The Boston University Foundation Relations team, within the Office of Advancement, helps faculty identify, apply for, secure, and steward charitable gifts and grants from private philanthropic foundations and nongovernmental organizations. We match faculty research and programs with foundations’ priorities, which are often to support pilot projects and high-risk research that may not be attractive to traditional funders such as NIH and NSF. Additional details about how we work can be found in this overview.
“They were a GREAT addition to the process: proactive, professional, detail oriented, rapidly responsive, friendly, and accommodating….In short, they were a key member of our submission team. Truth be told, I am not 100% sure that we would have made the submission deadline without them.”
—Thomas Gilmore, PhD, Professor, Biology
Hundreds of foundation programs are focused on early-career faculty. Their funding can be highly beneficial, helping to seed a new project, confirm proof of concept, or generate pilot data. In contrast to federal funders, private funders are more willing to support high-risk, high-reward projects.
foundation support to BU in FY24
proposals and LOIs the Foundation Relations team helped faculty submit in FY24
“Meet the Funder” events organized by the Foundation Relations team over past three years
Numerous faculty members from across the University receive foundation support. Here are a few recent examples.
Blake, whose work has been supported by the Templeton Foundation various times over the past ten years, investigates how children learn concepts such as giving and fairness across different cultural settings.
The award from the Hartwell Foundation will support Dr. Banskota and collaborators in developing novel treatment methods for genetic disorders affecting children.
The Bob Woodruff Foundation has supported the Women Veterans Network (WoVeN), led by Professor of Psychiatry Tara Galovski, since 2020.
Livingston will study the impacts of federal regulations of opiates on treatment use, patient retention, and outcomes. The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute supports large-scale comparative clinical effectiveness research.
Hao is BU's fourth recipient of the prestigious Young Investigator Award in as many years. Her research project will focus on deep-tissue cellular activity mapping.
The $200,000 award will support the creation of a microbial therapy to combat common inflammatory bowel diseases.
For Rachel Nolan, assistant professor of international history, the fellowship will support training in the Indigenous languages spoken by some deportees and in the complex legal landscape impacting asylum seekers.