Grants for Charter Schools

NOTE: Letters of inquiry are accepted on a rolling basis; there are no deadlines. Please note that we do not seek, and rarely fund, unsolicited grant applications.

Our Goal

Our grantmaking aims to ensure that American public education prepares all students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they need to fully participate in democracy and thrive in the global economy.

Focus Areas

New Designs to Advance Learning

Our grantmaking funds school- and classroom-based innovations to better support student learning and holistic youth development, with an emphasis on meeting each student’s unique needs, ensuring deep mastery of content and skills, and improving academic outcomes.

Schools today are charged with preparing students to thrive in an increasingly complex world. This extends beyond supporting academic success and includes equipping young people to actively engage in our democracy and workforce. In order to meet this challenge, schools of the future will need to be places where learning is deeply personalized, instruction is focused on mastery of core skills, competencies, and knowledge, and holistic youth development is woven into the student experience. Our investments support schools, school districts, charter management organizations, and other school support organizations in catalyzing and implementing these changes.

Pathways to Postsecondary Success

We invest to reimagine pathways to educational and economic opportunity for high school graduates. This includes initiatives to improve college access and completion, particularly for low-income and first-generation students, as well as efforts to better align K–12 learning, higher education, and careers.

Given the changing nature of the economy, it is more imperative than ever for students to attain some postsecondary education to thrive in the global economy. This requires American education to collaborate with the labor market in the design of better pathways to opportunity for all students beyond high school graduation. By providing a diversity of options and flexibility necessary to accommodate the range of student needs and ambitions after high school, we can improve outcomes for all students, especially those who have faced historic barriers to opportunity. To meet that need, our grantmaking supports initiatives to improve postsecondary access and completion, and to expand the range of postsecondary pathways available to students, and to ensure that K–12 and higher education collaborate with the labor market to prepare young people for the future of work.

Leadership and Teaching to Advance Learning

We work to ensure that all students benefit from content-rich, standards-aligned instruction by funding efforts to strengthen teaching and school leadership, including the development of high-quality instructional materials and curriculum-based professional learning.

Educators today are tasked with holding all students to high academic standards in mathematics, English language arts/literacy, and science, requiring an increase in both the rigor of instruction and the level of student engagement in order to achieve those expectations. As a result, teachers adapt teaching to meet students’ diverse needs while helping them master the academic content, skills, and habits of mind required for success in school and life. To help educators meet these challenges, the Corporation invests in the development of high-quality instructional materials and curriculum-based professional learning for teachers and instructional leaders. It also supports a wide range of initiatives to advance the knowledge, skills, and practices that educators need to support student success, including clinically rich teacher preparation, coaching and mentoring, and ongoing professional development for teachers and school leaders.

Public Understanding

Our grantmaking aims to build a shared understanding about the changes needed to ensure that all students excel in school and life, including efforts to foster collaboration among families, educators, community leaders, and students as true partners in achieving that vision.

Research shows that students thrive when families have a meaningful role in their education and schools are stronger when they have close ties to their communities. But not all children experience the benefits of strong community and family engagement at their schools. At the same time, the perspectives of families and educators are often neglected when school reforms are being developed and implemented, which can lead to frustrations that compromise the success of those initiatives. Our grantmaking aims to reverse those trends by bringing together families, communities, students, educators, policymakers, and the public in support of an equitable and educational system and high-quality learning experiences for all. These efforts include initiatives to elevate the concerns and priorities of families and educators, empowering them to shape educational policy and practice. We also fund programs to bridge the gap between home and school. This work ensures that all families have access to the information and best practices they need to navigate and support their children’s education and that they are able to act as effective advocates for change. Because we believe an informed public is vital to ensuring educational equity, we also support media organizations to encourage national and local conversations about issues that matter most to families and educators.

Equitable Systems

Our grantmaking is designed to ensure that everyone invested in improving our nation’s schools works together more effectively to design and implement improvement strategies within complex systems. This includes efforts to reduce fragmentation, foster collaboration, and build cultures of continuous learning, with the goal of building a more equitable education system that puts all students on a path to lifelong success.

