The Andrew Carnegie Foundation – known for most of its 115-year history as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and renamed on June 9, 2026, its founding anniversary – is one of the largest U.S. private philanthropic funders touching research, with an endowment of roughly $4.9 billion and an annual grantmaking budget of about $220 million. For a sponsored-programs office or an investigator scoping non-federal funding, the practical question is rarely “what does Carnegie fund” – it is how its grant process actually works, because that process is structurally different from a federal or even most foundation application models. This guide covers the foundation’s current research-relevant funding areas, how grants are actually awarded (a proactive, largely invitation-only model), the one significant pathway open to individual researchers, and what a research office should realistically do to be considered.
What is the Andrew Carnegie Foundation (formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York)?
The foundation was established by Andrew Carnegie on June 9, 1911, as a general-purpose grantmaking foundation, not a corporate entity in the ordinary sense – “Corporation” in its former name reflected an old New York State legal designation for a charitable trust, not a business. The organization renamed itself the Andrew Carnegie Foundation in June 2026, stating the change was intended to give a clearer connection to Andrew Carnegie’s own philanthropic mission and to reduce confusion caused by a name that implied a New York-only, corporate operation when the foundation actually funds nationally and internationally. Its stated mission is unchanged: supporting work in the areas Andrew Carnegie himself prioritized – education, democracy, and international peace. Because the rename is recent, expect to see both names in circulation for some time – grant agreements, tax filings (Form 990-PF), and older award listings will still reference “Carnegie Corporation of New York.”
Funding areas relevant to researchers and institutions
The foundation organizes its grantmaking into a national program and an international program, plus a long-running libraries initiative. Not every area funds research directly, but several are squarely research-relevant:
- Education (National Program – “Ladders of Opportunity”): work on socioeconomic mobility, civic learning, and building public trust in institutions including elections and government. This has historically included support for education research and evidence-building, alongside direct-service and policy grantees.
- Democracy (National Program): policy-relevant work on voting rights, legal immigration, and reducing political polarization – the theme that now runs across much of the foundation’s national grantmaking, including its flagship individual-researcher award (below).
- International peace and security (International Program – “A More Peaceful World”): one of the foundation’s two longest-running international funding areas, covering nuclear risk reduction, U.S.-China relations, Russian and Eurasian studies, conflict prevention, the effects of mass migration, and the growing role of non-state actors in security. The International Program disburses funding at a scale (historically on the order of tens of millions of dollars a year) that makes the foundation one of the largest private funders in this specific space.
- Higher education and research in Africa (International Program): the International Program’s other longstanding area, supporting African universities and research institutions directly – distinct from the U.S. domestic education work under the National Program.
- Libraries: continuing support connected to Andrew Carnegie’s original library-building legacy; less directly relevant to research funding than the areas above.
Program priorities and the specific requests for proposals (RFPs) issued within each area rotate as strategy evolves – the foundation periodically issues targeted RFPs to a defined set of eligible or invited organizations within the International Program (for example, a recent International Program RFP was scoped narrowly to “movements of people and non-state actors” within its peace and security portfolio). These RFPs are not the same as an open call for unsolicited applications; see the next section.
How Carnegie’s grant process actually works: proactive, invitation-only grantmaking
This is the detail most searches for “Carnegie Corporation grant process” are actually trying to find, and it’s the single most important operational fact for a research office to know before spending time on this funder: the foundation does not accept or review unsolicited proposals or funding requests. It operates on what foundations call a proactive grantmaking model – program staff identify organizations and, in some cases, individual scholars whose work aligns with the foundation’s current program goals, and initiate contact themselves, rather than opening a general call for applications that any eligible institution can respond to.
In practice this means:
- There is no standing, general letter of inquiry process open to any nonprofit or university that wants to propose a project.
- Grants typically follow a period of “intensive and collaborative planning” between foundation program staff and the institution once it has been identified – the proposal, when one exists, is developed jointly rather than submitted cold.
- Some funding within the International Program is distributed through narrower, invitation-scoped RFPs issued to a defined pool of organizations already known to the program, rather than to the public generally.
- Past awards are visible in the foundation’s public grants database, which is the most useful tool available to an outside institution for understanding what the foundation actually funds, at what approximate scale, and to which kinds of organizations – even though it isn’t itself an application channel.
This is a materially different model from a federal Funding Opportunity Announcement, where eligibility and submission mechanics are published and any qualifying PI or institution may apply, or from foundations that run an open letter-of-inquiry intake (a pattern used by some of the funders covered in CASRAI’s guides to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Mathers Foundation, and the Beckman Foundation). A research office that treats Carnegie like one of those funders – drafting and submitting an unsolicited proposal – will not get a review; there is no channel for it to reach.
