The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was founded in 1930 by cereal magnate William Keith Kellogg with the aim of helping children reach their full potential. The Foundation specifically supports community efforts that create a place where vulnerable children can thrive.
WKKF has three interconnected funding priorities: Thriving Children, Working Families, and Equitable Communities. Letters of Inquiry are accepted on an ongoing basis.
Eligibility
This grant is open to organizations in the United States and select communities in Mexico and Haiti. Eligible organizations include:
- Nonprofits
- Public organizations such as schools and hospitals
- Government entities
- Native American Tribes
- For profit organizations doing philanthropic work
Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, and New Orleans have been identified as priority locations. Approximately two-thirds of WKKF’s work is done in these areas as well as Chiapas and the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, and in Central and South Haiti.
Funding Priorities
Thriving Children
Grants under this category focus on issues like maternal and infant health, early childhood education, and improving access to healthy foods. Examples include projects to help children understand what makes food healthy or unhealthy and supporting policy initiatives.
Working Families
WKKF works with US employers to make high quality jobs more equitable. This includes supporting businesses owned by women, minorities, and tribes and small businesses as a whole. In Mexico and Haiti, support is primarily focused on agricultural programs. They have funded projects to develop workforce training programs and to provide legal advice to workers who are unprotected by labor laws.
Equitable Communities
Racial inequity is a barrier that prevents many children from succeeding. To help remove this barrier, WKKF supports programs to develop local leaders, confront the history of racial inequality, and reshape the systems that perpetuate it. Examples of projects they have funded include providing comprehensive planning assistance and partnerships with historically black colleges and universities.
Allowable Expenses
WKKF supports projects that use innovative methods to help all children and families succeed. They don’t specify what grant funds can be spent on, but they do list some of the things they don’t fund. These include:
- Capital projects
- Endowments
- Events
- Individual assistance
Application Process
- Register with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Portal. Login information will be emailed to you within one business day.
- Write a letter of inquiry describing your project in 1,500 characters or fewer. This letter should include information on the problem you’re addressing, what your objectives are, what methods you’ll use, who your partners are, and how your project fits into the WKKF priorities. You should receive a response to your letter within thirty business days.
- Applicants that are a strong fit for the Foundation’s goals will be encouraged to develop a full application. A final decision to fund your project or not should be made within sixty business days of receiving the full application.
Learn more about projects the WKKF has funded in the past in their Grants Database.
