The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is one of the largest private foundations funding academic and policy-adjacent research in the United States, but it operates on a fundamentally different model than the investigator-initiated grant programs research administrators are most used to. Understanding that model — who it funds, how it decides, and what kind of money it gives — matters before a program officer, dean, or PI treats it as a prospect.
What the Hewlett Foundation Is
The Hewlett Foundation was established in 1966 by Bill Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, and his wife Flora Lane Hewlett. It is a nonpartisan, private philanthropic foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area (Menlo Park, California). As of December 31, 2024, the foundation reported approximately $13.9 billion in assets, and in 2024 it awarded $631 million in grants — with nearly three-fourths of that total given as flexible, general operating support rather than restricted project funding.
That last detail is the single most important structural fact for a research administrator to internalize: Hewlett is, in large part, a general operating support funder for organizations, not primarily a project-by-project research grants funder for individual investigators the way federal agencies or many peer private foundations are.
Program Areas Relevant to Research and Higher-Education Funding
Hewlett organizes its grantmaking into a set of named program areas, several of which fund research, university-based centers, or higher-education infrastructure directly.
Education
The Education program funds work aimed at improving postsecondary and K-12 outcomes, with an emphasis on “deeper learning” and equitable access. Historically, this program (and its predecessors) played an outsized role in seeding the open educational resources (OER) movement, including early funding that helped launch Creative Commons licensing infrastructure and open courseware initiatives — work that reshaped how universities license and share teaching materials.
Effective Philanthropy
The Effective Philanthropy program area (which houses the foundation’s internal Effective Philanthropy Group) funds the nonprofit and philanthropic sector’s own capacity: evaluation practice, sector data infrastructure, and nonprofit management support. It is also where Hewlett’s own institutional push toward flexible, general operating support and simplified reporting — part of a broader “trust-based philanthropy” trend across US foundations — is most visible.
Economy and Society
This program funds academic economists, research institutes, and networks working on new economic thinking — questioning conventional macroeconomic and market-design paradigms. Grants frequently go to university-based economics centers and cross-institutional research networks rather than to single-PI projects.
Emerging Technology and Security
Hewlett’s technology and security work (its long-running Cyber Initiative sits within this program area) funds the build-out of academic and think-tank cyber-policy research capacity — endowing university centers and faculty positions focused on technology governance and security policy, an area that had very little dedicated academic funding before Hewlett’s involvement.
Gender Equity and Governance
This program was renamed from Global Development and Population around 2020-2021; the foundation has said the rename reflects a sector-wide shift away from “global development” framing rather than a change in substantive focus. It funds reproductive health and economic-opportunity research and programming, concentrated in East and West Africa, Mexico, and the United States, along with governance-transparency and accountability work. Researchers and institutions working in global health, demography, or reproductive-health services research are the most likely academic audience for this program.
Other program areas
The Environment program (climate change and conservation of the U.S. West), U.S. Democracy (nonpartisan support for governing institutions), Racial Justice, Performing Arts (limited to the Bay Area), and Special Projects round out the foundation’s portfolio. These fund research and policy work in places, but they are less consistently a fit for university sponsored-programs offices than the programs above.
How Hewlett Funding Works: Mostly Invitation-Based
Unlike foundations that run a staged unsolicited-letter-of-inquiry process open to any qualifying applicant, Hewlett’s own grantmaking FAQ is explicit that “most of our grants are awarded to organizations identified by the foundation,” and that outside of specific open opportunities, “the foundation generally does not accept unsolicited letters of inquiry.” In practice this means:
- Program staff proactively identify prospective grantees rather than reviewing a general applicant pool.
- Some programs periodically run open, time-limited application windows (the foundation cites its Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions as one example) — these are announced via the foundation’s email updates and LinkedIn, not through a standing open portal.
- An organization without an existing relationship to a Hewlett program officer has no standard unsolicited-proposal pathway to fall back on, which is a meaningfully different posture than the staged review process used by, for example, the W.M. Keck Foundation.
