The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation funds two things that research administrators tend to encounter separately: institutional and project-based research grants awarded through a relationship-driven, largely by-invitation process, and the MacArthur Fellows Program — the so-called “genius grant” — a no-strings, nomination-only award made directly to individuals rather than institutions. The two programs share a name, an endowment, and a Chicago headquarters, but almost nothing else about how they operate. This guide covers both, and what each means for a sponsored-programs office, principal investigator, or individual nominee.
Two very different funding streams under one foundation
MacArthur’s institutional grantmaking funds organizations working within a defined set of programs, described below. Its Fellows Program funds individuals directly, selected through a confidential nomination process that nominees cannot enter themselves. An institution cannot apply on a researcher’s behalf for a Fellowship, and a Fellow’s award is not routed through, or administered by, their home institution the way a sponsored grant is — there is no subaward agreement, no institutional indirect-cost recovery, and no programmatic reporting back to MacArthur. Confusing the two is a common error worth heading off early: if a researcher asks a research administration office for help “applying” for a MacArthur Fellowship, the honest answer is that there is no application to help with.
MacArthur’s institutional research and program grantmaking
MacArthur organizes its non-Fellows grantmaking into several program categories, per the foundation’s own site (macfound.org):
- Big Bets — multi-year, large-scale commitments to a small number of issue areas aimed at transformative change. As of this writing these include the AI Opportunity initiative, Climate Solutions (winding down in 2026), Criminal Justice reform, and Local News.
- Enduring Commitments — longer-standing programs, currently the Chicago Commitment (place-based grantmaking in the foundation’s home city) and Journalism & Media.
- Field Support — grantmaking supporting infrastructure across a field rather than a single issue, covering impact investing, philanthropy itself, and technology in the public interest.
- Initiatives — more targeted efforts, including New Work and Nigeria Next (anti-corruption and governance grantmaking focused on Nigeria).
- Awards — competitive, application-based prizes, principally the 100&Change competition, a $100 million award (plus runner-up Lever for Change-administered grants) for a single proposal addressing a critical problem, and the MacArthur Fellows Program covered below.
Few of these accept unsolicited proposals at any given time. Per MacArthur’s own grantseeker guidance, most program areas are not currently open to new letters of inquiry; the Chicago Commitment and 100&Change have historically been the main exceptions with a defined open application window. Research administrators should check the current status of a specific program directly on macfound.org before advising a PI to prepare a proposal — the set of open programs changes as Big Bets and Initiatives launch, mature, and close.
How the MacArthur grants process actually works
For programs that are open, MacArthur describes its process in four stages:
- Build relationships — the foundation and a prospective grantee exchange initial information and assess strategic fit before any formal proposal exists.
- Invite proposals — if there is alignment, MacArthur invites a full proposal and supporting documentation; this is the point at which most sponsored-programs offices will get involved on the institutional side.
- Prepare and review — MacArthur conducts programmatic, financial, and organizational due diligence on the proposal and the applicant organization.
- Determination and agreement — a funding decision is made and, if positive, a grant agreement is negotiated and executed.
This is a relationship-led model rather than an open competitive-solicitation model: cold, unsolicited proposals to closed programs are reviewed only rarely, and the foundation is explicit that very few unsolicited submissions are funded. MacArthur also states plainly what it does not fund, regardless of program: scholarships or tuition assistance, grants to individuals outside specific named programs (i.e., not the general grantmaking pool), general annual fundraising drives, paid advertising, and attempts to influence legislation or support political campaigns.
Indirect cost and overhead treatment
For grants beginning in 2020 or later, MacArthur adopted a flat indirect-cost policy: 29% of project costs, applied without requiring the grantee to itemize actual overhead expenses. The foundation has said this figure was derived from a commissioned analysis of IRS Form 990 data across more than 130,000 U.S. nonprofits, identifying 29% as the minimum indirect-cost rate associated with financially healthy organizations in that dataset. This is a foundation-set policy rate, not a federally negotiated indirect-cost rate agreement (NICRA), and it applies uniformly rather than being institution-specific. For a side-by-side look at how MacArthur’s flat rate compares with Ford’s, Gates’, Packard’s, and a typical federal NICRA, see Foundation vs. Federal Indirect Cost Rates.
The MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program is an unrestricted, five-year award to individuals, publicly associated with the nickname “genius grant” — a label the foundation itself does not use and has explained it avoids, on the grounds that “genius” implies a narrowly intellectual quality when the qualities the program actually looks for (creativity, originality, and the capacity to keep working productively across a career) are broader than that.
Award amount and terms
Each Fellowship carries an $800,000 award, paid to the recipient directly in equal quarterly installments over five years. The award is unrestricted: there are no reporting requirements, no approved-use restrictions, and no obligation to spend the funds on research, professional activity, or anything in particular. Fellows have historically used the funds for research time, career transitions, organizational support, or personal needs that make continued creative or scholarly work possible.
Eligibility and the nomination-only process
Individuals cannot apply, and unsolicited nominations are not accepted or returned. Candidates are identified exclusively through a confidential pool of external nominators — experts across many fields, invited by the foundation and not publicly identified — who submit names through a process of broad, deliberately diverse outreach. MacArthur receives roughly 2,000 nominations in a typical cycle, and the process from nomination to announcement typically takes over a year. There are no field or age restrictions on who may be nominated; the formal eligibility requirements are narrow — a nominee must be a U.S. citizen or resident and may not hold elective office or certain senior government positions. Between 20 and 30 Fellows are typically announced each year, usually in early fall.
What this means for a research administration office
Because there is no application, there is no proposal for a sponsored-programs office to route, budget, or submit for a MacArthur Fellowship — unlike a career-development award such as those covered in this cluster’s guides to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s career awards or NIH’s K-series mechanisms. If an investigator at your institution is named a MacArthur Fellow, the appropriate institutional role is usually limited to public-affairs recognition and, where relevant, coordinating with the Fellow on how the (personally held, unrestricted) award interacts with outside-activity or additional-compensation policy — not grant administration in the ordinary sense, since the funds are not awarded to or through the institution.
Comparing MacArthur to other private research funders
MacArthur’s mix of large-scale institutional Big Bets funding and an entirely separate, application-free individual award program is unusual among major U.S. research funders. It’s worth situating alongside CASRAI’s other foundation-profile guides: the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Packard Foundation, which run more conventional program-area proposal processes with faculty-nomination or invited-LOI stages; the Ford Foundation, whose BUILD model and nine issue areas parallel MacArthur’s Big Bets/Enduring Commitments structure; and the W. M. Keck Foundation, which funds pioneering research proposals through a two-stage LOI-then-invited-proposal process closer to a traditional peer-reviewed model than MacArthur’s relationship-based approach.
Frequently asked questions
Can a researcher apply for a MacArthur Fellowship?
No. The MacArthur Fellows Program does not accept applications or self-nominations. Candidates are identified only through nominations from a confidential, invitation-only pool of external nominators selected by the foundation.
Is “genius grant” MacArthur’s official name for the Fellowship?
No. “Genius grant” is a widely used media nickname; MacArthur itself does not use the term and has said it avoids it because it narrows what the award actually recognizes.
Does the MacArthur Foundation fund individual researchers through its research grant programs?
Generally not directly. MacArthur’s institutional grantmaking (Big Bets, Enduring Commitments, Field Support, Initiatives, and 100&Change) is made to organizations, not to individuals. The Fellows Program is the exception, and it operates on an entirely separate, nomination-only track rather than as part of the regular grants process.
What is the MacArthur Fellowship worth, and how is it paid?
$800,000 per Fellow, paid directly to the individual in equal quarterly installments over five years, with no restrictions on use and no reporting requirements.
Does MacArthur accept unsolicited proposals from universities or research institutes?
Rarely. MacArthur states that it reviews unsolicited proposals meeting its guidelines but funds very few of them, and most current program areas are not accepting new letters of inquiry at any given time. Its standard path is relationship-based: an institution is typically invited to submit a full proposal only after an initial exchange establishes strategic fit.
What is MacArthur’s indirect cost rate for grantees?
For grants beginning in 2020 or later, MacArthur applies a flat 29% of project costs as an indirect-cost allowance, without requiring itemized overhead documentation — a policy rate set by the foundation rather than a federally negotiated NICRA.
