Heising-Simons Foundation

The Heising-Simons Foundation is a private foundation established by philanthropists Elizabeth (Liz) Simons and Mark Heising in Los Altos, California in 2007.^[1][2] The Heising-Simons Foundation's board consists of Liz Simons, Mark Heising, and their daughter Caitlin Heising.^[3] Liz Simons and Mark Heising signed the Giving Pledge in 2016.^[4]

The Heising-Simons Foundation's main areas of work include early childhood education, science, climate and clean energy, community and opportunity, and human rights.^[1] It also funds a science fellowship known as the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship,^[5] and the American Mosaic Journalism Prize.^[6] It does not accept unsolicited grant proposals.^[7]

The Heising-Simons Foundation's Acting President and CEO is Jennifer Shipp, taking over from Sushma Raman, who joined in 2023 from the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.^[8][9] The previous President and CEO was Deanna Gomby, who joined from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.^[1]

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s CEO Fund addresses the impact of technology on society.^[10]

In 2023, the Heising-Simons Foundation partnered with other philanthropies to contribute more than $200 million in funding toward public interest efforts to mitigate artificial intelligence (AI) harms and promote responsible use and innovation.^[11]

The Heising-Simons Foundation's Climate and Clean Energy program funds work around energy policy analysis, public utility commissions, energy efficiency standards, and climate communications.^[2] The Climate and Clean Energy program was named one of 25 mid-sized environmental grantmakers by Inside Philanthropy.^[12] The Heising-Simons Foundation joined the Climate Funders Justice Pledge in 2022.^[13]

In 2021, the Heising-Simons Foundation was one of the founding members of the Equitable Building Electrification Fund, a fund that seeks to advance an equitable transition to building electrification for communities most impacted by fossil fuels.^[14]

The Community and Opportunity program focuses on two areas: local community and organizational effectiveness for Foundation grantees.^[15]

In 2022, the Local Community portfolio provided funding for the community-based nonprofit group Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment to purchase the childhood home of Cesar Chavez in San Jose, California.^[16] The property is intended to become a community-centered space with a learning center, where residents can learn more about Chavez's mission of non-violent resistance and community organizing.^[16]

In 2021, the Heising-Simons Foundation supported MIT Technology Review’s COVID-19 Inequality Fellows reporting on the systematic technological challenges COVID-19 brought to under-covered communities.^[17]

As of 2024, the Community and Opportunity portfolio is no longer listed on the Foundation’s website.

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Education program awards grants in early childhood education, including supporting early math education and dual language learners.^[2]

In 2019, the Education program co-created the Early Educator Investment Collaborative, a group of early childhood funders that also includes the Ballmer Group, the Bezos Family Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Foundation for Child Development, and the Stranahan Foundation.^[7]

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Human Rights program focuses on criminal justice reform, immigration grant rights work,^[18] and supporting human rights for all.^[19]

Caitlin Heising serves on the board of directors of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and is the vice chair of HRW’s U.S. Program Advisory Committee.^[20]

In 2023, the Heising-Simons Foundation signed the California Black Freedom Fund’s Philanthropic Sign on Letter in response to police violence in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death.^[21]

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Journalism portfolio recognizes and supports journalism as a critical element of a healthy and multicultural democracy, focusing in underrepresented groups and voices in media and investigative journalism.^[22]

The Foundation's Journalism portfolio awards the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which annually awards two freelance journalists with $100,000 each in unrestricted funds for "excellence in long-form, narrative or deep reporting about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the American landscape".^[6]

In September 2023, the Foundation’s Journalism portfolio was an investor in the Press Forward initiative.^{[23] [24]}

The Heising-Simons Foundation's Science program awards research grants in astronomy and cosmology, fundamental physics, paleoclimatology, climate science, and the search for axion dark matter.^[2]

The Heising-Simons Foundation partnered with the Simons Foundation to fund the $40 million Simons Observatory, an astronomy facility in the Chilean desert.^[19] It also awarded $300,000 in funding for a major upgrade to the Kast Spectrograph at Lick Observatory in 2014.^[25]

In 2017, the Science program launched the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship, intended to allow post-doctorate researchers the opportunity to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy.^[5] In its inaugural year, the Heising-Simons Foundation awarded four postdoc researchers $375,000 each to support their independent research over three years.^[5]

In 2022, the Heising-Simons Foundation awarded a three-year grant to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at UC Santa Barbara for the launch of a fellowship that aims to address the underrepresentation of minorities in physics, including theoretical physics.^[26] Funds cover a stipend for fellows, as well as travel and accommodations for six to eight weeks.^[26]

• American Mosaic Journalism Prize
• Giving Pledge
• Simons Foundation
• Jim Simons
• Simons Observatory
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Human Rights Watch
• Philanthropy in the United States