Entrepreneurship Forum: Station 4:
Financing
Feasibility

Program-Related Investments (PRIs)

Private foundations usually cannot make grants to for-profit organizations, but they may invest in them if doing so would help them accomplish one of their exempt purposes.

• Grantspace Knowledge Base entry: http://grantspace.org/tools/knowledge-base/Individual-Grantseekers/For-Profit-Enterprises/pris.
• IRS definition: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundations/program-related-investments. 
• Foundation Directory Online, a database primarily used to identify grant prospects, can also be used to find grantmakers that make program-related investments.  FDO can be accessed from computers on the second floor of the AUM Library; for more information, see http://libguides.aum.edu/foundationcenter or contact Amanda Scott, AUM’s Funding Information Network supervisor (ascott20@aum.edu).   When conducting a Grantmakers search FDO, include the index terms “Program-related investments” or “Mission-related investments” under Transaction Type in conjunction with “Fields of Interest” index terms, “Geographic Focus” index terms, and/or keywords that describe your venture.  In a Grants search, try any Transaction Type index term that starts with “PRI” (for example, “PRI business start-ups and expansions”) along with relevant “Subjects ” index terms, “Recipient Location” index terms, and/or keywords.