Inside Philanthropy

Who's Funding What & Why

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Poetry Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Chicago-based Poetry Foundation, which is affiliated with Poetry Magazine, runs award and grant programs to support poets and poetry-centric organizations in the U.S.

IP TAKE: While some of the Poetry Foundation’s prestigious awards are well known in the literary world, this funder has recently expanded its work to include grantmaking for organizations involved in poetry-related education, audience expansion and poetry-involved activism and organizing. This is a transparent funder that offers detailed and well-organized information about its funding programs, most of which accept applications through the foundation’s online portal. Reach out via the contact page with questions or ideas.

PROFILE: The Poetry Foundation was established in 2003 with a $200 million bequest from Ruth Lilly, a great-granddaughter of Eli Lilly. It is affiliated with the Modern Poetry Association, which publishes Poetry Magazine. In 2022, the foundation reorganized itself to better respond to and support pressing issues of race and social justice that arose in the literary world after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Part of this restructuring was a commitment to award $9 million in grants, above and beyond its existing awards and fellowship programs, to poetry-centric and literary nonprofits working within and among communities and educational settings.

The foundation’s mission is “to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry.” It runs several award and grant programs to support its mission and, according to Dawn Wolfe’s 2024 article, “employs a trust-based philanthropy approach wherein it pays poets active in the nonprofit literary arts world to make initial recommendations on grant applications.” The Poetry Foundation also engage readers and writers of poetry through online poetry, podcasts, articles and free learning resources on its website.

Grants for Writing, Education and Community Development

While all of the Poetry Foundation’s grants and awards focus on poetry, some programs recognize poetry criticism, education, publishing and community organizing.

The foundation runs the following grant programs:

  • The Equity in Verse grant program was established “in direct response to the June 6, 2020 community letter requesting that the Poetry Foundation examine its historic cultural debt to poets of color.”
    • Grants support organizations that “include presses and publications, led and staffed by people of color.” Grants offer general operating or program support, but general operating support is available only to “BIPOC-led poetry nonprofit organization or a BIPOC-led literary arts nonprofit organization with a significant focus on poetry.”
    • Grants are awarded in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 and are typically one year in duration.
    • The application process begins with a request to access the foundation’s application portal, and the foundation offers online information sessions about the application process.
    • Past grantees of the Equity in Verse program include One Book One New Orleans, the Philly Pigeon and Torch Literary Arts of Austin, Texas.
  • Poetry, Programs, Partnership, and Innovation grants support nonprofit programs and projects related to poetry including but not limited to audience expansion, access, collaborations and technological innovations.
    • The foundation prioritizes organizations that are “led by and/or with programming designed by and for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Disability, and other historically resilient communities.”
    • The program page offers guidelines, a virtual information session and FAQ.
    • U.S.-based nonprofits with “poetry-centric” missions may apply for one-year grants ranging from $10,000 to $75,000. The foundation runs two annual grantmaking cycles for this program, and about 20 grants were awarded in a recent round of grants.
    • Request access to the application portal here, and see the program page for the latest due dates.
    • Past grantees include Balitmore’s CityLit Project, the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, New York’s Center for Book Arts and California’s Foglifter Press, which publishes a literary journal that features that works of “multi-marginalized”authors and genres.
  • Renewal and Recovery grants were awarded in 2021 and 2022 in response to the COVID-19 crisis to poetry and literature organizations that demonstrated commitment to “increasing access to poetry through such activities as publications, events, and educational programs.”
    • Grants ranged from $5,000 to $20,000.
    • Grantees included the Alaska Quarterly Review, the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, Maine Inside Out and Ohio’s WordPlay Cincy.
  • The foundation also makes grants throughout the year for Special Opportunities and Projects that “elevate and expose poetry and poets to a broader range of audiences.” Grant application is by invitation only.

The foundation also runs the following awards programs:

  • The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is among “the most prestigious awards given to American poets” and “honors a living US poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition.”
    • A single $100,000 prize is awarded annually, with the exception of 2022, when the prize was awarded to ten additional recipients to mark the 110th anniversary of Poetry Magazine.
    • This program does not run an application program.
    • Past recipients include Kimiko Hahn, Nikki Giovanni, Sandra Cisneros, Arthur Sze and Patricia Smith, among many others.
  • The Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships “support exceptional US poets between 21 and 31 years of age.”
    • Five $27,000 grants are awarded annually. Poets who are U.S. citizens and who meet the age requirement for the program may apply after registering with the foundation’s application portal.
    • The foundation offers a virtual information session about the application process and accepts applications from early March through a due date that usually falls in mid April.
    • Fellowship decisions are typically announced in August. See profiles of past recipients on the program page.
  • The Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry was inaugurated in 2023 to recognize “commitment and extraordinary work in poetry and the literary arts through administration, advocacy, education, publishing, or service.”
    • Still in its earliest years, the award has been given to two recipients, who each received a $25,000 prize. It is unclear if there will be two recipients every year.
    • Winners include Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady, poets who together founded Cave Canem, “a nonprofit organization that supports emerging African American poets through summer retreats, regional workshops, first-book prizes, annual anthologies, and events and readings across the country.”
  • The Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism is awarded each year to recognize “an outstanding book-length work of criticism published in the US in the prior calendar year.”
    • The $10,000 award has gone to “biographies, essay collections, and critical editions that consider the subject of poetry or poets.”
    • Applications are accepted via the foundation’s application portal from early March until the application due date in mid April, with awards announced each August.
    • Recipients include Douglas Kearny’s Optic Subwoof, which “explores the intersections of Black poetics, violence, and performance,” and Kevin Quashie’s Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being, a book that “draws on Black feminist literary texts, including work by poets Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, and June Jordan.”
  • A Young People’s Poet Laureate is “[a]ppointed every two years” to recognize a poet whose work “instill[s] a lifelong love of poetry among developing readers.”
    • The laureate receives $25,000 a year for the two-year tenure, plus “programmatic funding in support of a project that promotes poetry to young people and their families, teachers, and librarians.”
    • Poets who are citizens or long-term residents of the U.S. and who have published “at minimum, three books of poetry for young readers” may apply for this award via the foundation’s application portal from early March until the application due date in mid April. Awards are announced in August.
    • Past recipients include Elizabeth Acevedo, Naomi Shihab Nye and Margarita Engle, among others.

Important Grant Details:

The Poetry Foundation’s grants range from $10,000 to $100,000, but amounts are specified by individual program guidelines.

  • This funder’s award and grant programs support individual poets as well as organizations that create opportunities for students, teachers, writers and others to create and enjoy poetry.
  • The Poetry Foundation’s current grant programs represent a commitment to award $9 million in grants over a three year period that began in 2022; it is unclear if this level of giving will continue beyond this time period.
  • Many of the Poetry Foundation’s programs accept applications, and program pages generally offer detailed information about eligibility, application guidelines, due dates and past grantees.
  • All funding opportunities and awards are linked to the foundation’s Awards & Grants page.
  • Information about recent grant recipients is available here. For past award recipients, visit award program pages.

General inquiries may be submitted to the Poetry Foundation via its contact page. Grantseekers and others may also sign up for the organization’s newsletters to keep up with new opportunities.

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