Programs

The Hewlett Foundation makes grants to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. Our grantees are working to reduce poverty in the developing world, curb carbon emissions that lead to climate change, and improve education for students in California and elsewhere, among many other valuable goals.

While the goals of the Foundation are about problems that we're trying to solve, our Foundation is organized in such a way that grants are made from particular programs.  We've tried to provide sufficient information about each program's grantmaking to give the visitor a comprehensive understanding of what we fund and why.

Here are the Foundation's five programs and their key goals:

The Education Program makes grants to:

• Increase economic opportunity and civic engagement by educating students to succeed in a changing world through deeper learning
• Improve the conditions for education reform in California
• Equalize access to knowledge for teachers and students around the globe through Open Educational Resources
• Raise educational achievement in disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Environment Program makes grants to:

• Conserve the Western United States and Canada for wildlife and people
• Slow global climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Ensure that the U.S. energy supply is clean and consumption is efficient
• Address environmental problems that disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Global Development and Population Program makes grants to:

• Promote transparent and accountable governance around the world, including through a Mexico country program
• Foster greater use of high-quality research and analysis to create sound policy in developing countries, including through investments in training and policy research capacity
• Improve the quality of education and children's learning in the developing world
• Ensure access to quality family planning and reproductive health, both internationally and domestically
• Reduce teen and unplanned pregnancy in disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and California's Central Valley
  

The Performing Arts Program makes grants to organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area to:

• Ensure continuity and engagement in the arts by creating opportunities for individuals and communities to participate in a wide range of artistic disciplines
• Give California students equal access to an arts education
• Provide the necessary infrastructure to help organizations and artists be more effective in their work

The Philanthropy Program makes grants to:

• Increase and improve information available to donors about nonprofit performance
• Develop information about strategic philanthropy

In addition, the Foundation reserves funding each year to support special projects that do not necessarily align with the Foundation's primary strategies.