About Mercy Corps
To alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities.
Focus Areas
emergency responsefood security and nutritionwater, sanitation and hygieneclimate and environmentventures / impact investingeconomic opportunityhumanitarian assistance
Who They Fund
low-income householdscommunities of colormarginalized/neighborhood-based communitiesemerging community leaders
Funding Style
capacity building
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps’ recent grantmaking is shaped by community investment trusts, a funding pattern aimed at fighting poverty and racial inequity through democratized access to investment. In 2025, the foundation made multiple grants at the same program level, including $75,000 awards to Cultural Wellness Center in Minneapolis, The Brownsville Partnership in Brooklyn, and People’s Housing in New Orleans. Those awards point to a clear emphasis on helping local organizations build ownership-based pathways to wealth. The foundation also supports emerging leaders, shown by a $25,000 grant to Portland State University for the Emerging Leaders Program. Beyond that community-wealth work, Mercy Corps operates through a broader humanitarian and resilience platform that includes emergency response, food security and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, climate and environment, and economic opportunity. It also makes program-related investments through Mercy Corps Ventures, linking grantmaking with capital deployment in frontier and emerging markets. The result is a funder that uses both grants and investment tools to support local asset ownership, community development, and resilience-building work.
What Mercy Corps Funds
A central theme in Mercy Corps’ grantmaking is community wealth-building through local asset ownership. The foundation awarded $45,000 to Homes and Hope Community Land Trust in Mukilteo, $45,000 to Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region Inc in Albany, and $45,000 to Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation in Detroit for Community Investment Trusts work focused on democratized access to investment and racial inequity. Another recurring thread is leadership development: Portland State University received $25,000 for the Emerging Leaders Program. Mercy Corps also backs place-based community development organizations, including St Philip's School&community Center in Dallas and Tulsa Economic Development Corporation in Tulsa, both funded through the same community investment trusts theme. Across these grants, the emphasis is less on direct service than on structures that expand access to capital, ownership, and leadership.
How Mercy Corps Gives
Mercy Corps’ typical grant size is tightly clustered around $45,000, with a p25 of $45,000, a median of $45,000, and a p75 of $75,000. In the 2025 grants listed here, that pattern appears in repeated awards at $45,000 and $75,000. The recent record shows a programmatic pattern rather than one-off philanthropic checks: multiple grants share the same community investment trusts framing, and the foundation also uses program-related investments through Mercy Corps Ventures. It is a regular funder rather than a donor-advised fund, and it funds organizations, not individuals. Some initiatives accept unsolicited applications, including the Mercy Corps Ventures AI for Financial Resilience Initiative and Seed & Early-Stage Investment, while other programs do not.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$107K
Total Assets
$383.3M
Total Revenue
$376.3M
Total Expenses
$387.1M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $45K and $75K, with a median of $45K.
25th Percentile
$45K
Median
$45K
75th Percentile
$75K
Geographic Reach
National8 states funded
About 11% of grants go to recipients in NY.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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