Coalition Launches Historic $50 Million Initiative to Bolster Nonprofit Literary Arts

New fund is dedicated to strengthening the field, advancing support for creative writers and ensuring their contributions to American literature for generations to come 

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, a coalition of seven charitable foundations—the Ford Foundation, Hawthornden Foundation, Lannan Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Poetry Foundation, and an anonymous foundation—announced the launch of the Literary Arts Fund, an unprecedented effort to dramatically boost the essential yet critically underfunded nonprofit literary arts field in the United States. The fund, initiated by Mellon as a collaborative effort in service of the field's needs and promise, will distribute at least $50 million over the next five years, with continued fundraising planned.

"Art does not find its way forward in a search for commercial success. Without nonprofit publishers American letters would have stalled long ago," said Percival Everett, poet and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James. "This initiative demonstrates the kind of spirit that we hope our writers exhibit. This is the kind of support that will reinvigorate the entire artistic landscape of our culture."

The nonprofit literary field comprises hundreds of charitable organizations and publishers that serve writers and readers in ways that are distinct from commercial publishing. These organizations champion established writers, critical first-time and historically underrepresented authors, and provide a home for the intellectually rigorous and artistically adventurous voices whose work deepens and challenges our culture. They bring literature to communities nationwide—hosting book festivals and events that connect authors and readers across the country; broaden the reach of writers by publishing works in translation; mentor and encourage authors through retreats and residencies; and celebrate artistic achievement through literary awards and fellowships. Together, these efforts sustain the vitality and independence of American literature and ensure that a wide spectrum of voices and ideas continues to shape our collective imagination.

Literature is the least-supported artistic discipline in the U.S., receiving only 1.9% of the $5 billion in arts grants awarded in 2023 per data collected from Candid. This disparity, which is persistent, coupled with other ongoing challenges, including shrinking public funding and rising operating and publishing costs, underscores the underfunding in the nonprofit literary arts field and the urgent need for the Literary Arts Fund's support.

"The literary arts give voice to who we are as a people," said Elizabeth Alexander, poet and president of the Mellon Foundation. "Novelists, poets, and all manner of creative writers shape and drive our collective discourse and capacity for invention and imagination. American philanthropy can play a bigger role in strengthening the financial infrastructure of the literary organizations and nonprofits that serve these literary artists. As we initiate this historic effort, we at Mellon are pleased to join with our co-funders in sustaining and further stewarding the extraordinary legacy and power of the written word in our country."

Ann Patchett, international best-selling author of Bel Canto and Commonwealth notes, "I am so grateful to the Literary Arts Fund for making a commitment to writers, to writing, to reading, to the bond we make with books and how those books help us forge bonds with one another. The support of the future of literature is a cause for celebration."

Each of the initiative's seven founding funders made a one-time gift to establish the fund along with the Literary Arts Funders Collaborative, a new affinity group for charitable foundation leaders interested in learning more about the literary arts field and championing literature. Since its inception, additional pledges and contributions have been provided by new members Houston Endowment, Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Fund of the Sidney E. Frank Foundation. Interested charitable foundations can learn more about the nonprofit literary arts field, join the Literary Arts Funders Collaborative, and contribute to the fund, here: Literaryartsfund.org.

"As a Midwest-based philanthropic institution, the Poetry Foundation views the Literary Arts Fund as an excellent opportunity to leverage our endowment and extend its influence in service to poetry and the literary arts at large," said Poetry Foundation President and CEO, Michelle T. Boone. "The Poetry Foundation is honored to be among this cohort of trusted, forward-thinking philanthropic organizations, and looks forward to the new opportunities this fund presents for strengthening the literary arts in the U.S."

"It's shocking – not even 2% of arts funding goes toward our shared literary life. Lannan has supported writers since 1960, so we've known the many ways this scrappy field punches far above its weight. Yet even we did not fully grasp the severe imbalance between investment and impact," said Brenda Coughlin, Executive Director of Lannan Foundation. "May this new fund and the Literary Arts Funders Collaborative invite in and encourage new supporters to experience, as we have, the delight and high returns of literary brilliance."

The coalition has tapped veteran literary leader Jennifer Benka to direct the fund, which is fiscally sponsored through the National Center for Civic Innovation. For the past 20 years, Benka has helmed organizations such as the Academy of American Poets and Poets & Writers that have supported hundreds of literary arts nonprofits, and poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers across the U.S. Benka's professional expertise includes creating and administering new grantmaking, residency, fellowship, and capacity-building programs supporting writers and nonprofits across the U.S.

"I'm grateful to the foundations that founded the Literary Arts Fund for the critical leadership role they've played for years in supporting literature and writers and to those that have recently joined in this effort. I hope their combined generosity will inspire other foundation leaders who appreciate writers, books, and reading to help sustain our literary culture well into the future," said Jennifer Benka, Executive Director of the Literary Arts Fund.

The Literary Arts Fund will award grants to U.S.-based nonprofit or fiscally sponsored literary organizations and publishers that support contemporary writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or hybrid literary forms through an annual open call beginning November 10. Full guidelines and eligibility details are available here: Literaryartsfund.org.

To learn more about the Literary Arts Fund, subscribe to their newsletter here: Literaryartsfund.org.

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SOURCE The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation