FAQs

SNF is a nonprofit organization whose financial resources are devoted to its international philanthropic activity, namely making grants to nonprofit organizations. Our mission is to contribute to improving the lives of people around the world. 

SNF does not fundraise and does not solicit or accept donations from individuals, corporations, or other organizations. It has no shareholders and engages in no business or commercial activities.

SNF supports nonprofit organizations and projects worldwide that exhibit strong leadership and sound management in aiming to achieve a broad, lasting, and positive impact for people around the world and, by extension, for society at large. Browse a full list of SNF grantees or view featured major grants.

The Foundation also supports initiatives in collaboration with the public sector as a means of effectively addressing complex issues. This sort of collaboration is represented in SNF’s major ongoing Global Health Initiative (GHI). The Foundation’s goal in supporting the work of the public sector is never to replace its role, which would not be possible, but to collaborate in achieving the greatest positive impact. 

SNF makes grants to nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. These four program areas reflect the interests of the late Stavros Niarchos, SNF’s founder. 

SNF is currently engaged in a long-term, billion-dollar-plus effort to improve access to quality health care which began in Greece and has since expanded to many countries. Over the next few years, during the implementation of our Global Health Initiative (GHI), SNF will continue to assess applications for support, but will do so in a much more selective way.

No, SNF and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens are two distinct organizations. The SNFCC was created through SNF’s largest single grant to date, totaling $861 million, and was delivered to the Greek state and the people of Greece in February 2017. After its delivery, the Foundation announced a commitment to continue supporting the SNFCC for five years through grants totaling $53 million for operational costs and free events for the public. Subsequent grants, running through 2026, have offered over $40 million in potential additional support. For further information about the SNFCC, please visit its website.

SNF Nostos is a summer event hosted by SNF that is open to all and features lively discussions, expert insights, chart-topping music, genre-defying art, and interactive entertainment at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens. It includes the SNF Nostos Conference, which has focused on topics from artificial intelligence to mental health, and an SNF Dialogues discussion, both organized in collaboration with the nonprofit journalism organization iMEdD (incubator for Media Education and Development). It also includes the SNF Nostos Run, organized by the nonprofit Regeneration & Progress, as well as an exciting artistic program featuring exhibitions, interactive installations, and an electrifying musical lineup featuring artists from Greece and around the world.

Our next SNF Nostos will take place in 2026. Together with all our grantee-partners and friends, we plan to celebrate 30 years of global grantmaking, trying to do our part in empowering humanity. We hope you can join us in Athens June 21 to 28, 2026.

Free and open to everyone, the SNF Dialogues offer a public platform for engaging with some of the biggest and most pressing issues of our time through live discussions, in-depth multimedia content, and more. Seeking to encourage new ways of thinking, foster the exchange of ideas, and forge connections across geographic and social divides, the SNF Dialogues see participation in public discourse as an essential component of active citizenship. The SNF Dialogues are curated and moderated by Anna Kynthia Bousdoukou and are held through iMEdD (incubator for Media Education and Development), a journalism nonprofit. Visit the SNF Dialogues website to learn more.

Inspired by the Agora of ancient Athens, the public space at the heart of the city-state’s early democracy, the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University seeks to act as a dynamo of civic engagement and inclusive discourse—the foundation of vibrant democracies. Established in 2017 with a $150 million grant from SNF, the SNF Agora Institute acts as both a public forum and an academic hub. It brings together experts in political science, sociology, history, public health and health care, philosophy, data science and statistics, psychology, and public policy to collaborate on actionable research and engage audiences far beyond campus. 

The SNF Agora Institute’s home on the Johns Hopkins campus in Baltimore was designed by internationally renowned firm Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW).

If you are interested in becoming part of the SNF team, please visit the Job Opportunities section. To apply for SNF’s annual internship program, visit the SNF Internship section.  

SNF supports scholarship and fellowship programs at institutions around the world as part of its focus on increasing access to education. We are not involved in the selection of recipients and do not grant scholarship or fellowship funding directly to individuals.

Thank you for your interest in SNF! For privacy reasons, we do not retain CVs or résumés that are submitted outside the dedicated application process. Learn more about applying for SNF’s internship program and any fulltime job openings available.

Join our newsletter to see stories from our grants and partners worldwide, hear what’s new at the Foundation, and learn about upcoming events, and follow SNF on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, and LinkedIn.

SNF has offices in Athens, Monaco, and New York, but our grantmaking work is global, and SNF grants have reached people in more than 130 countries. We seek to connect people with each other and with the resources they need across borders, and SNF and our grantee-partners hold public events in our three home cities and around the world.

SNF is led by a Board of Directors which strives to ensure that our work remains consistent with the Foundation’s values and its vision to offer effective support, to the full extent of our capacity, wherever need and opportunity present themselves. SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos guides the Foundation in fulfilling its mission, which involves listening closely to our grantee-partners and the people most directly affected by the issues our grants seek to address.

SNF makes grants in response to needs as they arise, working flexibly within the structure of our mission. Grants vary significantly in scale and scope, and level of funding depends on the aims of the grant project rather than benchmarks set by the Foundation.

SNF does not allocate a predetermined total of grant funding by year, geographic region, or area of work. Historically, SNF’s grantmaking has been roughly evenly split between organizations within and beyond Greece.

SNF makes grants exclusively to nonprofit organizations working within the scope of its four program areas: arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. SNF does not make grants to individuals or for-profit organizations.

The scope of the Foundation’s mission is broad by design, and grant requests are evaluated on their individual promise for achieving broad benefit for society. If your request falls into one of the Foundation’s four program areas—arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare—you are welcome to apply through the Foundation’s open online application. If your organization is seeking financial support for more than one program, give preference to submitting a request for the program which is a higher priority for your organization.

SNF is currently engaged in a long-term, billion-dollar-plus effort to improve access to quality health care which began in Greece and has since expanded to many countries. Over the next few years, during the implementation of our Global Health Initiative (GHI), SNF will continue to assess applications for support, but will do so in a much more selective way.

It is not necessary to set up a meeting before submitting a grant request. Following the submission of your request, SNF’s Programs team may be in contact to request more information. 

Grant requests may be submitted online via the SNF Grant Portal throughout the year. To learn more about the application process and how to prepare to submit a request, please visit Apply. 

Our goal is to complete the evaluation of each request within three months of its submission. In cases where more time is required for evaluation, this timetable may be adjusted, and SNF’s Programs team will remain in communication with the applicant. The Foundation’s Board of Directors meets regularly throughout the year to review grant requests.

SNF can consider a new grant request from an organization that has previously applied once at least one year has passed since the last request was submitted. Any past or ongoing financial support from SNF is not a guarantee of the approval of future grant requests.