Our Giving Priorities:
- Programs that provide skills and pathways to prepare youth (ages 13 to 30) for long-term success and the future of work, including the green economy, digital futures, and STEAM fields such as science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics.
- Advocacy to support education and workforce development in underrepresented communities.
- Support for underrepresented and economically vulnerable small business owners and entrepreneurs through our “Backing Small” initiative, including grants, mentoring support, and technical assistance through established community partnerships. Programs include:
- Backing Small Businesses
- Backing Historic Small Restaurants
- Backing International Small Restaurants
- Blueprint: Backing BIPOC Businesses in Canada
- Financial literacy education, training, and mentoring for underrepresented individuals and families to build financial awareness, fiscal acumen and success, including at school age grades 5-12, during higher education, or when individuals are entering/re-entering the workforce.
- Help communities prepare for and recover from climate events, with support including:
- Community-led climate projects including through our Green2Gether networks, focused on nature-based intiatives.
- Disaster relief and resilience building programs and initiatives in extreme weather-prone areas and cities where our colleagues and customers live and work to provide immediate and/or long-term relief to natural and man-made disasters and help create climate-resilient communities.
How We Work With Grantees:
Please note that American Express does not actively solicit applications for grants and new partnerships.
All prospective grantees must be invited to submit a grant and will receive specific details to complete their application should they be invited.
- Review our funding priorities (above).
- To be eligible for funding, an organization must:
- Have tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1), (2) or (3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Organizations outside the U.S. must be able to document nonprofit status.
- Not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, genetic information, citizenship, veteran or marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.
- To be most effective, we keep our funding focused. We do not fund:
- Individual needs, including scholarships, sponsorships and other forms of financial aid.
- Fund-raising activities, such as galas, benefits, dinners and sporting events.
- Goodwill advertising, souvenir journals or dinner programs.
- Travel for individuals or groups.
- Sectarian activities by religious organizations.
- Political causes, candidates, organizations or campaigns.
- Books, magazines or articles in professional journals.
- Endowments or capital campaigns, except restoration projects.
- Traveling exhibitions (we will only consider each venue on its own).
- We focus our funding on priority locations for American Express:
| United States | Around the World |
| • Arizona | • Australia |
| • New York | • Canada |
| • Utah | • China |
| • California | • France |
| • Florida | • Germany |
| • Washington D.C. | • India |
| • Italy | |
| • Japan | |
| • Mexico | |
| • Singapore | |
| • United Kingdom |
Your Organization’s Details
American Express is proud to work with its current strategic partners and grantees who are aligned with our focus areas and priorities, and we do not accept unsolicited applications.
We remain interested in learning about organizations doing impactful work across our priority issues.You are welcome to share your business contact, organizational objective, and website by sending an email to communitygiving@aexp.com. Our team will contact you if we would like to engage further.
Please note that, due to the volume of incoming requests, we are not able to respond to every inquiry and will only respond if a further conversation is of interest. Additionally, please submit only one email per organization.