School systems in the United States are exceedingly complex, encompassing great diversity and competing demands. New initiatives are often introduced without engaging the people who will be most affected by them or considering how changes in one area might have ripple effects in others. As a result, the field of education has often struggled to put promising ideas into practice, slowing the pace of progress for students, particularly those from historically marginalized communities. Two central challenges have been the tendency to design and implement improvement strategies in isolation, and the limited or ineffective sharing of knowledge across the field. The Corporation seeks to change these patterns by catalyzing integrated approaches that are better suited to improving complex social systems and sharing lessons learned from that work. Our grantmaking also supports initiatives that stimulate innovation in an effort to reduce inequity, paying particular attention to increasing diverse and representative leadership in education, designing and managing change effectively and inclusively, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

NOTE: In order to become a TFK agency partner, you and your organization must go through the following steps in the agency application process. The entire process takes between 2-4 weeks.

Once the application materials have been reviewed, a TFK staff person will be in touch to let you know if your organization has been approved for partnership. Under most circumstances, you should receive a response within five business days.

Who Can Get Tickets?

Tickets for Kids Charities partners with organizations (agency partners) that serve low-income, at-risk children and youth to supplement their existing programming with ticketed experiences. These programs can include: residential, mentoring, behavioral health counseling, after-school program, summer day camps, and other types of services. TFK ticketed experiences are provided to approved agency partners at no cost to their organizations or clientele.

Walmart’s more than 2 million associates are residents, neighbors, friends and family in thousands of communities around the globe. Walmart works to strengthen these communities through both retail business and community giving, and we support and invest in communities through local giving. The following programs have open application processes with specific deadlines for eligibility and consideration.

Local Community Grants

Each year, our U.S. stores and clubs award local cash grants ranging from $250 to $5,000. These local grants are designed to address the unique needs of the communities where we operate. They include a variety of organizations, such as animal shelters, elder services and community clean-up projects.

Areas of Funding

• There are eight (8) areas of funding for which an organization can apply. Please review the areas listed below to ensure your organization’s goals fall within one of these areas.
• Community and Economic Development: Improving local communities for the benefit of low-income individuals and families in the local service area
• Diversity and Inclusion: Fostering the building of relationships and understanding among diverse groups in the local service area
• Education: Providing afterschool enrichment, tutoring or vocational training for low-income individuals and families in the local service area
• Environmental Sustainability: Preventing waste, increasing recycling, or supporting other programs that work to improve the environment in the local service area
• Health and Human Service: Providing medical screening, treatment, social services, or shelters for low-income individuals and families in the local service area
• Hunger Relief and Healthy Eating: Providing Federal or charitable meals/snacks for low-income individuals and families in the local service area
• Public Safety: Supporting public safety programs through training programs or equipment in the local service area
• Quality of Life: Improving access to recreation, arts or cultural experiences for low-income individuals and families in the local service area

About Bonnell Cove Foundation

Bonnell Cove Foundation supports not-for-profit organizations in North America in the areas of safety at sea and the environment of the sea. The Bonnell Cove Foundatioin is a 501(c)(3) organization. It was organized in 1989 by the Cruising Club of America. Initial funding for the Foundation came from the sale of a tract of waterfront land on Block Island, Rhode Island to the Block Island Land Conservancy. George P.P. Bonnell, a charter member and former Commodore of the Club, bequeathed the land to the Club in 1959. Club members provide additional funding. There is no paid staff.

The Board of Trustees meets twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, to consider applications. As a general matter, the Foundation awards grants of up to $10,000 for specific projects or particular needs of a qualifying non-profit. In rare cases, the Foundation will grant funds to a particular organization in successive years.

In recent years the Bonnell Cove Foundation has funded essential elements of school and museum youth programs, environmental research, habitat restoration, medical research, search and rescue products, overboard rescue techniques and boating education.

Grants Relating to Safety At Sea

The Foundation encourages grant applications supporting projects which complement the safe operation of boats, both sail and power. Innovative projects resulting in the development of cost effective personal safety equipment, modified operational and training protocols, and methods to increase crew awareness of the need for continued attention to safety are of particular interest.

Grants Relating to the Environment of the Sea

The Foundation seeks grant applications in support of projects intended to increase our understanding of the factors affecting the marine environment both natural and man-made and the best ways to minimize adverse impacts associated with small boat operations. Such efforts might include technologies facilitating "green boats", efforts to conserve coastal and estuarine land, and educational efforts directed at improved stewardship of our oceans and navigable lakes.

Background

National Park Trust, in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, is thrilled to announce the 2023 cycle of the Every Kid Outdoors Small Grants Program, supporting the needs of non-profits and schools that are connecting elementary school-aged youth to public parks, lands, and waters.

This grant program supports the national Every Kid Outdoors initiative with the goal to ensure every child in the United States has the opportunity to visit public lands and waters by the time they are 11 years old, thereby establishing a lifelong connection to enjoy and protect our American outdoor heritage.

