry via its application portal, but requests that grantseekers familiarize themselves with the foundation’s priorities prior to submitting a letter. Kellogg typically responds to LOIs within 30 days. If invited, proposals are reviewed within 60 days.
- Other opportunities with the foundation include its signature learning and networking programs and fellowships, which support community and global leadership development.
- See the foundation’s grants database for additional information about past giving.
- Contact the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan by phone at (269) 968-1611. Phone numbers for the foundation’s other regional offices are available at the contact page.
- To keep up with the latest news and opportunities, sign up for email at the bottom of the website.
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