Major League Baseball Pledges $150 Million for Diversity, Service, and Education Programs

Here are notable new grant awards compiled by the Chronicle:

Blue Meridian Partners, the Ford Foundation, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies

$250 million commitment to the Justice and Mobility Fund, a new philanthropic program to create economic opportunities for formerly incarcerated people and their families.

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Walton Family Foundation

$150 million to continue the work of the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund, which studies the effects of teaching and learning challenges on Black and Latino students in preschool through 12th grade. Each foundation is giving $50 million to the fund now on top of the $50 million that the Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gave to start the effort in 2018.

Major League Baseball

$150 million over 10 years to the Players Alliance to back programs to develop mentorship and professional opportunities for baseball players and employees to increase Black representation on the field, in managerial and coaching positions, and in leadership roles across the sport. The pledge will also support efforts to celebrate Black baseball history and culture, make educational grants, and conduct service opportunities in communities.

Marcus Foundation

$60 million over three years to Jewish Education Project to support its RootOne program, which pays for Jewish teenagers to travel to Israel.

Bloomberg Philanthropies

$30 million to upgrade technology at arts and cultural nonprofit organizations and help stabilize their fundraising operations following the Covid-19 pandemic. This initial round of grant making will go to 46 groups in the United States and the United Kingdom.

George Gund Foundation

$16.2 million to organizations in Ohio, including $1.5 million to the Energy Foundation for the Ohio Climate Justice Fund, which provides support to organizations that advance racial justice and climate action and are led by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.

Kraft Heinz Company Foundation

$12 million over three years to Rise Against Hunger to back its global work to support sustainable agriculture projects, food-procurement efforts on a local level, and distributing meals to people in need.

Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment

$6.5 million to 17 projects in Wisconsin to improve health and health equity across the state.

Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

$5 million to United States Artists to continue their support for Disability Futures, a fellowship program for disabled artists.

Brown Foundation

$4 million to Prairie View A&M University to support the president of the university’s strategic programs, including the work of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice, which was named for her.

Sara Giles Moore Foundation

$3.1 million to the High Museum of Art to assess the preservation needs of its art collection and provide the treatments to maintain them.

National Trust for Historic Preservation

$3 million through its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to help preserve 40 African American landmarks.

Richard King Mellon Foundation

$2.6 million to 16 recipients to expand programs that boost job training, career readiness, and employment in the Pittsburgh area.

Overdeck Family Foundation

$2 million over three years to Public Media Group of Southern California/PBS SoCal to expand its Family Math program in Southern California, then scale it to the rest of California and the United States by the third year.

The foundation also committed $1.5 million over three years to the Museum of Science Boston for EiE, which develops free, hands-on engineering activities for children and their families.

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

$1.2 million to eight recipients for efforts to upgrade technology, promote digital inclusion, and support other technological projects for community development in Charlotte, N.C.

New Grant Opportunity

The Wallace Foundation will make $53 million in grants over the next five years to arts organizations, with a focus on those that were founded by or serve people of color. In the first round, organizations with budgets between $500,000 and $5 million may apply for multiyear grants of $2 million to $3 million each. Up to 12 five-year grants will be awarded across the visual- and performing-arts fields, literary and media arts, and community-based organizations focused on artistic practice. Proposals are due August 13.

Send grant announcements to grants.editor@philanthropy.com.

Chronicle of Philanthropy subscribers also have full access to GrantStation’s searchable database of grant opportunities. For more information, visit our grants page.