Crediting Mellon Support

For spendable grants that support a specific project or program

Appropriate places to acknowledge support from the Mellon Foundation are those that describe the supported project or program in whole, such as on program- or project-specific web pages. Recognition of Mellon in materials for discrete activities associated with a project or program is not permitted, such as in invitations, flyers, or social media posts around a specific activity.

No additional acknowledgement of the Mellon Foundation is permitted except for recognition in general lists of all funders, such as in an annual report or on a website, with placement or style of recognition commensurate with that of other funders.

Fiscal Sponsors and Regranting Partners

• For fiscal sponsor grants, the fiscal sponsor organization is responsible for ensuring these crediting instructions are honored by both the sponsor and the sponsored project.

• For grants in which the Mellon Foundation is extending the reach of its financial support through funding to regranting organizations that, in turn, issue funds to multiple other groups and individuals, the Mellon Foundation grantee (the regranting partner) is responsible for ensuring these guidelines are honored by the recipients of regranted Foundation funds and for reviewing any materials produced as appropriate per the terms of the agreements.

Fiscal sponsors and regranting partners may consult their primary Mellon Program contact with any questions.

For grants that support core operations and overall mission of a grantee

For general operating grants, acknowledgment of the Mellon Foundation must appear among the organization’s list of general funders in placements like organization websites, overview brochures, and organizational collateral distributed during the grant period. In instances where logos of funders are used (rather than displayed as text), please use Mellon’s logo in accordance to Mellon’s brand guidelines. If other funders are displayed as text within a list for the purposes of recognition, please include Mellon’s name within such a list rather than use of Mellon’s logo.

No other naming or crediting of Mellon is permitted. Acknowledgement of Mellon should not be included in discrete program-specific or project-specific publications, social media posts, or public announcements, even if the organization has elected to use the general operating grant dollars to support the activities described.

Mellon reserves the right to require any grantee to remove acknowledgement of Mellon’s support or use of its brand assets at any time.

Grantees who wish to not recognize the Mellon Foundation’s support in project/program collateral for any reason should reach out to their primary Mellon Program contact or brand@mellon.org. 

The Mellon Foundation name should be used in written recognition and crediting of Foundation support.

When using the article “the,” please ensure that it is lower case unless it appears at the start of a sentence.

Use the Mellon Foundation logo for visual representation of support where permitted in accordance with the Mellon Foundation’s crediting guidelines.

• To access logo and wordmarks, visit Downloadable Assets.

The Mellon Foundation’s Downloadable Assets may not be altered.

Prominence of acknowledgment should be commensurate with level of funding provided by the Mellon Foundation relative to other sources of funding and support, or in alphabetical order.

When the grant period has expired, please remove all Foundation crediting from materials except those that state the period of support (e.g. Mellon Foundation, 2021-2022). 

For questions on crediting and logo usage, send an email to brand@mellon.org. Please allow ten business days for our review and response.

The Mellon Foundation’s approval is required on all press releases, media announcements, newsletter articles, and website content that recognize the Foundation for its support.

1. The press release or article may not be issued/published without Mellon’s prior written approval (email sufficing).

2. No announcement of a grant may be made and no press release may be issued to media until a grant has been approved and any documentation (e.g. grant agreement) has been fully executed with the Foundation.

3. Grantees are not required to issue a press release announcing a Mellon Foundation grant.  

We invite you to use the Mellon Foundation’s boilerplate description adjacent to grantee or other funder information.

For all press release questions, or to submit press materials for review, please send an email to your primary Program contact with copy (cc:) to brand@mellon.org.  

Allow five business days for approval once you have submitted your release or article for our review.

For Project Support and Flexible Program Support grants only. Hashtag or tagging @mellonfoundation is generally accepted to increase awareness regarding the specific project or program in whole, not for discrete activities within a project or program.

To make a request to collaborate on a post, please send an email to brand@mellon.org

For Project Support and Flexible Program Support grants only. Any naming of a project, program, position, or place after the Mellon Foundation (i.e., Mellon Fellowship, Mellon Foundation Hall), or naming of the Foundation on exhibition signage, donor walls, or the like, requires special approval from Mellon.

Please send an email to your primary Mellon Program contact or brand@mellon.org