College and university leaders must remain responsive to their environments by promoting institutional innovation and change. External grant-funders, such as foundations, view themselves as initiators of change. Foundations can provide the necessary tools to jump start innovation within colleges and universities. However, despite the best…

In 2003, a few years after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began implementing its small schools reform agenda, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) announced a plan to replace large failing high schools in New York City with 200 small schools. In short order, the foundation and the Chancellor became partners…

In 2003, a few years after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began implementing its small schools reform agenda, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) announced a plan to replace large failing high schools in New York City with 200 small schools. In short order, the foundation and the Chancellor became partners with…

In the last year, advocacy groups have churned out reports on how all kinds of students--those who work, are minorities, attend less-selective colleges, or come from low-income families--struggle in higher education. They have talked about the needs of the modern workforce, and how the United States is falling behind. All coalesced around the same…

This publication is only available as a downloadable file. See who's giving and getting grants in your field. Strengthen your search for funds with the Foundation Center's digital edition of "Grants for Children & Youth." This new "Grant Guide" reveals the scope of current foundation giving in the field. You'll find descriptions of 37,992 grants…

The society is engaged in an exploration with The Getty Grant Foundation regarding a partnership to, among other things, create useful and accessible resources and tools to encourage the preservation of heritage buildings, sites, and landscapes. SCUP charter member and prolific author, Richard P. ("Dick") Dober, is one of those advising SCUP as it…

School districts face numerous obstacles when writing grant applications. One may consider starting his own grant writing guide as a way to increase his chances of success with any funding agency. In this article, the author lists steps and provides sample writing tips on how to create a grant writing guide that will help an application stand out.…

For more than a decade, the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund has seeded many San Francisco Bay Area youth organizing and advocacy programs. Now that the field is maturing, argues the fund's vice president of programs, foundations have a critical programmatic and capacity-building role to play. The author offers analysis and strategies for…

Grant programs that had been relatively open-ended were now tightly drawn, grounded in the foundations' own carefully articulated take on issues and receptive only to proposals that responded appropriately. Initiative and creativity had shifted heavily from prospective grantee to grantor. As foundations embraced this funding-by-agenda, it burdened…

The analysis in "Benchmarking 2011" is based on data from an unduplicated sample of 184 education grantmaking organizations--approximately two-thirds of Grantmakers for Education's (GFE's) network of grantmakers--who responded to an online survey consisting of fixed-choice and open-ended questions. Because a different subset of funders…

In 2008, the Shreveport-Bossier Community Foundation selected education, health, and poverty as funding priorities. But the foundation realized that it needed more specific guidelines on how best to distribute grants. RAND developed a framework for making investment decisions that incorporates the best of traditional decision making approaches.…

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to spend several hundred million dollars over the next five years to double the number of low-income young people who complete a college degree or certificate program by age 26. Foundation officials described the ambitious plan to an exclusive group of education leaders, citing 2025 as a target goal. If…

As in previous years, the report draws from a survey of Grantmakers for Education's (GFE's) membership that provides a snapshot of giving patterns as well as grantmakers' qualitative impressions of lessons and insights from their work. This year, to mark the report's fifth anniversary, GFE also looks back to provide a historical perspective on…

Annual reports aren't exactly beach reading, but for anyone interested in the current condition of scholarly communication, the just-published 2007 report of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation--particularly the essay on "Scholarly Publishing Initiatives" by Donald J. Waters and Joseph S. Meisel--is a page turner. The foundation's deep pockets and…

Quality afterschool programs are improving and transforming the lives of children and youth across the nation. Research shows that afterschool programs keep kids safe, inspire them to learn and help working parents. They give children opportunities to see new worlds, put school lessons into practice, discover their talents and explore career…