Private foundation · New York, NY (gives in Tennessee from out of state)
The Simons Foundation Inc.
In 2024 it gave 16 grants worth $393,251 to Tennessee groups, 6 of them in Davidson County. A typical grant was $8,400.
Invitation only: it picks who to fund. Don't send a proposal. Look for a connection through its board. See its board and officers below: do you or your board know any of them?
Key facts
- Grants in Tennessee
- 16 totaling $393,251 · 6 in Davidson County
- Typical grant How we figure this
- $8,400
- A realistic first ask How we figure this
- About $8,400: the middle grant to the 11 Tennessee groups it funded for the first time in 2024.
- Where it gives
- Davidson County, Shelby County, Knox County, Williamson County, Rutherford County · plus 1711 grants outside Tennessee
- Buildings & equipment
- None of its Tennessee grants in this filing were for buildings or equipment
- Funds new groups? How we figure this
- 86% of the Tennessee groups it funded in 2024 were new (not funded in 2023): 6 of 7.
- Total giving that year
- $272 million
Giving by year
| Tax year | Total grants paid | To Tennessee | Tennessee grants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $272M | $393K | 16 |
| 2023 | $291.4M | $640K | 9 |
All grants paid To Tennessee
How to apply
The foundation's filing doesn't describe how to apply. Look for a website, or send a short letter asking whether it accepts requests.
Board and officers
Does your board know anyone here?
Checked in your browser only. The names are kept on this device for other foundation pages and are never sent to GrantMe.
- Marilyn SimonsCo-chair of the board
- James SimonsCo-chair (thru 5/2024)
- David EisenbudTrustee
- Emery N BrownTrustee
- Peter LittlewoodTrustee
- Andrew GoldenTrustee (as of 6/2024)
- Shirley M TilghmanTrustee/vice chair
- William H PressTrustee
- Cornelia BargmannTrustee
- Jill PipherTrustee (as of 10/2024)
- Ingrid DaubechiesTrustee
- Bill FordTrustee (as of 6/2024)
- David SpergelPresident
- Euan RobertsonCoo
- Marlow KeeCfo/treasurer
- Brett DakinGen. counsel/sec./chief compl. off.
As listed in its 2024 IRS filing. Many foundations decide through their board, so a personal connection often matters more than a perfect application.
What it funds most often
- Cognitive computational neuroscience (ccn) 2024 conference (1 grant)
- Robust, reliable, and provably stable spectral element methods for nonlinear advection dominated problems (1 grant)
- Discrete min-max problems on non-smooth sets (1 grant)
- Local rigidity of group actions on manifolds (1 grant)
- Artin stacks, stringy invariants, and matroids (1 grant)
- On the global dynamics of lotka-volterra competition patch models (1 grant)
- The contiuum of virus-host interactions: environmental drivers of horizontal gene transfer and virus effects (1 grant)
- Unexpected alliances: dissecting host-virus entanglement and its influences on competitiveness in marine niches (1 grant)
How big its Tennessee grants are
| Grant size | Grants |
|---|---|
| Under $1,000 | 0 |
| $1,000 to $4,999 | 0 |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 14 |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 0 |
| $25,000 to $99,999 | 0 |
| $100,000 or more | 2 |
From its 2024 IRS filing. Small groups: look at how many grants sit in the bands you'd ask for.
Tennessee organizations it funded
Davidson County grants are listed first, then the largest. Past winners are good people to ask what the foundation looks for. Select a group to see who else funds it.
| Past winner | Where | Purpose | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanderbilt University Medical | Nashville, Davidson County | 2024 incentive funding | $9,700 |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, Davidson County | Fluid flow on surfaces | $8,400 |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, Davidson County | Automorphic forms, polynomials, and cohomology | $8,400 |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, Davidson County | Asymptotically locally euclidean kahler manifolds | $8,400 |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, Davidson County | Embeddings, traversability, and structure of graphs | $8,400 |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, Davidson County | Spark vanderbilt | $5,000 |
| The University of Tennessee | Memphis, Shelby County | Unexpected alliances: dissecting host-virus entanglement and its influences... | $144K |
| The University of Tennessee | Memphis, Shelby County | The contiuum of virus-host interactions: environmental drivers of horizontal... | $140K |
| Florida State University Res Fdn | Tallahassee | Robust, reliable, and provably stable spectral element methods for nonlinear... | $8,400 |
| Florida State University Res Fdn | Tallahassee | Discrete min-max problems on non-smooth sets | $8,400 |
| Florida State University Res Fdn | Tallahassee | Local rigidity of group actions on manifolds | $8,400 |
| Florida State University Res Fdn | Tallahassee | Artin stacks, stringy invariants, and matroids | $8,400 |
| Middle Tennessee State University | Murfreesboro, Rutherford County | On the global dynamics of lotka-volterra competition patch models | $8,400 |
| University of Tennessee Fdn | Knoxville, Knox County | Problems in algebraic matroids | $7,315 |
| University of Tennessee Fdn | Knoxville, Knox County | Nonstandard regularity estimates for equations with singular-degenerate... | $7,315 |
| Cognitive Computational Neuro Corp | Brentwood, Williamson County | Cognitive computational neuroscience (ccn) 2024 conference | $5,000 |
Grants approved for future years
In its tax-year 2024 IRS Form 990-PF the foundation listed grants it had approved but not yet paid: 1 to Tennessee groups totaling $33,600. These are multi-year commitments, so they show what it has promised to keep funding. Some may have been paid since.
| Recipient | Where | Purpose | Amount | Tax year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middle Tennessee State University | Murfreesboro, Rutherford County | On the global dynamics of lotka-volterra competition patch models | $34K | 2024 |
Data: GivingTuesday Data Commons, ODbL
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