[4] The Heising-Simons Foundation's main areas of work include early childhood education, science, climate and clean energy, community and opportunity, and human rights.
[7] The Heising-Simons Foundation's Acting President and CEO is Jennifer Shipp, taking over from Sushma Raman, who joined in 2023 from the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.
[8][9] The previous President and CEO was Deanna Gomby, who joined from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
[10] In 2023, the Heising-Simons Foundation partnered with other philanthropies to contribute more than $200 million in funding toward public interest efforts to mitigate artificial intelligence (AI) harms and promote responsible use and innovation.
[2] The Climate and Clean Energy program was named one of 25 mid-sized environmental grantmakers by Inside Philanthropy.
[15] In 2022, the Local Community portfolio provided funding for the community-based nonprofit group Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment to purchase the childhood home of Cesar Chavez in San Jose, California.
[22] The Foundation's Journalism portfolio awards the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which annually awards two freelance journalists with $100,000 each in unrestricted funds for "excellence in long-form, narrative or deep reporting about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the American landscape".