What we fund

Thank you for your interest!

The Lemelson Foundation invests in helping young people become inventors and in helping inventors change the world. To spur invention in the 21st century, we fund programs and projects in invention education and entrepreneurship as the solutions to a better future.

With our grantmaking and advocacy, we proactively develop strategic partnerships to advance our goals. We select our partners thoughtfully, evaluate our progress regularly and adjust our strategies as needed. Given this approach, we regret that we are unable to consider unsolicited grant proposals.

That said, we do appreciate learning about what organizations are doing in invention education and invention-based entrepreneurship. We invite you to review our approach and criteria, then take our eligibility quiz to determine if your organization’s work might align with The Lemelson Foundation’s. If you see potential alignment, you can submit a preliminary inquiry via our contact form.

If you are an inventor looking for support, we do not work with inventors directly, but support may be accessible through our partners.

While we do not accept unsolicited proposals, we hope that our Impact Spotlights and Resources inspire and support your efforts.