Foundation Relations

Whether your foundation is focused on expanding opportunity, accelerating research and innovation, or strengthening communities, our team helps you navigate the university landscape and connect with the people and programs best positioned to advance your goals.

How we partner with foundations:

We take a relationship-first approach grounded in alignment, collaboration, and stewardship.

This means we:

Listen and learn your priorities to understand the mission, geography, populations served, and outcomes you care about.

Identify strong-fit opportunities at MSU from institution-wide initiatives to college and program-level work.

Connect you with campus leaders, faculty, and staff who can explore ideas and shape solutions.

Support proposal and agreement development so submissions are clear, responsive, and aligned with both MSU strengths and foundation guidelines.

Coordinate engagement and site visits to make interactions with campus seamless and productive.

Prioritize stewardship and reporting with timely updates, impact narratives, and collaboration with campus partners.

Investments

Common places to invest:

Student access and success

Scholarships, completion initiatives, experiential learning, student support

Research excellence and applied innovation

Seed funding, interdisciplinary and applied research, equipment, workforce aligned training, translational work

Innovation with real world application

Applied research, workforce aligned training, translational work

Facilities and program growth

Labs, learning spaces, program expansion, pilot and demonstration projects

Community Partnerships and Impact

Outreach programs, education initiatives, extension connected solutions

Get Started

Let's get started!

If you’re exploring a new partnership or want to discuss an active opportunity, we welcome a conversation. A simple first step: share your foundation’s goals, funding interests, timeline, and any guidelines or RFP details. Our team will follow-up to learn more and identify next steps.

Make a connection