Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations

Recent Grants

Grants from foundations, corporations, and government agencies support Williams’ efforts to provide its students with an exceptional education.  Students and faculty alike benefit from grants for scholarships, faculty research and support, equipment, innovative course development, and the construction and renovation of facilities.  Here are some examples of recent and notable grants.

Recent Grants to Williams College

•   American Chemical Society:  $50,000 pledge to chemistry professor Christopher Goh for his research on developing homogeneous iron catalysts to promote rapid and selective epoxidations of alkenes. The targeted epoxidation products have potential use as building blocks for new polymeric materials. (January 2012)
•   George Frederick Jewett Foundation East:  $50,000 grant to support construction of the new library. (December 2011)
•   S&L Marx Foundation:  $40,000 grant to support the renovation of the Jewish Religious Center on its twentieth anniversary. (December 2011)
•   The Sage Foundation:  $100,000 grant for graduate fellowships for students of the Center for Development Economics. (December 2011)
•   Scurlock Foundation:  $10,000 grant for financial aid. (December 2011)
•   General Atlantic Service Company:  $100,000 grant for graduate fellowships for students of the Center for Development Economics. (November 2011)
•   Margaret A. Cargill Foundation:  $575,418 grant to support the renovation of Kellogg House.  Once renovated and relocated, Kellogg House will house the Center for Environmental Studies and the Zilkha Center for Sustainability. (September 2011)
•   Alice Shaver Foundation:  $10,000 grant to support Teach in New York, a Winter Study course at Williams that gives sophomores, juniors, and seniors the opportunity to work with teachers and students in New York City public schools, exploring their interest in teaching by working as teaching assistants in elementary, middle, and high schools. (September 2011)
•   Andrew W. Mellon Foundation:  $48,000 planning grant to support a faculty committee to define goals concerning international education and to propose an administrative structure for international curriculum and programs. (August 2011)
•   Milton & Dorothy Sarnoff Foundation:  $50,000 grant to support the 1955 Peace Corps Fund, which encourages Williams graduates to serve in the Peace Corps by paying their student loan debt once they have completed their service. (August 2011)
•   Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust:  $10,000 unrestricted grant to the Williams College Museum of Art in memory of Polly Thayer Starr, a painter and educator from Boston. (July 2011)
•   Andrew W. Mellon Foundation:  $100,000 new presidential discretionary grant to support the initiatives of President Adam Falk.  (June 2011)
•   The Thomas J. Watson Foundation:  $25,000 grant for Emanuel Yekutiel ’11’s Watson Fellowship.  Emanuel will study and participate in grassroots movements for same-sex marriage equality in Ireland, the UK, Australia, and Brazil to gain an international perspective on the issue.  (May 2011)
•   Leveraging Investments in Creativity:  $166,000 grant to support the work of the Center for Creative Community Development (C3D), a research center that focuses on the impact of the arts in community re-development.  Professor Stephen Sheppard, director of the C3D, will use the grant to conduct economic impact, participant mapping, and social networking studies for arts organizations in twelve communities nationwide.  (April 2011)
•   Davis United World College Scholars:  $10,000 grant for Matiullah Amin ’12’s 2011 Project for Peace, a youth leadership conference in Afghanistan. (March 2011)

Grants at Work

•    In 2009, the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences awarded $150,000 to the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) to support the initial stages of the museum’s plan to create a digital library of its entire collection.  The goals of the project are to: (1) create digital images of objects from WCMA’s ancient and world cultures collections; (2) make the images available to the public on WCMA’s website; and (3) foster the integration of art into the K-12 curriculum through the development of curriculum guides and teacher workshops on how to use these digital resources in the classroom.
•    In 2008, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation pledged $1.27 million to help establish, and subsequently endow, a curatorial fellowship at the Williams College Museum of Art.  The curatorial fellowship program has been designed to help attract candidates from populations under-represented in the museum field and to enhance the museum’s efforts to encourage faculty from all disciplines to make broader use of WCMA’s collection in their teaching and scholarship.  Dalila Scruggs was appointed as the first Mellon Curatorial Fellow for Diversity in the Arts in August 2009.
•    In 2008, the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation pledged $250,000 to support the Williams College Sustainable Food and Agriculture Program.  The program provides Williams students with the theoretical and practical tools they need to engage in building a sustainable food culture on campus and off.
•    In 2006, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the college $500,000 in current funds and $2 million in endowed funds to support the continuing integration of emerging technologies into library services as well as into curricular and scholarly activities.
•    In 2006, the Hellman Family Foundation pledged $1 million to support research activities by assistant professors in the years preceding their tenure decisions.  The funds are used particularly for faculty whose scholarship is in areas that do not have other readily available sources of research funding.
•    Since 2003, the Ford Foundation, Partners for Livable Communities, and Leveraging Investments in Creativity have supported Professor Stephen Sheppard’s research on the impact of cultural and arts organizations on community development and revitalization with grants totaling approximately $966,000.  The research is conducted by the Center for Creative Community Development, which is jointly sponsored by Williams College and Mass MoCA.

Recent Faculty Grants in Williams News

Please click on the links below for more information on recent faculty grants.