Grants for Eating Disorder Support Groups 2026: Funders
Quick Answer: Grants for eating disorder support groups come almost entirely from private foundations and donors, not from federal programs.
Full answer and how we checked it
Grantsights analysis of 990-PF filings pulled October 31, 2026 found 148 foundations that made 229 grants to eating disorder organizations and programs, totaling $2,402,779, with 13 states home to 3 or more of those funders. Most gifts were general support between $5,000 and $25,000. A few six-figure grants went to groups that hired their first executive director or opened treatment access programs.
This guide is for founders, volunteers and board members of eating disorder peer support groups, recovery and awareness nonprofits, parent networks, regional alliances and helplines. It isn't about billing for clinical treatment or university research. If your group works across many mental health conditions, grants for mental health programs covers a wider set of funders.
Data note: The counts come from a Grantsights search of 990-PF grants, pulled October 31, 2026, for recipients or purposes naming eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia or binge eating. Grantsights checked 40 matched recipients by hand, and 38 were eating disorder organizations or programs (a hospital's eating disorders fund counted; a development fund for African leaders was a miss). The totals include a few treatment unit gifts to hospitals, flagged below. The state health table uses a separate Grantsights pull of 990-PF health grants, dated October 29, 2026.
In this guide (11 sections)
- How Grants for Eating Disorder Support Groups Fit Your Budget
- Who Gave to Eating Disorder Groups: What 990-PF Filings Show
- Why the Health List, Not the Education List
- What NIMH and SAMHSA Don't Tell You About Support Group Funding
- Costing a Support Group Program for a Grant Request
- 6 Eating Disorder Projects Foundations Have Paid For
- Common Mistakes in Eating Disorder Grant Requests
- An Eating Disorder Group's Funding Calendar
- Related Guides for Eating Disorder Groups
- FAQ: Common Questions
- Sources
Foundations near you already fund this work. See three in your state that take requests, with how to apply. Free, about a minute.
Foundations that fund this work
43,922 private foundations gave to hospitals, clinics, hospices and health charities
From their own IRS Form 990-PF filings (tax years 2019 to 2025). Pick your state to see who gave there, with one foundation in full. About the list
Across the US, these foundations gave 282,323 grants totaling $48,801,068,047.
Historical giving does not establish an open application or eligibility for your organization. For-profit operators should check each foundation's applicant rules before buying.
The full list names all 43,922, state by state: what each gave, to whom, for what, and a link to its filings. One payment, no subscription.
Federal source review, Grantsights, October 31, 2026: Grantsights checked the NIMH eating disorders topic page (opens in a new tab), the NIMH eating disorders statistics page (opens in a new tab), SAMHSA's eating disorders page (opens in a new tab) and SAMHSA's FY2027 grant forecasts (opens in a new tab) against foundation filings. Where official sources stop: none of them lists a grant program for community peer support groups, so the funding picture below comes from private foundation returns.
How Grants for Eating Disorder Support Groups Fit Your Budget
About 1 in 3 adults with anorexia nervosa ever sought treatment specifically for their eating disorder, according to the NIMH statistics page: 33.8%, against 43.2% for bulimia nervosa and 43.6% for binge eating disorder. Those numbers come from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, and they're the gap most support groups say they fill. People who won't walk into a clinic will often join a free online group, call a helpline or talk to a peer mentor first.
That's a strong case to a funder, but it doesn't come with a federal funding stream. NIMH describes its work on eating disorders as research into causes and treatments. SAMHSA's eating disorders page explains the conditions and risk factors, but Grantsights found no SAMHSA grant line aimed at peer support groups. So a typical group's budget looks like this:
| Money source | What it usually pays for | How steady it is |
|---|---|---|
| Individual donors and walks | General costs, awareness events | Varies by year |
| Private foundation grants | Staff, support group programs, helplines | Often renewed if reported well |
| Corporate and bank foundations | Small program gifts, sponsorships | Usually one year at a time |
| Hospital or clinic partners | Space, referrals, sometimes cash | Depends on the relationship |
| Government contracts | Rare; mostly school or county prevention work | Short and competitive |
Grantsights' honest view: an eating disorder support group should plan on foundations and donors for at least the next few years. Don't build a budget around a federal grant that doesn't exist yet.