For a sponsored-programs office, the practical implication is that cultivation — getting a program officer to know the institution’s relevant work before a specific ask — carries much more weight with Hewlett than proposal mechanics do.
Award Size, Grant Types, and Indirect Costs
Hewlett does not publish a standard per-grant award range the way some project-based research foundations do, and its 2024 total of $631 million in grants was distributed across all of its program areas, not research alone. Two structural points matter more than a dollar figure for administrators evaluating fit:
- Grantees are overwhelmingly organizations, not individuals. Hewlett funds nonprofits, universities, and research centers rather than making awards directly to individual principal investigators the way NIH, NSF, or an investigator-focused foundation would.
- A large share of funding is flexible, not itemized. Because roughly three-quarters of 2024 grant dollars were general operating support rather than restricted project budgets, the itemized facilities-and-administrative (indirect cost) rate negotiation that federal awards require typically does not apply the same way to a Hewlett grant. Where Hewlett does fund a specific restricted project, confirm cost-recovery treatment directly with the assigned program officer rather than assuming a federally negotiated rate applies — private foundations are not required to honor an institution’s federal NICRA, and practice varies by funder (see CASRAI’s comparison of foundation vs. federal indirect cost rates).
How Hewlett Compares to Other Research Foundations CASRAI Covers
| Dimension | Hewlett Foundation | Project-based research foundations (e.g., Keck, Beckman, Mathers) |
|---|---|---|
| Typical grantee | Organizations (universities, nonprofits, policy centers) | Individual PI-led projects, routed through an institution |
| Application path | Primarily by invitation; unsolicited LOIs generally not accepted outside specific open windows | Staged, unsolicited LOI or proposal process open to eligible institutions/investigators |
| Funding shape | Mostly flexible / general operating support | Restricted project budgets tied to a specific research plan |
| Primary fit | Sector-level, policy, and institutional-capacity work | Hypothesis-driven or early-stage investigator research |
This is a difference in kind, not just process: Hewlett functions much closer to a sector-capacity and policy funder than to an investigator-initiated basic-research funder, even though several of its program areas fund work that lives inside universities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Hewlett Foundation accept unsolicited grant proposals?
Generally no. Per the foundation’s own grantmaking FAQ, most grants go to organizations the foundation identifies itself, and unsolicited letters of inquiry are generally not accepted outside specific announced opportunities. Organizations interested in funding are directed to subscribe to Hewlett’s email updates and follow its LinkedIn page to learn about periodic open application windows.
Does the Hewlett Foundation fund individual researchers, or only organizations?
Its grants go to organizations — universities, research centers, and nonprofits — rather than directly to individual investigators. This differs from mechanisms like an NIH R01 or an investigator-focused foundation fellowship that names a specific researcher as the awardee.
Does the Hewlett Foundation pay indirect costs on its grants?
The foundation does not publish a standard indirect-cost or F&A policy comparable to a federal agency’s negotiated rate agreement. Because most Hewlett funding is flexible general operating support rather than an itemized project budget, the question often does not arise in the same form it would for a federal award; where a specific restricted grant is involved, confirm cost-recovery treatment with the program officer directly rather than assuming a standard rate.
What is the Hewlett Foundation’s total annual grantmaking?
In 2024 the foundation awarded $631 million in grants across all of its program areas, drawn from roughly $13.9 billion in assets as of December 31, 2024.
Is Hewlett Foundation funding limited to the United States?
No, though its scope varies by program. Gender Equity and Governance funds work concentrated in East and West Africa, Mexico, and the United States; Environment addresses both global climate change and conservation of the U.S. West; U.S. Democracy and Performing Arts are domestic (the latter limited to the San Francisco Bay Area). International applicants should check a specific program’s stated geographic focus before assuming eligibility.
How does Hewlett differ from foundations like Keck or Beckman?
Keck, Beckman, and similar foundations run staged, unsolicited application processes built around funding a specific investigator-led research project with a defined budget. Hewlett is structurally closer to a sector-capacity and policy funder: it identifies most of its grantees proactively, funds organizations rather than individual PIs, and gives a large share of its money as flexible general operating support rather than restricted project funding.
