Graham Foundation: Grants to Organizations

Priorities and Criteria

For organizations, our priorities are to:

• Assist with the production and presentation of significant programs about architecture and the designed environment in order to promote dialogue, raise awareness, and develop new and wider audiences.
• Support them in their effort to take risks in programming and create opportunities for experimentation.
• Recognize the vital role they play in providing individuals with a public forum in which to present their work.
• Help them to realize projects that would otherwise not be possible without our support.

Overall we are most interested in opportunities which enable us to provide critical support at key points in the development of a project or career.

Criteria for Evaluation

Given our priorities, we believe projects of the greatest potential should fulfill the following criteria:

• Originality: the project demonstrates an innovative, challenging idea; critical, independent thinking; advanced scholarship; a new or experimental approach
• Potential for impact: the project makes a meaningful contribution to discourse and/or to the field; expands knowledge; is a catalyst for future inquiry; raises awareness of an understudied issue; promotes diversity in subject matter, participants, and audience
• Feasibility: the project has clear and realistic goals, timeframe, work plan, and budget
• Capacity: applicant possesses strong qualifications and/or knowledge; demonstrates ability to carry out the project successfully; has access to necessary resources outside of the grant request

More details