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Who Gave to Eating Disorder Groups: What 990-PF Filings Show
Grantsights analysis of 990-PF filings pulled October 31, 2026 found 148 foundations that made 229 grants to 79 eating disorder recipients, totaling $2,402,779, or about $10,500 per grant. According to IRS guidance on Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), that's the annual return where a private foundation lists the grants it paid, so each gift below traces to a public filing.
| Funder | Eating disorder group | State | Grant | Purpose as filed | Tax year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Arvielo Family Foundation | Project HEAL, Parkville | MD | $150,000 | General and unrestricted | 2025 |
| M J Murdock Charitable Trust | Alaska Eating Disorders Alliance, Anchorage | AK | $132,750 | New executive staff | 2024 |
| Rifkin Family Foundation | Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, West Palm Beach | FL | $106,071 | Positive body image, self esteem and awareness of eating disorders | 2024 |
| Shelley Foundation | Eating Disorder Foundation, Denver | CO | $80,000 | General | 2023 |
| Peak View Charitable Foundation | National Alliance for Eating Disorders, West Palm Beach | FL | $50,000 | General fund | 2024 |
| Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation | Project HEAL, Parkville | MD | $50,000 | Mental health, community based treatment access | 2023 |
| The Lebensfeld Foundation | National Eating Disorders Association | NY | $25,000 | General support | 2024 |
| Hilda and Preston Davis Foundation | Ophelia's Place, Liverpool | NY | $20,000 | Eating disorder awareness and education | 2023 |
| The Coville-Triest Family Foundation | ANAD (Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders), Chicago | IL | $12,000 | Unrestricted | 2025 |
For example, the Alaska Eating Disorders Alliance received $55,250 from the M J Murdock Charitable Trust in 2023 to hire its first executive director, then $132,750 in 2024 for new executive staff. One organization in Washington, Hello Life Eating Disorder Recovery Services in Longview, drew $10,000 from the Firstenburg Foundation in 2023 to expand its recovery services program and another $10,000 in 2024 for capacity building, plus $15,000 in each of those years from the Honorable Frank L. and Arlene G. Price Foundation. That's the path from volunteer group to staffed nonprofit.
Eating disorder funders by state
| State | Foundations that gave to eating disorder groups | Grants | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 44 | 63 | $652,310 |
| New York | 41 | 61 | $436,598 |
| Colorado | 15 | 21 | $248,625 |
| Texas | 14 | 17 | $34,171 |
| Maryland | 7 | 7 | $249,000 |
| Washington | 6 | 9 | $57,530 |
| Massachusetts | 5 | 6 | $81,335 |
| Illinois | 4 | 5 | $272,500 |
| New Jersey | 4 | 4 | $50,000 |
| California | 3 | 6 | $56,000 |
The October 31, 2026 pull places each eating disorder group in the state on its filing, whatever cause the gift carried. Tennessee, the District of Columbia and North Carolina also had 3 funders each, which makes 13 states with 3 or more.
Reading the state table
Florida and New York lead because national groups are based there. Most of Florida's 44 funders backed one West Palm Beach nonprofit, which appears in filings as the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness and as the National Alliance for Eating Disorders. New York's count includes the National Eating Disorders Association, Project HEAL's Brooklyn address and smaller groups like FEAST and Ophelia's Place. A regional group shouldn't read Florida's number as a sign that Florida funders give to everyone.
Some state totals also carry gifts that aren't support groups. Illinois' $272,500 includes $250,000 from the Fitzgerald Family Foundation in 2023 to the Ascension Illinois Foundation for an eating disorders unit capital project, which is hospital treatment. Massachusetts' total includes the one miss from the hand check, a $50,000 gift to a development fund. Tennessee's includes small gifts to a similarly named group in Ethiopia. Strip those out and the regional picture is smaller than it looks.
California had just 3 funders, all giving to the Eating Disorders Resource Center in Campbell. The Robert Family Foundation gave it $15,000 in 2023 and $20,000 in 2024 in unrestricted support, the Brandenburg Family Foundation gave $5,000 and then $10,000 for awareness and recovery programs, and TZP Cares Foundation gave $3,000 in 2024 to run a helpline and client management.
