OVERVIEW: The Spencer Foundation supports the study of education, pedagogy, and educational policy through research grants, fellowships, and field-building grants.
IP TAKE: The Spencer Foundation is one of those funders that makes very large grants with a targeted scope, that being to support educational research and policy at the highest level. In addition to multi-million-dollar grants to major national nonprofits, it awards grants and fellowships to researchers, scientists, and writers at all stages in their career. While the foundation only awards a few grants in each category every year, the grants can be substantial. While the bigger research grants are for established academics, the foundation also has fellowships for doctoral students and post-docs.
Spencer is a relatively transparent funder that maintains lists of recent grantees of each type, along with the name of the project funded, if relevant, but not as a comprehensive, searchable database. You have to visit the overview page for each grant to see who has received it in the past. In terms of accessibility, Spencer accepts applications for all of its programs, and guidelines are clear. No letter of inquiry is necessary to be invited to submit a full proposal, but the application process begins with an “intent to apply” form that details project personnel, proposal overview, and project data.
PROFILE: The Spencer Foundation was established in 1962 by Lyle M. Spencer, founder of educational publishing company Science Research Associates, in order to promote “hard-minded, sensible investments in education research” that would “pay for themselves many times over as educational investments.” The foundation received a major endowment from Spencer’s estate upon his death in 1968 and issued its first grants in 1971. Since then, while it still claims to be the “only national foundation focused exclusively on supporting education research,” its mission and grantmaking have grown to address the priorities of “improving education, making education systems more equitable, and increasing opportunities to learn across the lifespan.” To that end, the foundation issues grants in three areas: Research Grants, Training Grants, and Vision Grants.
Grants for Education, Journalism and Humanities Research
The Spencer Foundation’s Grantmaking supports “high-quality, innovative research on education,” addressing “broad ideas about the questions educational research might ask, the theories it might employ, the methods and approaches it might use, and the ways in which we might support it.” Spencer’s grants fall into three categories:
- Field Initiated Research Grants go to support “rigorous, intellectually ambitious, and technically sound research” related to educational practice and policy, prioritizing researcher-driven projects that raise new issues or push educational research in innovative directions. It currently offers Large Research Grants, Small Research Grants, Racial Equity Research Grants, and Research-Practice Partnerships.
- Training Fellowships for Scholars and Journalists provides non-residential fellowships to early-career scholars and journalists to “develop new foundational knowledge and to participate in research that can support better policy-making, practice, and deeper engagement.”
- In association with the National Academy of Education, Spencer offers the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship for doctoral students in the process of completing a thesis.
- The NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship invests in early career researchers who have received their doctorate in the past five years and do not hold a tenure-track position.
- The Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship supports journalists writing about education to complete a year-long research project at the Columbia School of Journalism.
- Vision Grants researchers in planning a large-scale research project related to education methodology, policy, or equity. These grants are not intended to fund projects that are ongoing or nearing completion, but to bring together a collaborative team of researchers to formulate a research plan to lay the foundations for a future project. Applicants must be degree-holding researchers affiliated with an accredited research institution.
Important Grant Details:
Spencer’s research grants and fellowships generally range from $50,000 to $500,000, although the foundation also makes regular multi-million-dollar donations to major national nonprofits each year. Grantees may review the foundation’s News page for more information about its recent grantees and activities.
- The Spencer Foundation’s scope is international and it funds projects from around the world, although all proposals must be in English and requested in U.S. dollars. It supports research related to K-12 education, higher education, and all forms of adult education.
- Spencer accepts applications for its research grants, vision grants, and fellowships. Grantseekers may begin the application with their full proposal: a letter of inquiry is not required.
- An organization may submit proposals for more than one grant as long as the projects are unrelated and have different research teams.
- One research team may not hold more than one grant at a time. A team may apply for a grant while holding one as long as the grant terms will not overlap.
- Rejected proposals may be resubmitted in a future grant cycle after revisions, but will not be given special status compared to other applications. The foundation does not provide feedback on proposal drafts or rejected submissions, but grantseekers are welcome to contact the relevant program officer with general questions.
- Grantseekers may apply to fellowships through the National Academy of Education or Columbia School of Journalism websites.
- Grantseekers may reach out to the foundation through its Contact page or one of its program officers, whose contact information can be found on the relevant grant page.
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