The MetLife Foundation was created in 1976 by MetLife to continue its longstanding tradition of contributions and community involvement. The goal is to empower people to lead healthy, productive lives and strengthen communities. Underlying the Foundation's programs is a focus on education at all ages and a commitment to increasing access and opportunity.
The Foundation makes grants in health, education, civic affairs and culture. Learn more about each below:
The health program supports nonprofit groups that help people of all ages lead healthy lives and make informed decisions about their health. The focus areas are:
Alzheimer's Disease
Support Alzheimer’s disease research and increase public awareness and understanding of the disease.
The national Alzheimer's Association is conducting outreach to raise awareness and provide vital education on Alzheimer's disease for the Hispanic community. Its outreach includes Spanish-language materials, workshops and radio spots.
Meet Me at MoMA, an award-wining initiative of the renowned Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), makes art accessible by bringing people with Alzheimer's and other dementia, along with their caregivers, to the museum for interactive tours. With Foundation support, the program has been implemented in major museums across the country.
Healthy Aging
Address changing demographics and the aging of the population through support of healthy aging, aging in place, caregiving and mental fitness programs.
In partnership with Civic Ventures, a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, the Foundation administers a national awards program that recognizes organizations employing older workers, as well as community colleges offering retraining for older workers. Civic Ventures also is conducting research that examines labor shortages and opportunities for older workers.
To promote involvement of community colleges in recruiting and training home-based caregivers, MetLife Foundation, in collaboration with the International Longevity Center, launched the Community College Caregiving Initiative. The national program awards grants to community colleges that offer training for home-based caregivers, including family members.
Healthy Habits
Promote healthy habits and physical fitness for illness prevention, especially among children.
MetLife Foundation is working with the American Academy of Pediatricians and American Academy of Family Physicians to increase the role of pediatricians and family physicians in addressing childhood obesity through outreach activities and development of educational materials in local communities.
MetLife Foundation continues to address the issue of substance abuse among young people through its award-winning national radio campaign on the importance of effective parenting in preventing substance abuse. The Partnership for a Drug-free America campaign, which airs in major cities across the country, features educational messages in English and Spanish and free brochures in English, Spanish and Chinese.
The civic affairs program supports nonprofit groups working to build socially and economically viable communities. The focus areas are:
Revitalize Urban Neighborhoods
Revitalize urban neighborhoods through affordable housing, financial literacy and programs that address basic needs of the economically disadvantaged.
Thirteen community development corporations (CDCs) won MetLife Foundation Community Development Initiative grants to increase affordable housing and economic development in lower- income neighborhoods of Boston, Chicago, Hartford, New York and the San Francisco Bay area. The grants, awarded through a national competition, support transit-oriented development and multilingual financial counseling, among other vital activities.
Since 1995, MetLife Foundation has partnered with the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to bring parks and playgrounds to lower-income neighborhoods in cities nationwide. With a new leadership grant, TPL will work with local public agencies and community groups to create parks and playgrounds in New York, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas and New Orleans.
After-School and Mentoring
Increase after-school and mentoring opportunities for your people.
Through the MetLife Foundation Out-of-School Time Initiative, youth-serving organizations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas and New York were awarded funding to provide enriching out-of-school activities for low-income middle school youth.
The Big Brothers Big Sisters Hispanic Mentoring Program works to engage and sustain the involvement of greater numbers of Latino children, families and volunteers in Big Brothers Big Sisters' proven mentoring program. MetLife Foundation is supporting the program in 20 cities.
Civic Engagement and Volunteerism
Promote civic engagement and volunteering, particularly among young people and older adults.
The MetLife Foundation Older Volunteers Enrich America Awards recognize the outstanding contributions of volunteers age 50 and older to local communities. 2010 winners, selected through a national competition administered by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, range in age from 59 to 95 years.
The culture program supports nonprofit organizations working to strengthen education, promote understanding of diverse cultures and build livable communities through access to the arts. The focus areas are:
Access and Inclusion in the Arts
Make the arts more accessible for people of all ages and backgrounds.
The MetLife Foundation Arts Connects All initiative, administered by VSA arts, recognizes and supports arts programs that create educational access and inclusion. Grants are awarded to cultural organizations that partner with public schools to use the arts to develop students’ social, cognitive, and artistic skill and foster learning environments where students with and without disabilities learn alongside one another.
The MetLife Foundation/Arts Presenters Awards for Arts Access recognizes performing arts venues that have consistently demonstrated the implementation and evolution of arts access strategies for older adults, immigrants, people with disabilities and underserved communities.
