OVERVIEW: Echidna Giving makes grants for girls’ early childhood and K-12 education in designated developing nations.
IP TAKE: Echidna Giving is laser-focused on advancing girls’ education in specific developing countries in Africa and Asia. Giving spans education and initiatives for early childhood through adolescence and focuses on helping girls stay in school to build better lives for themselves and their families. It supports organizations of all sizes, but even its smallest grantees tend to be well-established in the communities they serve. This is a hands-on grantmaker that likes to collaborate with evaluators and educational researchers to learn and communicate best practices in the field. Echidna doesn’t accept proposals at this time but welcomes contact.
PROFILE: Founded by Giving Pledge signatories Craig Silverstein and Mary Obelnicki in 2006, Echidna Giving pursues a single aim: “Getting more girls into better schools to live better lives.” Silverstein and Obelnicki made their forture at Google and are based in San Francisco. This funder expanded its giving strategy in 2024, adding a grantmaking area for adolescent life skills to its previous giving for early childhood and primary school education. The foundation also increased its funding commitment to about $200 million a year. The foundation names focus countries of India, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, as well as five experimental countries: , Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal.
Grants for Girls, Early Childhood, K-12 Education and Economic Opportunity
Echidna organizes its giving on a continuum from early childhood through adolescence, targeting schools and programs that help some of the world’s most marginalized girls “stay in school and succeed.” Across all areas, the Echidna supports educational programs, research, advocacy and coalition building.
- Grants for Early Childhood Development and Education focus on programs and organizations that help girls “develop readiness for school and a sense of gender identity that does not limit what they see as possible for their education and life opportunities.”
- The Foundational Learning at Primary School Ages giving area targets marginalized girls of primary school ages and supports quality programs that develop foundational skills in literacy, numeracy and social-emotional development.
- The new program for Adolescent Life Skills is focuses on efforts to help girls and young women develop “mindsets that allow them to thrive.” It also supports the development of remedial literacy and numeracy for girls who may have “missed out” on learning opportunities at earlier ages.
- A fourth giving area for Ecosystems supports leadership and infrastructure development for girls education and positive development.
- Echidna’s grantees include the Africa Early Childhood Network, the Forum for African Women Educationalists, FXB Rwanda, the United National Girls Education Initiative and India’s Transform Schools.
- Grantee partners in research and evaluation of funded programs include the University of Chicago, India’s Monash University, the International Center for Research on Women and Harvard University, among others.
Important Grant Details:
The foundation’s grants range from the thousands to $500,000, and potentially more. Most grantees receive multi-year support. Echidna Giving plans to give away $200 million a year through 2030.
- Grants tend to support well-established educational and educational research organizations operating in Echidna’s focus countries of India, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, as well as five experimental countries: , Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal.
- A list of current grantees is linked to the Our Work page on Echidna’s website.
- Given its small size and the volume of interest it receives, it does not accept unsolicited proposals; however, it welcomes contact by email: echidna@echidnagiving.org.
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