Heising-Simons Foundation

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Climate and Clean Energy program funds work around energy policy analysis, public utility commissions, energy efficiency standards, and climate communications.[2] The Climate and Clean Energy program was named one of 25 mid-sized environmental grantmakers by Inside Philanthropy.[8] The Heising-Simons Foundation joined the Climate Funders Justice Pledge in 2022.[9]

In 2021, the Heising-Simons Foundation was one of the founding members of the Equitable Building Electrification Fund, a fund that seeks to advance an equitable transition to building electrification for communities most impacted by fossil fuels.[10]

The Community and Opportunity program focuses on two areas: local community and organizational effectiveness for Foundation grantees.[11]

In 2022, the Local Community portfolio provided funding for the community-based nonprofit group Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment to purchase the childhood home of Cesar Chavez in San Jose, California.[12] The property is intended to become a community-centered space with a learning center, where residents can learn more about Chavez's mission of non-violent resistance and community organizing.[12]

In 2021, the Heising-Simons Foundation supported MIT Technology Review’s COVID-19 Inequality Fellows reporting on the systematic technological challenges COVID-19 brought to under-covered communities.[13]

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Education program awards grants in early childhood education, including supporting early math education and dual language learners.[2]

In 2019, the Education program co-created the Early Educator Investment Collaborative, a group of early childhood funders that also includes the Ballmer Group, the Bezos Family Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Foundation for Child Development, and the Stranahan Foundation.[6]

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Human Rights program focuses on criminal justice reform, immigration grant rights work,[14] and supporting human rights for all.[15]

Caitlin Heising serves on the board of directors of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and is the vice chair of HRW’s U.S. Program Advisory Committee.[16]

In 2023, the Heising-Simons Foundation signed the California Black Freedom Fund’s Philanthropic Sign on Letter in response to police violence in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death.[17]

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Journalism portfolio awards the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which annually awards two freelance journalists with $100,000 each in unrestricted funds for "excellence in long-form, narrative or deep reporting about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the American landscape".[5]

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Science program awards research grants in astronomy and cosmology, fundamental physics, paleoclimatology, climate science, and the search for axion dark matter.[2]

The Heising-Simons Foundation partnered with the Simons Foundation to fund the $40 million Simons Observatory, an astronomy facility in the Chilean desert.[15] It also awarded $300,000 in funding for a major upgrade to the Kast Spectrograph at Lick Observatory in 2014.[18]

In 2017, the Science program launched the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship, intended to allow post-doctorate researchers the opportunity to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy.[4] In its inaugural year, the Heising-Simons Foundation awarded four postdoc researchers $375,000 each to support their independent research over three years.[4]

In 2022, the Heising-Simons Foundation awarded a three-year grant to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at UC Santa Barbara for the launch of a fellowship that aims to address the underrepresentation of minorities in physics, including theoretical physics.[19] Funds cover a stipend for fellows, as well as travel and accommodations for six to eight weeks.[19]