How we work with faculty

The Boston University Foundation Relations team, within the Office of Advancement, helps faculty identify, apply for, secure, and steward charitable gifts and grants from private philanthropic foundations and nongovernmental organizations. We match faculty research and programs with foundations’ priorities, which are often to support pilot projects and high-risk research that may not be attractive to traditional funders such as NIH and NSF. Additional details about how we work can be found in this overview.

“They were a GREAT addition to the process:  proactive, professional, detail oriented, rapidly responsive, friendly, and accommodating….In short, they were a key member of our submission team. Truth be told, I am not 100% sure that we would have made the submission deadline without them.”

—Thomas Gilmore, PhD, Professor, Biology

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Research

For Early-Career Faculty

Hundreds of foundation programs are focused on early-career faculty. Their funding can be highly beneficial, helping to seed a new project, confirm proof of concept, or generate pilot data. In contrast to federal funders, private funders are more willing to support high-risk, high-reward projects.

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By The Numbers

$60.6 million

foundation support to BU in FY25

430

proposals the Foundation Relations team helped faculty submit in FY25

38

“Meet the Funder” events organized by the Foundation Relations team over past four years

BU + Foundations in the News

Numerous faculty members from across the University receive foundation support.  Here are a few recent examples.

News

John Templeton Foundation awards $5.2M to STH’s Steven Sandage to Shift Mental Health Focus Beyond Symptoms to Meaning and Well-Being

Sandage, the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion & Theology, and his team recently received a $5.2 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to fund an initiative on training psychotherapists to incorporate these ideas and new training and treatment research into their practices. Led by Sandage and Jesse Owen, a professor at the University […]

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News

Diana Anderson, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Receives Grant to Improve Resident Health in Nursing Homes

Diana Anderson, MD, M.Arch, assistant professor of neurology at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has received a $270,418 grant from the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation for her project “Investigating the Relationship between Nursing Home Architecture and Health Outcomes.” The two-year grant is through the foundation’s Another Look program and […]

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