Coca-Cola Foundation Grants 2026: Who Gets Funded

Coca-Cola Foundation grants open now: 8 routes checked

Grantsights checked 8 Coca-Cola-related giving routes on November 10, 2026. None is an open foundation grant call. Two take requests from organizations today, and both are local.

Recently changed: the foundation's 2024 return still names a contact person for applications and points to an old coca-colacompany.com address for application materials. That address now redirects to the foundation page, which says it doesn't accept unsolicited proposals. Treat the return's application details as out of date.

Our honest read: for almost every nonprofit, the realistic Coca-Cola money is local and small, through a bottler. The foundation's six-figure grants go to partners it picks.

What the Coca-Cola Foundation funds: 7 focus areas

According to the foundation's page, checked November 10, 2026, it has awarded more than $1.8 billion in grants over 40-plus years, and it now names 7 focus areas. The table pairs each focus area with a 2024 grant from the return.

The return's own Part XIV wording is older. It lists education and youth development, water stewardship and community recycling, arts and culture, women's economic programs and community well-being, and says the foundation denies requests from individuals, religious organizations, lobbying efforts, veterans organizations, charitable dinners and fundraising events.

Who actually gets Coca-Cola Foundation grants

According to our analysis of the 2024 return data, the foundation paid 233 grants worth $107,562,041 to 198 organizations after the matching payments come out. The median grant was $250,000, and 32 grants of $1 million or more took about half the money. This isn't a small-grants funder.

The smallest grants were rare and often personal to the company's hometown: $10,000 to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Atlanta in memory of Dexter King, $25,000 to Leadership Atlanta, and $20,000 to Karmayog Foundation for flood relief in Nepal. Twenty-four grants were exactly $100,000, the practical floor for most programs.

Program mix

Grantsights grouped each grant once by the purpose line on the return. It's a reading of short descriptions, so treat the split as approximate.

The American Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and 13 national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies together received 19 grants worth $5,110,113, most of it for floods, hurricanes and landslides.

Where the money went

According to the 2024 return data, recipients with US addresses got 134 grants worth $73,476,911, and recipients in 55 other countries got 99 grants worth $34,085,130. That understates the global tilt. Many US-addressed recipients are international groups paid for work abroad: World Wildlife Fund's $3,000,000 grant was for Recharge Pakistan, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature's $5,000,000 grant was for plastic pollution on African islands. Grantsights counted at least 29 US-addressed grants worth $26,913,700 whose purpose line names a project in another country. That leaves at most $46,563,211, about 43% of the total, for US-addressed grants without a named foreign project, and some of those run global programs too.

DC and Virginia lead because that's where the big international nonprofits and the World Bank sit. Georgia is the real local story: apart from CARE's 4 grants for emergency and savings programs and a scholarship grant for EARTH University in Costa Rica, its 50 grants went to Georgia colleges, Atlanta arts and civic groups, and a national soccer workforce program. Only 20 states plus DC received any grant at all. Outside the US, the largest totals went to recipients in Thailand ($5,105,968, almost all a $5,000,000 grant to a UN Development Programme regional office in Bangkok), China ($2,560,000), Bangladesh ($2,213,839), Côte d'Ivoire ($1,625,000 to the African Development Bank) and Costa Rica ($1,505,000).

Named examples from the 2024 return

For example, DigDeep received $530,827 in 2024 for its US water programs, one of the few water grants spent inside the country. Ducks Unlimited got $500,000 for marsh terracing in Louisiana to cut storm-surge flooding, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank got $250,000.

The largest single US-focused grant was $4,000,000 to the United States Soccer Federation for a workforce development program. Others: Hispanic Scholarship Fund, $500,000; Spelman College, $305,000 for first-generation scholars; Thurgood Marshall College Fund, $300,000; Latin American Association in Atlanta, $300,000; Trees Atlanta, $125,000; The Atlanta Opera, $100,000.

One organization in Georgia, CARE, received 4 grants worth $2,891,111, including flood response in the Horn of Africa and earthquake recovery in Nepal. That's the pattern: the foundation often funds large international nonprofits that happen to be headquartered in its home state.

How to get on the Coca-Cola Foundation's radar, step by step

There's no application, so these 6 steps are about being findable and choosing the right Coca-Cola door. They come from the foundation page, the Community Request System and the return.

