By reapplying, it was possible to win an Award more than once in a career; at least one writer received three separate grants, and The Little Players puppet troupe was subsidized largely by the foundation for over twenty years.
[3][4] Although Merrill could lobby his own Board—not always with success—on behalf of writers and artists whose work and circumstances he felt particularly compelling, his interference in the grant-giving process was officially discouraged.
[citation needed] The Foundation supported specific public television programming in the early 1970s and gave occasional grants to arts organizations.
[citation needed] Visual artists known to have received Ingram Merrill Foundation financial support include Edward Dugmore, Yvonne Jacquette, Gabriel Laderman, Eric Pankey, Patrick Webb, Jane Wilson, and Marcia Marcus.
Writers (including essayists, novelists, short story writers, translators, poets, and playwrights, among others) known to have received Ingram Merrill support include Walter Abish, Ellen Akins, Agha Shahid Ali, Dick Allen, Julia Alvarez, John Ash, John Ashbery, Russell Banks, Wendy Battin, Gina Berriault, Linda Bierds, Elizabeth Bishop, Thomas Bolt, David Bosworth, David Bottoms, Jane Bowles, Rosellen Brown, Victor Bumbalo, Frederick Busch, Ethan Canin, Turner Cassity, Henri Cole, Martha Collins, Jane Cooper, John Crowley, Deborah Digges, W. S. Di Piero, Mark Doty, Norman Dubie, Deborah Eisenberg, Tony Eprile, Kathy Fagan, Irving Feldman, Donald Finkel, Alice Fulton, James Galvin, Jorie Graham, Debora Greger, Allan Gurganus, Marilyn Hacker, Rachel Hadas, John Haines, Daniel Hall, Judith Hall, Jeffrey Harrison, Shelby Hearon, Oscar Hijuelos, Geoffrey Hill, Daryl Hine, David Hinton, Edward Hirsch, Daniel Hoffman, A. D. Hope, Maureen Howard, Andrew Hudgins, Wojciech Karpiński, Galway Kinnell, Karl Kirchwey, Peter Klappert, Caroline Knox, Ann Lauterbach, David Lehman, Brad Leithauser, Phillis Levin, Elizabeth Macklin, Thomas Mallon, Cormac McCarthy, Mary McCarthy, J. D. McClatchy, Joseph McElroy, Lynne McMahon, Sandra McPherson, Christopher Merrill, Judith Moffett, Ted Mooney, Julian Moynahan, Carol Muske-Dukes, Josip Novakovich, Jacqueline Osherow, Molly Peacock, Walter Perrie, Robert Polito, Stanley Plumly, Jeremy Reed, Donald Revell, Michael J. Rosen, Mark Rudman, Kay Ryan, David St. John, Mary Jo Salter, Stephen Sandy, Sherod Santos, James Scully, David Shapiro, Robert Siegel, Charles Simic, Jeffrey Skinner, William Jay Smith, W. D. Snodgrass, Roberta Spear, Mark Strand, Christopher Tilghman, Tony Towle, Paul Violi, Alice Walker, Theodore Weiss, Rachel Wetzsteon, Edmund White, Elie Wiesel, Charles Wright, John Yau and Stephen Yenser, among others.