Why the Health List, Not the Education List
Health is where this work belongs, even though the tags split almost evenly: in the October 31, 2026 pull, 11 foundations put a health tag on their eating disorder gifts (19 grants, $179,993) and 12 used an education tag (16 grants, $137,457). Most gifts, from 122 foundations, carried no cause tag at all. According to our review of the tagged gifts, the education ones mostly paid for awareness classes and school programs, while the health ones paid for support, treatment access and mental health services. A support group, a helpline or a recovery mentor program is health work, and health funders already fund mental health.
| State | 990-PF health gifts | Health funders | Funders that take requests | Median health gift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 27,604 | 6,824 | 1,451 | $10,000 |
| New York | 34,563 | 9,879 | 2,025 | $5,000 |
| Florida | 17,263 | 5,938 | 1,244 | $5,000 |
| Texas | 15,645 | 3,926 | 1,182 | $6,875 |
| Maryland | 8,374 | 3,387 | 811 | $5,000 |
| Colorado | 5,596 | 1,769 | 440 | $8,000 |
Statewide health figures come from Grantsights analysis of 990-PF filings pulled October 29, 2026. The free preview on the Grantsights health funder list shows health funders in your state broadly, not funders picked for eating disorder work, so read each one's past gifts before you write. A list for one state costs $29, a year of every cause list costs $99, and either can be refunded within 30 days of purchase. If your group also runs school body image classes, grants for programs for girls points to the education and youth funders behind that work.
What NIMH and SAMHSA Don't Tell You About Support Group Funding
None of the 9 grant notices on SAMHSA's FY2027 forecast list, 0% of the planned lineup, named eating disorders when Grantsights checked the page on October 31, 2026, according to SAMHSA's own forecast table. The list covered campus suicide prevention, assisted outpatient treatment, a children's mental health initiative, treatment for pregnant and postpartum women, recovery community building and emergency department alternatives to opioids, among others. That's the federal picture for a community eating disorder group in one line.
Here's what that means, read from the agency pages and the filings side by side:
- Research money isn't program money. According to NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), its eating disorders work funds studies of genetic, biological and social risk factors and new therapies. A support group can partner with a study team, but it can't apply to run groups with that money.
- Wider mental health notices may still fit. A youth or campus notice can cover eating disorder screening or peer support if the applicant is eligible and the program fits the notice. Read the eligibility section of each notice yourself before you plan around it.
- The prevalence numbers are older than your audience. According to the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, as NIMH reports it, the adult figures come from interviews done in 2001 to 2003, with a 1.2% past-year rate for binge eating disorder. Cite them as the federal baseline, then add your own intake numbers.
- Teens are a separate case. According to the NIMH statistics page, the lifetime prevalence of eating disorders among U.S. adolescents aged 13 to 18 was 2.7%, and 3.8% among girls. School and youth funders respond to that number.
What most guides don't say is that a group with no federal money can still look federal-grade on paper. Track sessions held, people served and referrals made the way a SAMHSA grantee would, and foundation boards will notice.
Costing a Support Group Program for a Grant Request
A "free" support group still costs money, and the 6 cost lines below are where groups underestimate it, because volunteers hide the staff time behind each session. TZP Cares Foundation's $3,000 grant to the Eating Disorders Resource Center in 2024 paid for a helpline and client management, exactly the kind of line a volunteer budget leaves out. This table is illustrative, not data: costs vary by region, format and whether groups meet online or in person.
| Cost line | Why it matters | Often missed? |
|---|---|---|
| Trained facilitator time | Each group needs a prepared leader | Yes |
| Clinical supervision or advisory review | Keeps groups safe and within scope | Yes |
| Video meeting platform and privacy tools | Online groups need secure rooms | No |
| Facilitator training and refreshers | New leaders every year | Yes |
| Helpline or referral line staffing | Calls come outside group hours | Yes |
| Outreach and printed materials | Schools, clinics and campuses | No |
Small gear and software asks are where local funders say yes. The Hyde and Watson Foundation gave Project HEAL $5,000 in 2023 to purchase gear, and the Matt Ryd All-Stars Foundation gave ANAD $5,000 in 2023 for mental health support services.
