John Templeton Foundation
The John Templeton Foundation is a philanthropic organization founded by John Templeton in 1987. Templeton became wealthy as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious and spiritual knowledge, especially at the intersection of religion and science. He also sought to fund research on methods to promote and develop moral character, intelligence, and creativity in people, and to promote free markets. In 2008, the foundation was awarded the National Humanities Medal. In 2016, Inside Philanthropy called it "the oddest—or most interesting—big foundation around."
Templeton was chairman until he died in 2008. Templeton's son, John Templeton Jr., was its president from its founding until his death in 2015, at which point Templeton Jr.'s daughter, Heather Templeton Dill, became president. The foundation administers the annual Templeton Prize for achievements in the field of spirituality, including those at the intersection of science and religion. It has an extensive grant-funding program aimed at supporting research in physics, biology, psychology, and the social sciences as well as philosophy and theology. It also supports programs related to genetics, "exceptional cognitive talent and genius" and "individual freedom and free markets". The foundation receives both praise and criticism for its awards, regarding the breadth of its coverage, and ideological perspectives asserted to be associated with them.
Leadership
was an American-born British investor, banker, fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1954, he entered the mutual fund market and created the Templeton Growth Fund.John Templeton Jr. was president of the foundation from its inception in 1987. He worked as a pediatric surgeon, and he was chief of pediatric surgery at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in 1995, when he stopped practicing medicine to join the foundation. He took over as chairman when his father died. He was an evangelical Christian and supported various American conservative causes. He always maintained that he tried to run the foundation according to his father's wishes instead of his own. He died in 2015.
Heather Templeton Dill, the daughter of John Templeton Jr., became president in 2015 and was succeeded by Timothy Dalrymple in July 2025.
Endowment
Templeton bequeathed around $500 million to the foundation when he died in 2008. the foundation's total endowment had grown to $3.34 billion. The foundation reports that it has issued over 3,300 grants, with over 2,800 of those going to recipients in North America. In 2016, the foundation disbursed over $151,000,000 in grants.Prizes
The Templeton Prize was established by John Templeton, and he administered the prize until the foundation was established in 1987, which took it over. The prize has "a value of about $1.7 million, making it one of the world’s largest annual awards given to an individual".The early prizes were given solely to people who had made great achievements in the field of religion; Mother Teresa received the inaugural award in 1973, with other early winners including Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Chiara Lubich, and Nikkyō Niwano. In the 1980s, John Templeton began considering the intersection of science and religion, and after he appointed two scientists to the judging panel, scientists who worked at this intersection began receiving it; Alister Hardy was the first, in 1987. More recent winners of the Templeton Prize have included the Dalai Lama in 2012, King Abdullah II of Jordan in 2018, Brazilian Jewish physicist and astronomer Marcelo Gleiser in 2019, and primatologist Jane Goodall in 2021.The 2025 winner is the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Grants
Templeton "was a great believer in progress, learning, initiative and the power of human imagination—not to mention the free-enterprise system". While most of its funding goes to topics in science, philosophy, and religion, around 40 percent of its annual grants go to character development, genius, freedom, free enterprise, and fields associated with classical liberalism. Grants are given to people across all religions since Templeton believed progress in the field of spirituality could come from anywhere. The field of grants was broadened in the 1980s to include scientific fields like neuroscience, psychology, and cosmology, seen as being aligned with the mission.Some research programs supported by the foundation have included the development of positive psychology by Martin Seligman, Angela Duckworth and others; the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University; the Gen2Gen Encore Prize; the World Science Festival; Pew religious demographics surveys; and programs that engage with Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions, including support for dialogue with scientists in synagogues, and a grant for advancing scientific literacy in madrasas.
, the foundation awarded nearly a billion dollars in grants and charitable contributions and was the 55th largest grantor among American foundations.
The top ten largest grants as of 2018 were:
| Project | Applicants | Institution | Amount |
| Science for Seminaries: Phase II | Jennifer Wiseman, Se Kim | American Association for the Advancement of Science | $6,182,109 |
| Character Lab Research Network: Revolutionizing Research on Character Development | Angela Duckworth, Sean Talamas | The Character Lab | $3,717,258 |
| Doing Development Differently | Matt Warner, Brad Lips | Atlas Economic Research Foundation | $3,095,213 |
| Freedom Forum Global Expansion | Thor Halvorssen, Alex Gladstein | Human Rights Foundation | $3,074,788 |
| Small-Scale Fundamental Physics Block Grant | Gerald Gabrielse | Northwestern University | $3,000,000 |
| Epigenetic Diagnostics for Preventative Medicine | Michael Skinner | Washington State University | $2,936,242 |
| Exploring the Informational Transitions Bridging Simple Chemistry and Minimal Life | Sarah Walker, Paul Davies | Arizona State University Foundation for a New American University | $2,904,374 |
| Spiritual Exemplars: A Global Project on Engaged Spirituality | Donald Miller, Megan Sweas | University of Southern California | $2,783,594 |
| Reasoning in moral thought and action | Liane Young, Fiery Cushman | Boston College Trustees | $2,743,961 |
| Character Strength Interventions in Adolescents: Engaging Scholars and Practitioners to Promote Virtue Development | Sarah Schnitker, Benjamin Houltberg | Fuller Theological Seminary | $2,616,085 |
| Project | Applicants | Institution | Year | Amount |
| Putting the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis to the Test | Kevin Laland, Tobias Uller | University of St Andrews | 2016 | $7,480,634 |
| Gratitude Britain | James Arthur | University of Birmingham | 2012 | $8,514,979 |
| Landmark Spirituality and Health Survey | Neal Krause | University of Michigan | 2013 | $8,028,154 |
| Service Britain | James Arthur | University of Birmingham | 2015 | $7,940,543 |
| The Black Hole Initiative: Towards a Center for Interdisciplinary Research | Sheperd Doeleman, Abraham Loeb | Harvard University | 2016 | $7,204,252 |
| Nautilus Media | John Steele | Nautilus Ventures, LLC | 2012 | $7,127,212 |
| Intellectual Humility in Public Discourse | Michael Lynch, Brendan Kane | University of Connecticut | 2016 | $6,054,682 |
| Transformative Britain | James Arthur | University of Birmingham | 2017 | $5,747,960 |
| Advancing the Science of Imagination: Toward an "Imagination Quotient" | Martin Seligman, Scott Barry Kaufman | Imagination Institute | 2014 | $5,647,094 |
| New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology | Don York | The University of Chicago | 2012 | $5,559,107 |
| Project | Amount |
| Foundational Questions in Evolutionary Biology | $10,500,000 |
| Foundational Questions in Physics and Cosmology | $8,812,078 |
| The SEVEN Fund: Enterprise Based Solutions to Poverty | $8,742,911 |
| Establishing an Institute for Research on Unlimited Love | $8,210,000 |
| The Purpose Prize for Social Innovators Over the Age of 60 | $8,148,322 |
| Templeton–Cambridge Journalism Fellowships and Seminars in Science and Religion | $6,187,971 |
| Accelerating Progress at the Interface of Positive Psychology and Neuroscience | $5,816,793 |
| AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion | $5,351,707 |
| Promoting a Culture of Generosity, Part I: Feature Film | $5,000,000 |
| Promoting a Culture of Generosity, Part II: The Philanthropy Channel | $5,000,000 |