Compton Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Compton Foundation makes grants based on two categories of work—leadership and storytelling; however, grants are used for progressive social change, and toward a better world.
IP TAKE: Compton, even more than most progressive funders, emphasizes movement building. This means strengthening leadership and inspiring others to address the cause through powerful stories. This funder prizes collaboration, capacity-building, and media projects. It funds work by invitation only and will provide support for multiple cycles; however, note that this funder is spending down by 2027. This is a hands-on grantmaker that likes to build relationships and support in a variety of ways. It also likes to take some risks in its grantmaking for innovative work.
PROFILE: Established in 1946, the Compton Foundation was founded by Dorothy and Randolph Compton, the latter an investment banker. The couple first devoted themselves to the pursuit of world peace and preventing another world war, driven in part by the death of their youngest son John during World War II. The Comptons believed this could be accomplished by addressing the causes of war, which they perceived to be human rights violations and the depletion of natural resources. Based in San Francisco, the foundation has evolved significantly over the years. It supports work in climate change, progressive foreign policy, and reproductive rights and justice, and its grants focus on transformative leadership and courageous storytelling approaches.
Arguing that the United States is in a critical time of crisis, the Compton Foundation announced that it will spenddown by 2025. “We feel compelled in this moment to encourage grant makers to redistribute private philanthropic wealth back into communities instead of holding on to funds so their institutions can exist indefinitely,” write Ellen Friedman, Glen Galaich, and Pia Infante, executive directors of Compton Foundation, Stupski Foundation, and the Whitman Institute, respectively. “If we are to live our values, we must ask ourselves and our peers, ‘What are we saving our endowments for?’” Read Compton’s announcement here.
Grants for Writing and Film
Through its Courageous Storytelling strategy, Compton supports artists whose work has the potential to contribute to societal change and a better world. Grant seekers should make sure that film and creative writing ideas focus on intersections of art and social or environmental change. Practically speaking, that could mean any of the following: directly supporting professional artists working toward social or environmental change, funding organizations that bridge artistic disciplines and activism, or groups exploring art as an organizing methodology. In terms of format, Compton is open to creative journalistic approaches, new ways of sharing data, and also training organizations in strategic ways to tell their stories.
However, grant seekers should keep in mind that traditional journalistic pursuits are not supported here. Also, this is not the funder to go to for healing or empowerment storytelling or for telling the stories of a single organization. Past film and writing grants can be viewed here.
Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy
Compton conducts climate change related grantmaking through Transformative Leadership and Courageous Storytelling initiatives. A double-pronged approach to grantmaking, the foundation uniquely considers grantmaking in terms of narrative frameworks rather than dedicated traditional programs. This means that grant seekers can secure climate-change grants through either avenue; however, those that combine the two will be more likely to receive support.
The foundation writes: “In the years since adopting these strategies in 2011, we have come to see them not as a binary, but as convergent. Stories are most powerful when those telling them are strategic about how to leverage them for impact, and many organizers now understand that to have long-lasting success, they will have to understand and shift cultural barriers.” View the foundation’s recent grantmaking here.
Grants for Global Security and Human Rights
Compton supports Global Security efforts through its Transformative Leadership grant program, which prioritizes “working collaboratively across difference, building positive visions for long-term social and environmental change, figuring out the strategies, partnerships, and divisions of labor across institutional and sector boundaries required to get there, and starting down the road to implementing them.”
The Compton Foundation supports institutions that provide leadership training that produces those qualities. It also seeks to help networks of leaders who collaborate together to find transformative solutions.
Grants for Women and Girls
The foundation lists support for Reproductive Rights and Justice as one of its primary focus areas. It makes grants for women and girls from both its Transformative Leadership and Courageous Storytelling initiatives. Previously, Compton supported women and girls through the Women, Peace, and Security Initiative (WPSI), which made grants for three years until it shit down in early 2019, shortly before the foundation announced its intention to spend out its remaining assets by 2025. View the foundation’s recent grantmaking here.
Important Grant Details:
According to the Compton Foundation’s website, it intends to devote approximately two-thirds of its funds “to sizable, multi-year, general operating support grants to longtime grant partners.” The remaining third of its grants budget will support rapid response grants in order to quickly address “breaking opportunities, support convening across issue areas, and/or allow for strategic, timely interventions.”
Grants generally reach about $50,000 per year. As a result of its spenddown, the foundation no longer accepts unsolicited proposals and has closed its open inquiry process. View a breakdown of recent grants and past grantees here.
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