McGovern Foundation Awards $66 Million to Advance A.I. for the Public Good

Here are notable new grant awards compiled by the Chronicle:

Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

$66.4 million to 148 organizations to develop products and policies that demonstrate the potential for artificial intelligence to be used for the public good.

Kinder Foundation

$27 million to the Houston Parks Board to renovate MacGregor Park, a 65-acre park in southeast Houston that contains sports facilities, recreation areas, and green space.

MathWorks

$25 million over seven years to Mass Audubon to help protect and restore land throughout Massachusetts.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

$15 million through its Driving Change program to six research universities to back programs in science, technology, engineering, and math that promote student success, expand undergraduate access to research opportunities, and support faculty efforts to adopt inclusive educational practices.

The grantees, which have each received $2.5 million over five years, are Illinois State University, Rice University, Rutgers University at Camden, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of Vermont.

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

$14 million to Flint Community Schools to renovate the Brownell STEM Academy and Holmes STEM Middle School campus.

The Mott Foundation is a financial supporter of the Chronicle.

MetLife Foundation

$10 million to 24 nonprofit groups through its Accelerating Commitment to Equity Innovation Fund to address income and wealth inequality in historically marginalized communities.

Rasmuson Foundation

$7.5 million to 17 nonprofit recipients in Alaska.

The largest grant of $750,000 over three years went to Recover Alaska to continue its statewide efforts to change public attitudes toward alcohol and increase access to rehabilitation programs.

New Balance Athletics

$7 million to the University of Maine Foundation to build the New Balance Track and Field and Soccer Complex on its campus in Orono.

Barbara Barnard Smith Foundation

$3.5 million to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to endow a chair in its music department.

Barbara Barnard Smith, who died in 2021 at age 101, was a professor of piano and music theory at the university from 1948 until her retirement in 1982. She founded its ethnomusicology program and learned to perform a variety of Asian-Pacific musical styles, including hula and Hawaiian chant, Korean dance, Chinese butterfly harp, and Japanese gagaku.

Mellon Foundation

$3 million to the University of Rochester to recruit three new tenure-track faculty members in its Department of Black Studies.

Quantum Foundation

$2 million to 19 nonprofit groups that serve residents of Florida’s Palm Beach County.

Eisner Foundation

$1.5 million to six organizations in Southern California to offer intergenerational programs that connect older adults with children and youths.

Chronicle of Philanthropy subscribers also have full access to GrantStation’s searchable database of grant opportunities. For more information, visit our grants page.