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Tobacco Grants

About 4,000 12- to 17-year-olds light up their first cigarette every day in the U.S. About 19 percent of those in that age group admit to using cigarettes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those are trends many organizations are trying to prevent. Groups like the Bloomberg Initiative and the American Cancer Society provide grants as ways to fund cessation, prevention, research and law enforcement projects.

  1. Bloomberg Initiative

    • Bloomberg Philanthropies, the philanthropic agency of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, began the Bloomberg Initiative Grants Program in 2006 as a way to contribute to tobacco control programs. The initiative provides grants to organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental, to help them develop programs. More than 40 countries are eligible for grants, regardless of their incomes, but the initiative awards grants to countries with the highest rates of tobacco use.

    Gates Foundation

    • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds anti-tobacco programs by channeling grant money through other organizations, such as the Bloomberg Initiative. The foundation issues grants for programs fighting tobacco use in high-use countries, especially in Africa, and funding research programs that prove the harmfulness of tobacco.

    Johnson Foundation

    • The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded $350 million to health-initiative programs, including those for tobacco. For example, the foundation gave $12 million in 2003 to the Tobacco Policy Change, which provides assistance to government agencies, nonprofits and other organizations working on control and cessation policy initiatives.

    American Cancer Society

    • The American Cancer Society provides grants for advocacy, research, technology and control projects through its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The advocacy program, for example, has issued 67 grants to 46 groups in 38 countries.

    Department of Justice

    • The U.S. Department of Justice issues the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms---Training grant to law enforcement agencies to train officers about laws involving tobacco, along with those for alcohol and firearms. The grant restricts eligibility to nonuniformed officers.

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