Grants for K-12 Education
Learn about grants for K-12 education by exploring the curated list of top education funders below. Members can also research K-12 funding opportunities by using the search tool for GrantFinder. Become a member.
Key Funders
- Paul M. Angell Foundation
- Arnold Ventures
- Benificus Foundation
- Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- Annie E. Casey Foundation
- Dell Foundation
- Gates Foundation
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- Newschools Venture Fund
- Bill and Susan Oberndorf Foundation
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- Tosa Foundation
- The Wallace Foundation
- Walton Family Foundation
K-12 funding trends
Education, and its capacity to improve lives and strengthen communities, has always animated philanthropy. The big question is how to best target philanthropic dollars in an ocean of public funding.
There are about 100,000 public, and about 30,000 private, K-12 schools in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics). The U.S. educational system is decentralized, unequally funded, and inequitable on multiple fronts. Funders have attempted to address and improve American education in many ways, from curriculum to teacher training to system change. Some funders focus on a single school or a particular community, but many leading education funders have sweeping national ambitions, as seen in the Gates Foundation’s support for the development of Common Core academic standards or the Walton Family Foundation’s advocacy for market-based education reform.
What education priorities get funded
Today, many grantmakers are engaged in ambitious efforts to transform education in America. More than two-thirds of respondents to Grantmakers in Education’s 2023 benchmarking survey reported that they fund “educational system redesign and transformation, the most commonly funded of all 37 priority areas in the survey.” That said, Grantmakers in Education is careful to note that “respondents’ perspectives on what constitutes system redesign and transformation varies widely.”
Another funding trend is the “whole learner” approach, which seeks to support students not only academically but as whole human beings whose educations are affected by factors within and beyond the school walls. Funders increasingly give at the intersections of education and youth mental health, overall health, juvenile justice, and other issues.
A majority of respondents to Grantmakers for Education’s 2023 survey reported they are “investing in social and emotional learning and/or mental health and trauma-informed care, as well as wraparound social service supports for children and families.”
Uncertainty exists surrounding the near future of K-12 funding. The field is being disrupted by significant funding cuts and strategy shifts by major funders, IP reports. Some of this reflects the shift from a simple focus on schools and academics to a broader focus on other aspects of life that affect student learning and well-being. Other funders are shifting from K-12 to early childhood or higher education.
As Grantmakers for Education has found, collaboration remains a major trend amongst education funders, largely through participation in funder learning networks and affinity groups. Some education funders also participate in pooled funds or align their grantmaking with other funders.
Priorities for education grants have long included efforts to improve educational outcomes, increase college readiness, and close the achievement gap, as discussed in IP’s State of American Philanthropy brief on Giving for K-12 Education.
History of philanthropy for K-12 education
“There was a time when wealthy donors cherished the notion that a quality education for all would ultimately vanquish poverty and other social problems,” IP’s Connie Matthiessen writes. Indeed, education has been understood as an important avenue to racial equality, gender equality, democracy, and more.
The more recent history of philanthropy for K-12 education has included testing out bold big-picture approaches such as Common Core standards and charter schools. Philanthropy heavily backed both, and then somewhat retreated or shifted to new initiatives when these failed to deliver the hoped-for transformations. Over the past decade, Grantmakers for Education has observed the aforementioned shift in funder priorities from a focus on academic standards to a focus on the “whole learner” as well as educational equity.
Gaps in funding K-12 education
Though funders often name equity as a key motivation for education philanthropy, a report by the Schott Foundation found that “racial equity and racial justice remain drastically underfunded by the K-12 philanthropic sector.”
There are also geographic gaps. Looking at the funding that does focus on racial equity and racial justice, “grants have recipients disproportionately concentrated in the Northeast, despite the fact that almost half of all K-12 students, and the majority of all students of color, are enrolled in the South,” the Schott report continues.
Rural schools are also underfunded by philanthropy, although about 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools, per the Center for Public Education.
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Additional Resources
Grantmakers for Education (GFE) conducts research, shares information and creates networking opportunities for education funders to improve education outcomes for all students.
The Education Funder Strategy Group, a coalition of funders that calls itself a “learning community,” focuses on improving public education. One of its goals is to increase equity in education; another is to “build public confidence and commitment to public education as a public good.”
NewSchools Venture Fund and New Profit both practice venture philanthropy, that is, they use a venture capital approach to giving and investing in promising projects and entrepreneurs. NewSchools focuses exclusively on education, while New Proft has a broader investment portfolio.
Donors Choose and similar crowdfunding platforms make it possible for even those of modest means to support education. On these platforms, donors can contribute small or large amounts to fill classroom needs — from snacks and PPE to lab equipment and math manipulatives.
