OVERVIEW: The Educational Foundation of America makes grants for arts and culture, reproductive health, democracy and clean energy. Appalachia and the South are geographic priorities.
IP TAKE: The Educational Foundation of America is a progressive funder that conducts all of its grantmaking through a lens of democracy and inclusion. While it does not place strict geographic limitations on its grantmaking, the foundation is responsive and tends to cluster its giving in geographic areas where services or access are lacking. Local and regional organizations, including many small ones, number significantly among its grantees, and Appalachia and the South are major sites of giving.
This funder doesn’t accept unsolicited proposals, but it does welcome contact. If you think your organization is a good match for EFA, submit an innovative idea via the contact page. With over 200 grants awarded in a recent year, this is definitely worth a shot.
PROFILE: Established in 1959, the Educational Foundation of America (EFA) was founded by the late Richard Prentice Ettinger, co-founder of middle- and high-school textbook publisher Prentice Hall, and his wife, Elsie P. Ettinger. The EFA is still run by Ettinger’s descendants and pursues a mission to advance “progressive change through support for creative initiatives working toward sustainability, justice, and equity.” The foundation makes grants and impact investments across four areas of focus: the Arts, Environment, Democracy, and Reproductive Health and Justice. This funder’s giving is national in scope, although some grantmaking prioritizes Appalachia and the South. Grants provide long-term, capacity-building and general operating support.
Grants for Arts and Culture, Community Development
EFA’s support for the Arts focuses on “creative placemaking” as a means of “shap[ing] a community’s vision for its future.” Specifically, EFA seeks to support the revitalization of underserved areas through creative programs.
- Giving strongly emphasizes community-led and participatory art and arts education programs.
- The foundation’s arts grants focus on Appalachia and the Black Belt region of Alabama.
- Grants support the visual and performing arts, as well as historical, cultural and multi-media programs and initiatives.
- Grantees include the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium, the Appalachian Arts Alliance, West Virginia’s RiffRaff Arts Collective and Mississippi’s Pike School of Art.
Grants for Reproductive Health, Women and Girls
EFA’s Reproductive Health and Justice program targets efforts to “improve access to abortion and contraception at the national and state level.” Funding provides direct support to abortion providers and abortion funds working in areas with full or partial bans on abortion, as well as national organizations that “use litigation to protect and advance abortion access.”
- The foundation supports multiple local chapters of Planned Parenthood including the Great Northwest, Indiana, Kentucky and multiple Florida locations.
- Other abortion and contraceptive-related support has gone to the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, Reprocare and Mayday Health.
- Policy and litigation grantees include Gender Ideal, the ACLU of Kentucky and the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation.
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
The Make Democracy Work program focuses on supporting “the pillars of a free, fair, and transparent democratic system” with and emphasis on state-level voting access and voter participation initiatives.
- North Carolina appears to be a main geographic focus of this work. Grants have gone to Progress North Carolina, the North Carolina Black Alliance, Democracy North Carolina and the State Leadership Project.
- Other grantees working at the state level include the Forward Montana Foundation, the Michigan Civic Education Fund and the West Virginia Citizen Action Education Fund.
- A few grants have supported national organizations in this focus area. Recipients include the Voter Participation Center, the RepresentUs Education Fund, the People for the American Way Foundation and
Grants for the Environment, Clean Energy and Climate Change
Grantmaking for the Environment focuses on three strategies for reducing greenhouse gasses:
- Grants support efforts to increase the adoption and affordability of clean energy in rural regions.
- Funding also goes to state- and regional-level efforts for energy transition, including the implementation of “market-based regulatory approaches” and the development of “interstate transmission” of clean energy.
- The foundation also invests and catalyzes investment in the generation of electricity through clean energy sources.
- Grantees include the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, the Rocky Mountain Institute, Clean Energy Works and the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Important Grant Details
Grants generally range from $2,000 to $300,000. In recent years, the Foundation has given between $8-$13 million in total annual grants. Its average grant size is about $25,000 and it has made over 200 grants a year recently.
- Grantmaking is national in scope, but the majority of EFA’s grantmaking concentrates on the Appalachian region of the U.S., as well as the South and Pacific Northwest.
- This funder supports organizations of all sizes, with smaller and locally-led groups well represented in its grantee roster.
- The EFA does not accept unsolicited proposals per se, but it invites granseekers to submit inquiries and ideas via its contact page.
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