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.…

Tuition fees and the use of student loans to complement government's allocations have become unavoidable because of increasing competing new priorities for funding. This article addresses the funding sources of public higher education through tuition and loans. We explore the effects of shifts from first-stream income (government appropriations)…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the annual revenue received by United States public community college foundations from 2008-2009 in relation to selected variables associated in the literature with successful foundation performance. This study also attempted to collect longitudinal data by replicating and expanding upon a similar…

This dissertation explores the impact of information technology on progressive and regressive values in society from the perspective of one international foundation and four of its technology-related programs. Through a critical interpretive approach employing an instrumental multiple-case method, a framework to help explain the influence of…

Chicago has become a hotbed of "venture philanthropy" in education, as two local foundations contribute not only money, but also the hands-on work of some of the city's wealthiest and most influential residents, to help improve the schools in the nation's third-largest district. These two venture-philanthropy funds consist of the…

This article reports that the recession tearing into the U.S. economy is not only straining the public coffers that support K-12 schooling, it's also taking a toll on education philanthropy. From family foundations to corporate philanthropies, charitable giving to K-12 education appears to be facing a downturn. Although no national figures are…

The SpringBoard Bursary Foundation (SpringBoard) commissioned the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) to undertake an evaluation of its activities and impacts between 2013 and 2018. This interim and summary report presents the findings of the first year of the evaluation. SpringBoard was established in 2012 to transform the lives of…

After an initial inventory of community indicators in its 2008 Shreveport-Bossier City "Community Counts" annual report, the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier decided to focus existing funding related to children and families on the areas of education, health, and poverty, as well as develop new funds in these areas. These focal…

This report is a culmination of the ideas presented during AASHE's Summit on Sustainability in the Curriculum to address how higher education institutions can further infuse sustainability topics into college and university curricula. Recognizing the scale of the challenges faced by higher education and the urgency with which changes must be…

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…

The psychology behind getting the big gift and making "the ask" for it was a major topic at Fund Raising Day in New York 2008, which drew representatives from across the nonprofit world, including charities, hospitals, colleges, and museums. Laura Fredricks, who was vice president for philanthropy at Pace University from 2002 until earlier this…

In 2005, the school choice movement lost one of its leading champions when John T. Walton, an heir to the Wal-Mart retailing fortune, died in a plane crash at age 58. Advocates of expanded educational options say Mr. Walton, more than anyone else, was the driving force behind the Walton Family Foundation's education work, and its focus on…

This revenue planning tool aims to help charter school operators develop a sound revenue base that can meet their school's current and future funding needs. It helps identify and assess potential public (federal, state, and local) and private funding sources. The tool incorporates a four-step revenue planning process which includes: (1)…

Soon after Jamie P. Merisotis took over the Lumina Foundation for Education last year, he began talking about a "big goal." America must increase the proportion of its population with degrees or credentials to 60% by 2025, in order to remain globally competitive and meet the nation's growing demand for college-educated workers, he said.…

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…