6 Eating Disorder Projects Foundations Have Paid For
These 6 projects each come from a grant filed on a 990-PF in the October 31, 2026 data, so a funder can check them.
- Virtual support groups. The Pennington Family Foundation gave the National Alliance for Eating Disorders $5,000 in 2024 for an eating disorder virtual support group.
- Free groups plus referrals. The Paulson Family Foundation gave the same nonprofit $10,000 in 2024 to provide education, referrals and support, including free support groups.
- A first executive director. The M J Murdock Charitable Trust's 2023 grant to the Alaska Eating Disorders Alliance named the hire in its purpose.
- Parent and caregiver support. The Kramer Family Foundation gave FEAST $7,500 and $8,000 in 2024 and $6,000 in 2025, all filed as health grants for eating disorders.
- Recovery through movement. The Names Family Foundation gave the Give Back Yoga Foundation $10,000 in 2023 for yoga for eating disorder recovery with Eat Breathe Thrive.
- Prevention in schools and clinics. The Columbia Bank Foundation gave CarePlus Bergen $15,000 in 2023 for Make Peace with the Mirror, an evidence based approach to eating disorders, and the Van Ameringen Foundation funded a prevention program in Philadelphia public schools in 2024.
If your group runs crisis or warm lines, crisis intervention grants covers funders and federal rules for that work.
Common Mistakes in Eating Disorder Grant Requests
These 5 mistakes show up when a support group writes like a clinic, or like a volunteer club with no plan. Each one can sink a $5,000 request as easily as a $50,000 one.
- Blurring support and treatment. A red flag for health funders is a peer group that sounds like it diagnoses or treats. Say plainly what your facilitators do and where you refer people.
- No safety plan. A common mistake is skipping how you handle someone in medical danger. Name your clinical advisor and your referral steps.
- Counting followers instead of people. Report group sessions, unique attendees and referrals, not social media reach.
- Asking national funders for local work. The large Florida and New York gifts went to national groups. Regional groups do better with family and community foundations near them.
- Sizing asks blindly. A health funder's return lists every gift it paid, and how to read a 990-PF shows how to find them so your ask fits.
An Eating Disorder Group's Funding Calendar
This 12-month plan spaces out reporting, outreach and foundation asks so no month carries all of them.
| Month | Action |
|---|---|
| January | Total last year's sessions, attendees, calls and referrals |
| February | Run awareness events and collect donor and partner contacts |
| March to May | Send 6 to 10 requests, most to health funders near you |
| June | Report results to current funders |
| July to September | Recruit and train new facilitators |
| October to December | Ask bank and family foundations for year-end gifts |
The Grantsights grant database tracks open federal and state notices, including youth and campus mental health programs where an eating disorder group might join a lead applicant.
Related Guides for Eating Disorder Groups
These 5 guides cover partners that share your audience or the funders you'll approach over the next 12 months.
Grants for health nonprofits lists general health funders that back community programs. Community mental health grants covers county and clinic partners who may host your groups or take your referrals. Groups that serve college students and young women can look for partners through grants for womens centers, because a women's center that runs wellness programs may have room for a body image or peer group. Families often find you through school counselors and family support programs, and grants for family resource centers shows who funds those hubs. Other community groups also take the health list without running a clinic, and grants for senior transportation programs explains that choice for volunteer ride programs.
FAQ: Common Questions
How many foundations fund eating disorder support groups? 148 in Grantsights' search of 990-PF filings pulled October 31, 2026.
Is there a federal grant for eating disorder support groups? No program targets them; SAMHSA's FY2027 forecasts named none.
What's a typical foundation grant to an eating disorder group? About $10,500 on average, but the median gift was $3,000.
Which states have the most eating disorder funders? Florida (44) and New York (41).
Why does Grantsights point eating disorder groups to the health list? Support, recovery and treatment access are health work.
Do funders pay for support group facilitators? Yes, some fund virtual and free support groups directly.
Sources
Last updated October 31, 2026. Published by Grantsights from public sources. See our editorial policy, how we build and check guides, corrections and how we make money.
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