Citi Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Citi Foundation supports youth economic opportunities, job skills, financial inclusion, agriculture & food security, disaster response, and community development in the U.S. and around the world. Across its priority areas, the foundation “works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities.”
IP TAKE: The Citi Foundation, a major corporate donor, conducts its grantmaking primarily through the lenses of economic development, financial security, and closing the racial wealth gap. Inside Philanthropy reporter Celia Wexler recently observed that Citi’s grant making is “forward-thinking” and “surprisingly progressive.” In a wide-ranging interview with Inside Philanthropy, Citi Foundation President Brandee McHale stressed the importance of flexible support for nonprofits, saying that since 2020, there has been a “huge transformation in our grant making process.” Along with providing larger, more flexible grants, Citi has added a major new priority area to its grantmaking portfolio: global food security.
While Citi is relatively transparent about its strategy and past grantmaking, it’s not the most accessible funder. Its grantmaking rolls out in the form of major initiatives offering large grants with cyclical Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Citi calls this the “challenge model” as opposed to the invitation-only model, with open calls for major grant programs offered on an annual basis. These RFPs include detailed information about applying for funding, yet there’s typically only one open RFP at any given time. Larger organizations with an established footprint in Citi’s issue areas are likely to have the most success here, though this funder appears to also take risks with smaller, grassroots efforts. The foundation does not maintain a grants database, though a deep dive into the foundation’s website may turn up a full list of grantees for select grants programs.
PROFILE: The Citi Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Citibank, a multinational financial services firm based in New York City. The foundation aims to promote “economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world.” It supports youth economic opportunity, community solutions and financial inclusion through partnerships with nonprofit organizations and internal programs. It also makes grants for education, disaster relief, and community and global development. Currently, its main programs are the Global Innovation Challenge, Community Finance Innovation Fund, Community Progress Makers and Pathways to Progress.
Grants for Education
The Citi Foundation’s grants for education support students from kindergarten through college. Most of the foundation’s education efforts prioritize job training and financial literacy.
Grants for K-12 Education
The Citi Foundation supports K-12 education through its signature Pathways to Progress initiative, which encourages young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 to acquire marketable skills through education and job training, to find jobs, and to develop businesses of their own. Through a partnership with INJAZ-Al-Arab, the foundation provided workforce readiness and financial literacy training to 9,000 students from nine countries across North Africa and the Middle East. In the United States, the foundation runs the Summer Jobs Connect program, which connects young people with employment opportunities and financial literacy resources.
Grants for College Readiness
The Citi Foundation supports college readiness through its signature Pathways to Progress initiative. One past grantee is the Opportunity Network, a New York City-based organization that offers academic support, guidance, training and internships to underserved high school students. Another grantee, YouthBuild USA, provides low-income youth who have not completed high school with job training and educational skills for postsecondary success.
Grants for Housing and Community Development
Among Citi’s Signature Programs, the Community Progress Makers Fund is a “$50 million, three-year initiative” that awards $1 million grants to 50 community organizations committed to building “stronger, more resilient cities that catalyze economic opportunity for all their residents,” which includes supporting programs for economic development, affordable housing, environmental sustainability and urban infrastructure. The Community Progress Makers operate in six cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco area, and Washington, D.C. Moreover, in 2014, Citi launched the City Accelerator in 32 American cities. This initiative, which is currently closed, promoted “innovative efforts that generate economic opportunities for low-income populations and help municipalities run more effectively.”
Citi also supports community development through its Community Finance Innovation Fund, a $50 million initiative aiming to support community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and minority depository institutions (MDIs) that “play a critical role delivering credit and other asset-building financial services to unbanked and underbanked households.” Citi has selected 12 nonprofit organizations to receive these funds in order to bolster their work serving low-income communities.
Past community development grantees include America's Promise Alliance, Lakota Fund and Koreatown Youth and Community Center.
Grants for Global Development
The Citi foundation conducts global grantmaking through its new Global Innovation Challenge. Launched in 2023, this initiative has provided a total of $25 million to 50 organizations working to address food security globally and “strengthen the physical and financial health of low-income families and communities.”
Citi funds organizations working toward the four main pillars of food security: access to sources of healthy food, affordability of food, availability of jobs and ability to create businesses that provide food, and community resilience during a food shortage crisis.
The foundation supports geographically specific financial inclusion work in Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. It also awards a number of financial inclusion grants to organizations working on a global scale, rather than a specific region of the world.
Past global development grantees include JA Worldwide, United Nations Development Programme, and ACCION International.
Grants for Humanitarian and Disaster Relief
The Citi Foundation seeks to improve the financial outlook for disadvantaged communities everywhere, including communities recovering from major natural disasters. Some grants provide “immediate relief,” supporting rescue relief the first few days or weeks following a disaster.
However, the Citi Foundation predominantly focuses on aid meant to "identify and fund innovative disaster mitigation efforts that align with [Citi's] financial inclusion goals" and within immediate relief, "to develop strategic alliances with key organizations able to deploy relief work at a minutes’ notice." The Citi Foundation thus supports efforts to revive economic activity in the wake of a disaster.
Past grantees in this area include American National Red Cross, International Rescue Committee and Management Leadership for Tomorrow. In 2020, Citi committed $100 million toward COVID-19 community relief and economic recovery.
Important Grant Details:
Citi Foundation grants range from $50,000 to $2 million, with an average grant size of about $150,000. The foundation supports organizations around the world, generally funding nonprofits with "demonstrated success."
The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals and will not review unsolicited materials.
Grantmaking is conducted primarily through open requests for proposals (RFPs).
Deadlines, guidelines and eligibility requirements vary by program.
Grant seekers may contact the foundation through its contact page for further inquiries.
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