The Xeric Foundation is a private, non-profit corporation based in Northampton, Massachusetts, which for twenty years awarded self-publishing grants to comic book creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations.

[1] The Xeric Foundation supported work of an alternative or non-"mainstream" nature, reasoning that if a comic had strong commercial appeal, it would be picked up by one of the major publishers.

"[1] The Foundation's first grant cycle was in September 1992,[4] with the first recipients being Robert Eaton, Michael Kasper, Jeff Nicholson, and Wayne Wise & Fred Wheaton.

[2] Citing the changing nature of the comics industry, and specifically the ability of cartoonists to publish their work online, founder Laird announced the shift.

[2] Notable past winners of the Xeric Grant include Megan Kelso (1993), David Lasky (1993), Jason Lutes (1993), Adrian Tomine (1993), Tom Hart (1994), Jessica Abel (1995), Bebe Williams (1995), James Sturm (1996), Ellen Forney (1997), Jim Ottaviani (1997), Gene Yang (1997), Dawn Brown (1998), Jason Little (1998), David Choe (1999), Nick Bertozzi (1999), Jason Shiga (1999), Farel Dalrymple (2000), Anders Nilsen (2000), Leland Purvis (2000), Jordan Crane (2001), Brian Ralph (2001), Hans Rickheit (2001), Donna Barr (2002), Derek Kirk Kim (2002), Sonny Liew (2002), Lauren Weinstein (2002), Josh Neufeld (2004), Karl Stevens (2004), Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey (2004), David Heatley (2005), Jeff Lemire (2005), Jesse Moynihan (2006), and Blaise Larmee (2009).