1. Check your fit against the 2024 list first. Grantsights analysis of the return shows 233 grants with a $250,000 median, mostly to national or international organizations. If your annual budget is under about $1 million, a foundation grant is unlikely; go to step 5.
2. Match one focus area exactly. Water access, watersheds, recycling value chains, disaster readiness, small business growth or Atlanta civic work. A general request that touches several areas won't help.
3. Register in the Coca-Cola Community Request System if you need sponsorship or product. Its login page says all requests for grants, sponsorships or beverage product for the company, the foundation or affiliated regional foundations go through it. It also says the foundation no longer accepts unsolicited community funding requests and will notify you by email if you're invited.
4. Build the relationship through partners the foundation already funds. Many grants run through intermediaries: Global Water Challenge, Water.org, the World Bank, the Red Cross and scholarship funds like the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. A local water utility project in Latin America, for instance, might reach Coca-Cola money as a subgrantee of one of those partners.
5. Ask your bottler for local support. Find the bottler that serves your town and use its form or local plant contact (see the next section).
6. Keep your IRS records current. Every route here asks for 501(c)(3) proof. The IRS page on 501(c)(3) exemption requirements (opens in a new tab) says a charity must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes, with no earnings going to private individuals.

Common mistake: emailing the application contact named on the old return. The foundation's current pages say unsolicited proposals aren't accepted, so a cold proposal is a wasted afternoon.

Local Coca-Cola bottler giving: 4 bottlers checked

Coca-Cola's US bottlers are separate companies with their own community budgets. Grantsights checked 4 bottler sites on November 10, 2026.

Coca-Cola UNITED (Southeast). The clearest open route. Its Community Giving Guidelines page says its more than 60 facilities give money, product and in-kind donations, event sponsorships and volunteers, focused on education and youth development, community well-being and the environment. To qualify, an organization must be a 501(c)(3) located in UNITED's operating area; the form's state list covers Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, and it asks you to pick the nearest of 56 cities. It won't fund individuals, family reunions, religious institutions, fraternities and sororities, for-profits, or political and lobbying groups. Money requests should come in by August for the following calendar year; product requests at least four weeks before the event. The form asks for your IRS 501(c)(3) document, a description of 250 words or less, and whether the request is financial or product.

Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling. Its Our Community page says RCCB Cares supports communities through product donations, philanthropic support, sponsorships, volunteering and disaster relief. Its contact form includes a "Donation Request" subject. No guidelines, amounts or deadlines are posted.

Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast. Its Community page lists product donations, sponsorships, volunteering and board participation across New York and New England, plus a scholarship program for associates' children. There's no request form; the Connect page lists local plants and phone numbers in 7 states.

Coca-Cola Consolidated. The largest US bottler's Community page, checked the same day, shows news stories only, with no request form or giving guidelines.

What the Coca-Cola Foundation's Pages Don't Tell You

Grantsights checked the foundation's pages against its 2023 and 2024 returns. Five things stand out.

1. Most of the money leaves the country. The foundation says it works "in areas around the world where the company operates." In practice, at least 57% of 2024 grant dollars went to foreign recipients or to named projects abroad, by Grantsights' count, and Georgia groups took $18.5 million of what's left.

2. The headline giving number isn't the foundation. According to the company's 2025 People and Communities Update, published August 28, 2026, The Coca-Cola Company and the foundation together gave $162.5 million in 2025, $174.9 million in 2024 and $158.1 million in 2023. The foundation's own 2024 grants were $117.2 million, including $9.6 million in employee matches. Don't underestimate how much of the rest is company sponsorship and product, which runs through different doors.

3. Repeat partners hold many slots. Of the 198 organizations funded in 2024, 89 also appear on the 2023 return. Several got 2, 3 or 4 grants in a single year: World Wildlife Fund received 4 grants worth $7,748,915, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank) received 4 worth $2,340,340.

4. Its written exclusions aren't absolute. The return says the foundation denies requests from veterans organizations. Yet in 2024 the United Service Organizations received two $500,000 grants, Operation Homefront $200,000 and Four Block Foundation $150,000 for veteran career readiness. Invited partners get funded on the foundation's terms, not the published guideline.

