Featured Grants

Dogs Deserve Better Blue Ridge is a local chapter of Dogs Deserve Better Inc. Dogs Deserve Better is an all-volunteer team dedicated to freeing chained and penned dogs in Central Virginia. Dogs Deserve Better's mission is to provide a better life for abused, neglected, and abandoned canines by advocating for humane legislation, promoting spay and neuter, educating communities on animal welfare, and finding loving families for once forgotten souls. More...

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute is a force in animal care, cutting-edge research and environmental education. A Foundation grant to the Smithsonian Institution supports the work of Dr. Mary Hagedorn who is racing the clock and climate change to protect the coral reefs of the world. Her work is critical because coral supports the algae that produces 50% to 85% of Earth’s oxygen. More...

The William H. Donner Foundation is proud to be among the supporters of the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University. The joint program, with The New York Times, will enable GW to create a virtual public archive of the newspaper’s “ISIS Files,” roughly 15,000 pages of internal Islamic State group documents. More...

The mission of Human Origins Program is to advance humanity's understanding of the origin of our species through cutting- edge scientific investigations and by communicating our findings to scientific and public audiences worldwide. Grants from the William H. Donner Foundation have elevated the Human Origins Program's ongoing efforts to produce new research findings, with particular focus on East Africa. More...

Alliance for HOPE International helps children and adult survivors of domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual abuse find pathways to hope and healing. All of their programs focus on increasing Hope in the lives of children and adults. Family Justice Center Alliance supports developing and operating Family Justice Center and multi-agency models where victims and their children can come to ONE safe place for all their services. More...

When people talk about trafficking and exploitation, they often focus on its impact on those who are "in the life." But being bought, sold, or exploited can leave wounds that linger long after someone has left the sex trade. With the support of The William H. Donner Foundation & World Without Exploitation founding co-chairs, Rights4Girls deve- loped a 2016-2017 racial justice prog- ramming series that seeks to challenge the way we think about intersectionality. More...

With support from the William H. Donner Foundation, The Carter Center delivers interventions to control trachoma for the entire at-risk population of the Amhara region in Ethiopia. With support from the Donner Foundation and others, over the past year, The Carter Center helped to restore the sight of more than 116,000 people. Programs supported include eye surgery, health education, and antibiotic distribution. More...

For over ten years, the William H. Donner Foundation has supported the cheetah breeding and research program at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI). The Foundation's long-term investment in the program has enabled SCSI scientists and animal care experts to build foundational knowledge in cheetah biology, behavior, genomics, and reproductive management practices—all critical disciplines which contributed to this major conservation success. More...

The Mianus Chapter of Trout Unlimited has been actively working to restore the orwalk River since the mid-1990s. In that time, the chapter has completed more than $750,000 of restoration work along the river,bincluding tens of thousands of volunteer hours. One of the major accomplishments was the completion of a special fish bypass channel around the Cannondale Dam which allows trout to move upstream into miles of spawning habitat. The Donner Foundation was happy to participate in this effort. More...

The Donner Foundation awarded a grant to American Humane, the country's first national humane organization, to advance its emergency animal rescue program. American Humane is the first to serve animals whenever and wherever they're in need. The organization's first-response units and fleet of state-of-the-art rescue vehicles are prepared to deploy at a moment's notice to rescue animals in danger. For a century, American Humane has provided rescue services at virtually every major national disaster from Pearl Harbor to 9/11 to Superstorm Sandy. More...