The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program: the one individual-researcher pathway
The foundation’s one significant, recurring mechanism that functions like a research award to an individual scholar is the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, established in 2015. It funds roughly 30 fellowships a year at $200,000 each, for one or two years, intended to support a major book or study in the humanities or social sciences; funds can cover the fellow’s time, research assistance, and travel. Since a 2023 relaunch, the program’s current thematic focus is understanding and addressing political polarization in the United States, reflecting the same theme running through the foundation’s broader Democracy funding area.
Critically, this program is nomination-only, and individual scholars cannot self-nominate. Eligible nominators are limited to university presidents, chancellors, and provosts (deans are not eligible to nominate), plus the heads of university presses, learned societies, think tanks, and major newspapers. Each eligible university head may typically nominate a small, fixed number of scholars (commonly one tenured and one untenured or non-tenure-track scholar). Candidates must hold a PhD or other terminal degree, or be a senior professional working outside academia, and must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. For a research administration office, this means the practical action isn’t preparing an application packet for the investigator – it’s making sure the provost’s or president’s office is aware of qualifying faculty each year, since the nomination itself originates at that level, not from the PI or the sponsored-programs office.
Practical guidance for research administrators and institutions
Given the process described above, a realistic strategy for an institution or investigator interested in Carnegie/Andrew Carnegie Foundation funding looks different from pursuing a federal grant or an open-call foundation grant:
- Don’t budget staff time to draft an unsolicited proposal. There is no reviewer waiting to receive one, and a cold submission is very unlikely to reach a program officer.
- Use the grants database as market research, not an application portal. Reviewing which institutions and project types the foundation has funded in your program area of interest is the closest available substitute for published eligibility criteria.
- Watch for narrowly scoped RFPs issued within the International Program in particular – these are the closest thing the foundation runs to a defined competition, though they are typically limited to organizations the program has already identified as eligible.
- Route the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program through your provost’s or president’s office, not through the standard sponsored-programs proposal-development workflow – the nomination has to originate there, on the foundation’s annual nomination timeline, and the office should track which faculty in the humanities and social sciences would be strong nominees.
- Build visibility the way proactive funders actually respond to it: publications, conference presence, and existing relationships in a program’s specific topic area (nuclear policy, African higher education, democracy and polarization research, education mobility research) are what puts an institution or scholar on a program officer’s radar – not a submitted proposal.
- Confirm your institution’s basic foundation eligibility housekeeping is current – 501(c)(3) status (or equivalent for international institutions), EIN, and standard due-diligence documentation – the same baseline foundations generally require before any grant agreement can be finalized, even one that originated through proactive outreach rather than a competitive application.
How this differs from applying for a federal grant
For a research administrator used to sponsored-programs workflows built around federal mechanisms, the biggest procedural differences are: there is no published funding opportunity announcement to route through an internal deadline and compliance-review process for general Carnegie funding; there is no public eligibility notice defining who may apply, because in most cases no one applies unprompted; and because negotiation happens directly with an identified institution, indirect-cost and budget terms are typically settled as part of that individual negotiation rather than following a published, fixed policy the way federal indirect-cost rate agreements do. This is a pattern shared with several other major private foundations – see CASRAI’s broader guide to private and nonprofit research funders for how proactive, relationship-based grantmaking compares across funders.
Frequently asked questions
Does Carnegie Corporation of New York accept unsolicited grant applications?
No. The foundation states it does not accept or review unsolicited proposals or funding requests in the vast majority of cases; grants originate when foundation program staff identify and contact an organization directly.
Has Carnegie Corporation of New York changed its name?
Yes. On June 9, 2026 – its 115th anniversary – the foundation renamed itself the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. Its mission, endowment, and grantmaking programs are unchanged; only the legal/public name changed, and older grant records, tax filings, and citations will continue to reference “Carnegie Corporation of New York” for some time.
Can an individual researcher apply to Carnegie/Andrew Carnegie Foundation directly?
Not through a standard application. The closest individual-researcher mechanism is the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, which is nomination-only – scholars cannot self-nominate; nominations come from university presidents, chancellors, provosts, or the heads of certain other eligible institutions.
What are Carnegie/Andrew Carnegie Foundation’s main funding areas?
Education and democracy (through the National Program, “Ladders of Opportunity”) and international peace and security plus higher education and research in Africa (through the International Program, “A More Peaceful World”), alongside a continuing libraries initiative.
How much does the foundation grant each year?
Its annual grantmaking budget is approximately $220 million, from an endowment of roughly $4.9 billion, as of the foundation’s most recently reported figures.