5. Future money is already spoken for. The 2024 return lists $34,695,117 approved for future payment, including another $5,000,000 for the UN Development Programme's regional plastics partnership in Bangkok and $1,625,000 for the African Development Bank. A red flag for outsiders: about a third of a year's grant budget is committed before any new partner is considered.

Is the Coca-Cola Foundation worth your time? A 4-question check

1. Does your work fit one focus area at a scale of $100,000 or more? If not, skip the foundation and start with a bottler.
2. Do you work internationally on water, plastics or disaster readiness, or locally in Atlanta? That's where 2024's money went.
3. Are you already partnered with a current grantee? Subgrants and coalitions are the likeliest way in.
4. Do you need product or event sponsorship rather than a grant? Use the Community Request System or your bottler's form.

Plausible fit: a Georgia watershed nonprofit already working with an Atlanta park or river partner. Poor fit: a church youth program in Ohio asking for a $5,000 grant; the foundation doesn't take the request, and it excludes religious organizations.

Where to look if the Coca-Cola Foundation isn't a fit

Most organizations should put their proposal time into funders with open doors. Corporate grants for nonprofits lists company programs with real application cycles.

Recycling and plastics programs: the grants for recycling programs guide covers private and public money. Federal recycling grants mostly flow through governments. According to EPA, the first round of its Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant program (opens in a new tab) paid 25 grants totaling about $68 million to local governments, and EPA expects more selections for states and tribes in 2026. EPA's Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach grant page (opens in a new tab) says round two applications were due December 20, 2024, and that EPA awarded a cooperative agreement to a coalition on August 25, 2025, so there's no open call there either.

Water programs: see grants for clean water, grants for water quality and grants for watershed associations.

Disaster relief: the best grants for disaster relief nonprofits guide explains reimbursement and subaward routes.

Atlanta and Georgia: Georgia nonprofit grants covers the state's foundations, including Atlanta funders that take applications.

Other large corporate and global funders: Walmart's Spark Good Local Grants take small requests through local stores, a closer match to bottler giving than to the Coca-Cola Foundation. Target's grants split into store-led funds and an invitation-heavy foundation, much like Coca-Cola's two tiers. For global water and health work, the Gates Foundation grants guide covers another funder that invites nearly all its grantees.

Grantsights tools: Grantsights' community funder lists group private foundations by cause and state using the grants on their own 990-PF returns, and you can preview your state free. The Grantsights grant database lists open public programs with deadlines.

How Grantsights Checked This Guide

Grantsights checked 9 Coca-Cola and bottler pages and 3 returns on November 10, 2026. ProPublica's records show The Coca-Cola Foundation Inc in Atlanta under EIN 58-1574705, with tax exemption issued in August 1984 and a calendar-year 990-PF.

The foundation's grant list is public because federal law requires it. According to IRS guidance on the private foundation annual return (opens in a new tab), private foundations file Form 990-PF by the 15th day of the 5th month after their year ends, May 15 for a calendar-year filer. The foundation also posts its 2022, 2023 and 2024 returns on its Policies, Practices and Reports page. To read the grant list yourself, use the guide on how to read a 990-PF. If an invitation does come, the letter of inquiry guide helps you write a tight first page.

Sources

• The Coca-Cola Company: The Coca-Cola Foundation (opens in a new tab)
• The Coca-Cola Company: The Coca-Cola Foundation (Policies, Practices and Reports) (opens in a new tab)
• Coca-Cola Community Request System login (opens in a new tab)
• The Coca-Cola Company: 2025 People and Communities Update (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• The Coca-Cola Foundation: 2024 Form 990-PF (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: The Coca-Cola Foundation filings (opens in a new tab)
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: Coca-Cola Bottlers Foundation filings (opens in a new tab)
• Coca-Cola UNITED: Community Giving Guidelines and request form (opens in a new tab)
• Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling: Our Community (opens in a new tab)
• Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling: Contact Us (opens in a new tab)
• Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast: Community (opens in a new tab)
• Coca-Cola Consolidated: Community (opens in a new tab)
• Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation: Apply (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: Exemption Requirements for 501(c)(3) Organizations (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: Private Foundation Annual Return (opens in a new tab)
• EPA: Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grant Program (opens in a new tab)
• EPA: Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach Grant Program (opens in a new tab)