Mellon's Traditional Constituencies

In order for us to achieve a quality and quantity of results that are conformant with the mission of AWMF, our Board of Trustees requires each AWMF program to concentrate its efforts in various ways. Arguably the most important constraint on our activities is the concept of core constituencies; because these core constituencies have remained essentially the same since the Foundation's inception, we often refer to them as our traditional constituencies.

AWMF has five traditional constituencies:

• Higher education, with emphasis on the research mission of higher education and a particular focus on the arts and humanities. Many AWMF projects benefit higher education widely; however the Foundation prizes projects that deliver particular benefits to the arts and humanities, and it is rare for us to fund projects whose primary benefits fall disproportionately on the natural and social sciences. Please note that our constituency does not extend to K-12 education, nor to the training of K-12 teachers.

• Research libraries. In keeping with the commitment to scholarship in the higher education constituency, the Foundation supports the development and enrichment of scholarly libraries, either within higher education institutions or as standalone entities. Generally, this support does not extend to community libraries.

• Museums. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation program for art museums is designed to help excellent institutions build and sustain their capacity to undertake serious scholarship on their permanent collections; to preserve these collections; and to share the results of their work in appropriate ways with scholarly and other audiences.

• Arts organizations. The Foundation supports leading arts-producing organizations of various sizes, as well as service organizations that support the work of artists in particular arts.

• Conservation biology. The Foundation maintains a small program that focuses on the acquisition and preservation of biological type data for plants in Africa and Latin America.

These constituencies are served by several AWMF programs in addition to RIT; more information on those programs can be found on the AWMF web site. Each program inevitably views these traditional constituencies somewhat differently; when applying for support, it would be wise to identify the particular vision of the program to which you are applying.