Gerber Foundation Research Grants

RESEARCH INTERESTS
The Gerber Foundation provides funding for national programs having a significant impact on issues facing infants and young children, from prebirth to age 3.

Foundation Interests
The Foundation's mission focuses on infants and young children. Accordingly, priority is given to projects that improve nutrition, care, and development of infants and young children from the first year before birth to three years of age.

In all of our grantmaking, the Foundation is particularly interested in fresh approaches to solving problems in our defined program areas. Research approaches should, if proven successful, generate long-term support from other sources, promote the health and well-being of infants up to the age of three, and lead to systemic change in practice.

Generally, competitive requests will be focused on particular projects in furtherance of the Foundation's mission and goals of supporting nutrition or health-related interventions to improve infant health and development. Foundation grants are not typically ongoing. Supported projects should have beginnings and endings, reasonable periods during which measurable progress or outcomes are accomplished. The impact of Foundation funding should be detailed, so that the infusion of new or outside funding can be seen to have some positive influence on the progress or outcome of the project.

The Foundation gives priority to projects of national or regional impact. Projects should be sufficiently focused to make a felt difference in the field of interest.

What We Do Not Fund
While we endeavor to maintain a high degree of flexibility in our programming, we do observe several practical limitations. We do not make grants or loans to individuals. Outside the West Michigan area, we do not support capital campaigns, operating support, national child welfare programs, or international based programs. We also do not support exclusive food or baby products giveaway programs.
When To Apply

For the May grant round, concept papers should be submitted by December 1. If accepted, full proposals are due February 15.

For the November grant round, concept papers should be submitted by June 1. If accepted, full proposals are due August 15.