The Hancock Foundation
The Hancock Foundation is a private foundation focused on education, cultural leadership and fellowship programs (site states it was founded by Michael B. Hancock). The website publishes current programs (Hancock Heritage Fellowship and Heritage Tour), a donate page and contact information. IRS filing aggregators (ProPublica, Grantmakers.io) list EIN 13-3941584 for Hancock Foundation, supporting the site’s legitimacy.
Source: Website · Mar 2026
Ideal Applicant
Mid-sized or larger education, cultural heritage, museum, or university programs with demonstrated alignment to the foundation’s fellowship/cultural leadership priorities and credible regional or national standing.
Good Fit
- • Work in education, cultural leadership, museums, or higher education.
- • Programs or projects that match the foundation's named fellowship and heritage themes.
- • Capacity to manage one-off or program-specific grants in the $5k–$350k range (historical grant-size spread).
- • Connections to the foundation’s known networks or prior grantee organizations, especially in New York.
Geography
Recent grants spanned three states but were heavily concentrated in New York, which received about 70% of 2024 dollars; earlier giving included additional states such as Ohio and DC.
Recipient Variety
The foundation funded 18 distinct organizations in 2022 and eight distinct organizations in 2024, with no repeat recipients observed across the two-year window, indicating a broadly distributed recipient set for a micro private foundation.
New Applicants
Observed behavior shows many first-time grantees (all 8 recipients in 2024 were new), but the foundation states it only funds preselected applicants, so direct openness to unfamiliar applicants cannot be confirmed.
Source: Zeffy Agent · Mar 2026
