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Grant funders / Grants for Homeless Shelters

Grants for Homeless Shelters

If you run a homeless shelter or emergency housing provider, this page is your starting point. Bespoke Grants tracks 4,573 foundations that fund homeless shelters — together $52.25B in recent grants. Below are the most active funders. Every one links to a full giving profile, and Bespoke Grants will rank all 4,573 against your organization's specific mission and location, free.

4,573
Foundations that fund homeless shelters
$52.25B
Recent grant funding
30
Shown below
Free
To match all 4,573 to you

Foundations that fund homeless shelters

Ranked by total recent giving. Click any funder for its full profile — giving history, grant recipients, focus areas, and how to apply.

#FoundationBased inAnnual giving
1Silicon Valley Community FoundationMountain View, CA$2.64B
2Natl Christian Charitable Fdn IncAlpharetta, GA$1.30B
3Partners Healthcare System Inc &Somerville, MA$1.15B
4World Vision IncFederal Way, WA$984.7M
5Baptist Health South Florida IncCoral Gables, FL$885.6M
6Lilly Endowment IncIndianapolis, IN$789.6M
7The Ford FoundationNew York, NY$760.8M
8Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridge, MA$681.0M
9Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$652.4M
10University of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA$642.7M
11Navigate Affordable HousingBirmingham, AL$639.4M
12Foundation to Promote Open SocietyNew York, NY$593.3M
13The Chicago Community TrustChicago, IL$576.9M
14The Board of Trustees of the Leland StanfordRedwood City, CA$557.1M
15The Robert Wood Johnson FoundationPrinceton, NJ$532.0M
16American Endowment FoundationHudson, OH$512.5M
17Walton Family Foundation IncBentonville, AR$496.2M
18Pivotal Philanthropies FoundationRedmond, WA$484.7M
19The Leona M and Harry B HelmsleyNew York, NY$440.9M
20The Andrew W Mellon FoundationNew York, NY$420.9M
21The Trustees of Princeton UniversityPrinceton, NJ$407.8M
22The Jpb FoundationNew York, NY$359.4M
23National Fish and Wildlife FoundationWashington, DC$323.2M
24Kaiser Foundation Health Plan IncOakland, CA$312.6M
25John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation (consolidated)Chicago, IL$311.5M
26Wk Kellogg FoundationBattle Creek, MI$295.1M
27California Community FoundationLos Angeles, CA$291.0M
28Los Angeles Regional Food BankLos Angeles, CA$283.2M
29Sergey Brin Family FoundationSan Francisco, CA$245.8M
30Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors IncNew York, NY$242.2M

This list is ranked by size. Yours should be ranked by fit.

The funders above are the biggest — not necessarily the right ones for your homeless shelters. Bespoke Grants ranks all 4,573 against your actual mission, service area, and budget, and shows you why each matches. Free, no credit card.

Match my organization to funders →

How homeless shelters should approach these funders

A long list of funders is only useful if you approach them well. Three things matter more than the size of your homeless shelters: fit, evidence, and the first contact. Fit means the funder's stated priorities, the population they serve, and the geography they fund genuinely overlap with your work — funders reject far more proposals for poor fit than for weak programs. Evidence means a specific, concrete description of the need you address and what your funding will change. And the first contact is rarely a full proposal: most private foundations prefer a brief letter of inquiry, and many fund only organizations they already know — so a warm introduction or a short, well-targeted note is the realistic way in.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find grants for homeless shelters?
Start with foundations that already fund homeless shelters — our index lists 4,573. Match them to your specific mission, location, and budget, then approach the best fits with a brief letter of inquiry rather than a cold full proposal.
How many foundations fund homeless shelters?
Bespoke Grants tracks 4,573 foundations that fund homeless shelters, representing $52.25B in recent grants.
Do these foundations accept unsolicited applications?
Some do; many do not. Each foundation's profile shows what is known about its application process. Where a funder does not accept unsolicited proposals, relationship-building is still the path in — it is rarely a dead end.

Related grant categories

How this list is built. Bespoke Grants indexes 13M+ grants from 225,000+ U.S. foundations in public IRS Form 990 filings. This page shows foundations whose documented giving reaches homeless shelters. Funder names link to full giving profiles. Always confirm a funder's current priorities before applying.