Reach broad audiences through inclusive programming.
The MetLife Community Connections initiative at the New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project supports the national tours of dance companies with well-developed community engagement components, including workshops, lecture-demonstrations and other forms of collaboration with local schools and community centers.
The MetLife Foundation Museum and Community Connections program awarded grants to 15 museums for exhibitions, artist residencies, and other programs that extend their reach into diverse communities and make art a part of people's lives.
Arts Education
Enhance education and lifelong learning.
The MetLife Learning for Life initiative focuses on integrating arts across the school curriculum to foster creativity and critical thinking in young people. The initiative is being implemented in partnership with Young Audiences in 15 cities across the country and focuses on students in grades 4 through 8.
The MetLife Foundation Creative Aging Program awarded grants to 12 cultural organizations across the country to develop and expand participatory arts programs for older adults. The program, administered by the National Guild of Community School of the Arts, is designed to increase the capacity of community arts education providers to serve older adults, provide models of high quality creative aging programs to the field and raise public awareness about the benefits of creative aging.
Public Broadcasting
The public broadcasting program supports informative and entertaining programming on television and radio featuring the arts, health and aging issues and financial literacy.
MetLife Foundation is supporting National Public Radio’s coverage on national social and economic issues faced by older Americans.
MetLife Foundation is partnering with the New York Philharmonic on its weekly radio broadcast series New York Philharmonic This Week and with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on the live radio broadcast of its performances from Carnegie Hall.
With MetLife Foundation support, Sesame Workshop is promoting healthy habits in India and Mexico among children and families, through specially-themed episodes, public service announcements, online content, educational materials and community events.
The education program supports national nonprofit organizations working to improve student achievement in the classroom and prepare students for success in college and careers. The focus areas are:
Teaching and Learning
Strengthen teacher effectiveness, school leadership and community collaboration.
Communities in Schools helps students stay in school and make right choices by connecting schools, students and families with needed community resources.
National Staff Development Council is developing the Learning School Alliance using research-based and practice-tested resources and technical assistance to help teachers, principals and schools work and learn together more effectively day-to-day to increase student achievement.
New Teacher Center is a pioneer in strengthening the capacity of education leaders, schools and districts to nurture and retain new teachers. The Center has developed the National Teacher Induction Network to encourage collaboration among districts.
College Access and Success
Increase preparation for, access to and success in college, particularly the critical first year.
College Summit works with schools and communities, students, teachers and principals to inspire and prepare larger numbers of disadvantaged students for college access and success.
Education Trust works alongside educators, parents, students, policymakers, and civic and business leaders nationwide, providing practical assistance in their efforts to transform schools and colleges into institutions that serve all students well.
MetLife Initiative for Student Success, Community College Leadership Program, University of Texas, is assisting colleges in using results from the Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) and related best practices to increase early student success.
MetLife encourages employees to contribute time and effort to their communities. Foundation-supported programs, such as Volunteer Ventures and the MetLife Volunteer Service Awards, provide grants to nonprofit organizations for which MetLife employees volunteer. In addition, the Volunteer Project Fund assists team volunteer activities in MetLife communities in which MetLife employees, their friends and families work together for a worthwhile purpose.
Requests are accepted and reviewed throughout the year. Requests and supporting materials are carefully evaluated by MetLife Foundation.
If the request is within the Foundation's guidelines and program priorities and available funds permit consideration of the request, the organization may be asked for more complete information before a decision is made.
On occasion, the Foundation establishes particular areas of interest for emphasis within a program area. When this is done, the Foundation actively searches out promising opportunities for grants and may issue requests for proposals.
When an organization submits a request for either general or project support, both the organization and the proposal are evaluated.
Among the factors considered are the organization's general structure, objectives, history and management capability; its relationship to the community and the population to be served; its position relative to organizations performing similar functions; and its financial position and sources of income.
In the evaluation of a project, the factors considered include the project's goals and implementation plans; length of time for the project to be complete; the ultimate disposition of the project; benefits of the projects; and the sources of financial and other support.
In deciding the amount of support, the facts considered include availability of funds, relative priorities and funding patterns.
The Foundation cannot act favorably on all the requests it receives. Grants usually fall within the following broad areas of concern: health, civic affairs, education, culture and public broadcasting.
Each request is reviewed to determine its general eligibility and conformity to the guidelines for the appropriate category, the year's contributions, program priorities and geographical considerations.
Grant renewals are not automatic and cannot be guaranteed from year to year.
