George Family Foundation: Authentic Leadership Grants

The George Family Foundation's Authentic Leadership Grants aim to foster transformative leadership by supporting organizations that align with their mission. The foundation focuses on developing authentic leaders who demonstrate integrity and commitment to social change. They prioritize funding for programs that encourage leadership development across diverse sectors and ensure equitable access to opportunities in higher education, particularly in Minnesota and select areas. Their approach is rooted in building compassionate communities and addressing systemic challenges.

NOTE: We receive far more requests than we are able to fund each year. Because of this, we often aren’t able to invite full proposals even from meaningful endeavors that are well aligned with our mission. In order to best respect applicants’ time, we only invite full proposals from applicants with programs/activities that are most aligned with our mission, our focus-area aspirations, and our current philanthropic priorities.
Grantmaking
Since its founding, the Foundation has developed trusted working relationships with grantees, building sustained engagement.
The George Family Foundations supports programs, organizations and initiatives that transform lives by working to change the systems affecting those lives.
Authentic leaders first lead themselves, then teams, and then organizations.
Strengthen authentic leadership in all sectors in service of our vision of a society led by authentic leaders who contribute to building compassionate communities and creating a more just, civil, and functional society.Ensure enduring opportunities for True North leadership development for people of all races, genders, and socioeconomic levels.Nurture the development of exceptionally promising future leaders focused on helping society overcome its most complicated and entrenched challenges.Reduce barriers in higher education, enabling students to achieve their full potential.
What We Fund
To support achievement of our aspirations, we seek to fund an intentional mix of Authentic Leadership endeavors, including:
Leadership Development ProgramsWe fund a variety of leadership development endeavors that embrace the philosophies and tenets of authentic leadership.George FellowsSelect funding to nurture the development of exceptionally promising authentic leaders enrolled in world-class graduate programs designed to position graduates to help society overcome its most complicated and entrenched challenges.George ScholarsTargeted scholarships to reduce barriers to higher education — enabling students to improve their opportunities for the future and achieve their full potential.

Eligibility

We focus on funding organizations that are aligned with our mission and are working to address deep, meaningful needs that they are uniquely positioned to meet.To support achievement of our aspirations, we seek to fund an intentional mix and balance of endeavors in each focus area.We only fund 501(c)(3) organizations.Although we sometimes fund select national organizations, we generally fund organizations working in Minnesota, Dallas, Northern San Francisco Bay Area/Marin County, and the Vail Valley.

Ineligibility

The George Family Foundation will not support the following:capital improvementsendowmentsscientific research