Allen Foundation Grant

Allen Foundation Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Allen Foundation Inc.
Last Updated: February 07, 2026

Summary

The Allen Foundation Grant supports initiatives that enhance human nutrition through research, education, and training. It prioritizes projects that develop nutritional programs, including mandatory nutrition courses in medical schools and sustainable food systems. Eligible applicants must be U.S.-based non-profits or governmental entities with a focus on nutrition education and research. The foundation encourages proposals that include matching funds and has specific criteria for academic research and budgetary self-sufficiency.

Overview

The Allen Foundation, named in honor of William Webster Allen, operates under the laws of the State of Michigan with offices in Midland. Grants are limited under the terms of the foundation's charter to projects that primarily benefit programs for human nutrition in the areas of health, education, training, and research. Policies and Priorities To make grants to fund relevant nutritional research.

To support programs for the education and training of mothers during pregnancy and after the birth of their children, so that good nutritional habits can be formed at an early age.To assist in the training of persons to work as educators and demonstrators of good nutritional practices. 
To encourage the dissemination of information regarding healthful nutritional practices and habits. 
In limited situations to make grants to help solve immediate emergency hunger and malnutrition problems.
The connections between diet and health remain a basic and primary priority, and consideration has always been given to projects that benefit nutritional programs in the areas of education, training, and research.
Low priority has traditionally been given to proposals that help solve immediate or emergency hunger and malnutrition problems. The foundation welcomes proposals that develop and advance:
the inclusion of mandatory courses in nutrition in medical schools;bringing the promise of nutrigenomics or nutritional genomics to realization; andthe promotion of environmentally sound, economically viable, socially responsive, and sustainable food and agricultural systems.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. In order to be considered for an Allen Foundation grant, your organization must be a non-profit organization and be able to provide us with a copy of your Internal Revenue Service certification of 501(c) 3 tax-exempt status; Or a governmental entity with tax-exempt status.To be eligible and considered for funding, applicants must be organizations officially domiciled within the United States.In certain circumstances, the Allen Foundation will consider requests from the following:hospitals or medical clinics;social, religious, fraternal, or community organizations;private foundations; andK-12 public, parochial or private schools.All projects should have the potential for budgetary self-sufficiency (direct and indirect costs) or show evidence that special funds will not be needed to continue the program after completion of the grant period.The Allen Foundation Inc. imposes a cap of five percent (5%) for overhead costs collected (on top of direct costs of completing the project) by colleges and universities.Academic researchAcademic research under an Allen Foundation grant must be conducted under the leadership of a principal investigator (PI) who is a full-time regular faculty member with tenure or on tenure track. Research projects that are pre-clinical or translational in nature, i.e., utilizing animal models, as well as human/clinical studies are eligible for consideration for possible funding.

Ineligibility

The foundation is currently unable to accept proposals from organizations domiciled outside of the U.S.The foundation does not under any circumstances sponsor professional conferences, seminar tables, discussion panels, or similar events.