In the first half of 2025, the F. M. Kirby Foundation’s Board of Directors approved 116 grants totaling $8,937,600 to support nonprofit organizations committed to enriching communities. This total includes both 2025 grant awards and multi-year commitments. Among the approved grants, 67 provided general operating support, and 59 were directed to organizations that have partnered with the Foundation for more than 25 years, reflecting its focus on fostering long-term relationships with grantees.
Between January and June 2025, the Foundation allocated a combined $4.2 million to nonprofits operating in New Jersey and North Carolina, which are its primary areas of focus. An additional $4.7 million was awarded to organizations in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and other regions significant to Kirby family members, as well as to national nonprofits based mainly in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
The 2025 F. M. Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact was awarded to Solar Freeze, a Kenya-based social enterprise. Solar Freeze provides mobile, solar-powered cold storage units to smallholder farmers, helping reduce post-harvest food loss and improve income—particularly for women and youth. The $150,000 unrestricted prize is administered in partnership with Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE). Now in its fifth year, the prize recognizes impactful enterprises with strong potential to scale solutions addressing global social and environmental challenges.
In May 2025, the Foundation approved a three-year grant of $900,000 to Breakthrough T1D, with an additional $100,000 from the Foundation’s Future Decision Fund, totaling $1 million. This grant supports cutting-edge type 1 diabetes research at the New England Center of Excellence, with a focus on advancing beta cell replacement therapies. These therapies aim to eliminate the need for insulin therapy by developing scalable methods to produce insulin-producing islets from stem cells, bringing researchers closer to a potential cure.
Approximately $2 million in grants were also approved for 36 human service organizations during the first half of 2025. These included longstanding partners such as the American Red Cross and newer initiatives like Market Street Mission and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The funding supports a wide range of services, from food security and shelter to mental health and disability empowerment.
Overall, the Foundation’s 2025 grantmaking reflected its commitment across all programmatic areas: arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and public affairs. Through these initiatives, the Foundation continues to promote self-reliance, community resilience, and long-term social impact.
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