About Clowes Fund
The Clowes Fund Incorporated’s recent giving is defined by unusually large, concentrated awards to a very small set of recipients in Indianapolis. The largest reported grant was $28,569,150 in 2024 to See Attached Statement, followed by $3,138,750 in 2025 and $2,997,800 in 2023 to another attached-statement recipient. That pattern points to a funder that uses major grants strategically rather than spreading dollars across many small awards.
The fund’s published program descriptions show two broad channels of support. One is competitive operating support for organizations working in Immigrant Services, Workforce Development, Arts Education, and K–12 Education. The other is a set of discretionary and internal grant activities, including emergency grants, commemorative and birthday gifts, art transfers, and matching grants directed by members, directors, and employees.
The Clowes Fund Incorporated also distinguishes between introductory support for newer or returning applicants and continuation support for organizations that have received a competitive payment within the past five years. That structure suggests a grantmaker built around sustained relationships with a limited number of institutional partners, especially those connected to Indianapolis and other named program geographies.
What Clowes Fund Funds
In immigrant-services and workforce-development work, the fund offers two entry points: Introductory Grants of $40,000 for organizations new to the competitive process, and Continuation Grants of $60,000–$150,000 for organizations that have received a competitive payment within the past five years. Those programs are available for groups in Indianapolis, New England, and Seattle.
For arts and education, the continuation track also covers Arts Education and K–12 Education, indicating that the fund maintains a broader education portfolio once an organization is already in relationship with it.
The fund’s non-competitive side includes art transfers, commemorative grants, birthday grants, emergency grants, and matching grants for members, directors, and employees. Art transfers are listed for New England and Indiana, showing that part of its activity sits outside standard application-based grantmaking.
How Clowes Fund Gives
The typical grant size is very large: the 25th percentile is $9,390,638, the median is $15,783,475, and the 75th percentile is $22,176,312. That spread matches the recent record of highly concentrated, multi-million-dollar awards rather than small awards. The fund also appears to support organizations over time: Continuation Grants are available only to groups that received a competitive payment within the past five years, while Introductory Grants are for newer or returning applicants. The foundation is a regular funder, not a DAF, and it does not fund individuals or make program-related investments. Some grant activity is competitive and applicant-driven through GOapply, while other payments are discretionary or internal.
