Funding Sources
Compiled by:
Keith Bandy
February, 2004The following is a list of possible funding sources for charter school planning, start-up, and operational expenses.
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation * Currently makes grants in six core program areas: higher education, museums and art conservation, performing arts, population, conservation and the environment, and public affairs.
Anheuser-Busch Foundation ** The foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company. Support is given to projects in education, health care and human services, minority development and youth, cultural enrichment, and environmental protection. Full proposals are accepted throughout the year.
Arthur B. Schultz Foundation * The fundamental objective of the foundation is promoting peace, learning, and understanding among peoples of the world through opportunities for progressive dialogue, especially among the younger generation.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ***** The foundation focuses its education investments in two primary areas both aimed at addressing this inequity: creating more small high schools and reducing financial barriers to higher education. And to increase the number of talented low-income students who attend and graduate from college, the foundation funds scholarship programs that are helping thousands of students attend college each year.
California Department of Education (CDE) ***** The CDE offers a variety of funding opportunities including start-up grants of up to $450.000 for charter schools. The next grant cycle for charter schools is in September, 2004.
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation ***** The goal of the Improving Community Education grantmaking area is to ensure that community education serves as a pathway out of poverty for children in low-income communities.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation *** The Foundation provides grants to nonprofit organizations in the areas of Conservation and Science; Population; and Children, Families, and Communities.
Ford Foundation ***** Supports education research and reform in grades K-12 and in university systems.
Gates-EdVisions ***** A collaboration between EdVision (a public education model that allows entrepreneurial educators to create responsive, innovative and efficient educational programs in their own communities) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create and develop innovative schools using the instructional learning model used by the Minnesota New Country School (MNCS) and the governance model created under EdVisions Cooperative.
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation * The mission of the foundation is to support and encourage educational, cultural, social and environmental values that contribute to positively influence and improve humanity.
Ho-Am Foundation * The foundation accepts and vigorously promotes projects that provide for the greatest public good.
J.C. Downing Foundation *** The Foundation awards grants to qualified nonprofit organizations with explicit, identifiable needs in the fields of: Education and Human Development; Environmental Research and Preservation; Fine Arts, Sports and Athletics; and Technology and Communications.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation *** Grantmaking strategies focus on neighborhood development, regional policy, improving public education, early education and care, juvenile justice, mental health policy, and selected research topics related to program interests.Kresge Foundation * Independent, private foundation created to promote the well-being of humanity. Seeks to strengthen the capacity of charitable organizations to provide effective programs of quality.
Lawrence Foundation **** Making charitable contributions and grants to support educational, environmental, and health causes.
Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice ***** The Friedman Foundation strives to educate parents, public policy makers and organizations about the desperate need for a shift of power to the disenfranchised parents of America who have limited choices and voices in the education of their children. The Foundation serves as an indispensable resource for parents and community groups who want parental choice in education, and are ready to fight for it.
National Network of Grantmakers * An organization involved in funding social and economic justice, and is committed to the goal of increasing resources, financial and otherwise, to organizations working for social change.
New Profit Inc. **** A nonprofit venture philanthropy firm committed to the practice of venture philanthropy and the evolution of a new market for social change.
NewSchools Venture Fund ***** A venture philanthropy firm working to transform public education through powerful ideas and passionate entrepreneurs so that all children – especially those underserved – have the opportunity to succeed in the 21st century.
Oprah's Angel Network ** Supporting programs for women, children, and families, educational programs, and health and human services.
Peace Development Fund * The fund works to strengthen a broad-based social justice movement that embodies, embraces, and honors many cultures. The fund's goal is to create the new systems and institutions essential for building a peaceful, just, equitable world. Support is given for community-based organizing, general operating expenses, networking, and youth-led organizing. Grants range from $5,000 to $10,000. A letter of inquiry is preferred.
Pew Charitable Trust ** The Education program seeks to promote policies and practices that improve achievement and success for all students.
Providian Financial Corporation Community Giving ** The Corporation’s grantmaking is focused on organizations in its operating communities in the areas of childcare, financial literacy, and education that meet the needs of low and moderate-income families. There are no application deadlines. Applications are available online. Requests are considered quarterly. Grants range from $5,000 to $25,000. Organizations in California, Kentucky, Nevada, New Hampshire, Utah, Argentina, and the United Kingdom are eligible.
Public Welfare Foundation *** The foundation supports groups that provide basic services to disadvantaged populations as well as those working for lasting improvements in meeting basic human needs. Grantmaking focuses on programs in community and economic development; criminal justice; disadvantaged elderly and youths; environment; health; human rights and global security; reproductive and sexual health; and welfare reform. Grants range between $25,000 and $50,000. Support for operating expenses is given for smaller organizations or for a specific project that's consistent with the foundation's mission and programs. Letter of inquiry forms are available online.
RGK Foundation **** Independent foundation supports medical, educational, and community programs and research, without geographic limitations.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund ** Promotes social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.
Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation * A private foundation engaged in agricultural education, plant biology research, and grant-making.
Scaife Foundations ** A family of conservative foundations that fund public policy, family and traditional values, historic preservation and education programs.
Walton Family Foundation ***** To enhance the charter school movement by targeting states and communities where market share of quality schools may be established.
We Share Foundation ** Raising funds and making grants to support humanitarian, educational, and research causes worldwide.
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation ***** Grants in the Education Program promote long-term institutional or field development, reform, or knowledge creation in five priority areas: improving instruction, California reform, technology, universal education, and opportunity.
William Bingham Foundation ** The foundation contributes to a wide variety of organizations, including those in the arts, environment, science, education, and health and human services, in the communities where the trustees reside and nationwide. Letters of inquiry requested and may be submitted at any time.
Success Rating:
***** = High probability (9)
**** = Likely (3)
*** = Less Likely (4)
** = Perhaps (8)
* = Maybe (8)Total = (32)
This page last updated: 02/10/04