National Park Trust recognizes that the lack of transportation is often one of the greatest barriers to youth connecting with the outdoors. We also know that the great outdoors makes an excellent classroom and is the perfect setting to help young people understand the importance of public lands and waters. Facilitating these experiences for younger generations creates a lifelong connection to their natural, cultural, and historical heritage. Even in this age of technology, Mother Nature is still our most awe-inspiring teacher.

Who We’re Looking For

We support nonprofit organizations that run some of the top public charter schools in their communities and are redefining what is possible in America’s public schools. Our portfolio members typically share the following traits:

Academic Excellence

They have had strong academic performance for multiple years, as demonstrated by measures such as student academic growth, achievement on state tests relative to peers, sub-group performance and, when available, long-term student outcome data.

Commitment to Financial Stability

They are committed to operating their schools on public funding and will not require significant philanthropy when they finish growing their networks of schools.

Ambition to Grow

They typically have waiting lists and want to expand their impact by opening more schools. The “Seed” organizations we support seek to open 1-2 more schools within the next two years, while our “Scale” strategy supports leaders who plan to launch 3+ more schools over a five-year period.

Strong Leadership Committed to Underserved Students

School leadership teams have the capacity to build the skills and expertise needed to accomplish their ambitious goals. They share a commitment to serving students who have limited access to high-quality public schools in their communities.

Seed Funding

We are looking for leaders who want to expand their high-performing public charter schools by serving 250 to 1,000 additional students in the next two years.

What We Offer

Funding

We award general operating grants of between $250,000 and $600,000 to help promising leaders open their next one to three schools. Once awarded, these grants are disbursed over a two- to three-year period.

Early-Stage Support

We support charter leaders in overcoming the common challenges facing schools and networks that are beginning to grow. The targeted support we provide includes business planning, facilities insights, and access to the best resources from the CSGF portfolio.

Cohort-Based Learning

Selected Seed leaders will join a cohort of their peers who lead public charter school networks in the early stages of growth. As a community, they participate in annual events including the Portfolio Retreat and smaller convenings.

Leaders of Color

We seek to significantly expand the impact of public charter schools led by entrepreneurs who have backgrounds similar to those of the students and families they serve. Within each cohort, there are unique learning, support and community-building opportunities, specifically for leaders of color.

NOTE: Submissions are due to ACR no later than 11:59 PM local time of the organization’s legal/main location on the deadlines above. 

JAMS Foundation/ACR Initiative for Students and Youth

The JAMS Foundation/ACR Initiative for Students and Youth provides grant funding for conflict prevention and dispute resolution programs for K-12 students and for adults working with youth populations in ways that directly transfer CRE skills from adults to youth.

Each year, the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) and the JAMS Foundation identify specific subject areas seeking to address otherwise unresolved issues and unmet needs of both general and target youth populations, based on current research and feedback from leaders and stakeholders in the dispute resolution and education fields.

Funding contexts for selected subject areas will vary, and may include community-based organizations, alternative education settings (online education, charter schools), after-school programs, court- or juvenile justice-connected programs, as well as programs operating in traditional K-12 school districts.

Current Areas of Concentration

The 2023 Funding Track will focus on efforts to use Conflict Resolution Education and Training to increase resiliency and coping skills in children aged 5-11.

The Allen Foundation, named in honor of William Webster Allen, operates under the laws of the State of Michigan with offices in Midland. Grants are limited under the terms of the foundation's charter to projects that primarily benefit programs for human nutrition in the areas of health, education, training, and research.

Policies and Priorities

• To make grants to fund relevant nutritional research.
• To support programs for the education and training of mothers during pregnancy and after the birth of their children, so that good nutritional habits can be formed at an early age.
• To assist in the training of persons to work as educators and demonstrators of good nutritional practices. 
• To encourage the dissemination of information regarding healthful nutritional practices and habits. 
• In limited situations to make grants to help solve immediate emergency hunger and malnutrition problems.

The connections between diet and health remain a basic and primary priority, and consideration has always been given to projects that benefit nutritional programs in the areas of education, training, and research.

Low priority has traditionally been given to proposals that help solve immediate or emergency hunger and malnutrition problems. The foundation welcomes proposals that develop and advance:

• the inclusion of mandatory courses in nutrition in medical schools;
• bringing the promise of nutrigenomics or nutritional genomics to realization; and
• the promotion of environmentally sound, economically viable, socially responsive, and sustainable food and agricultural systems.

Garden Grant Program

Kids who grow veggies, eat veggies, so school gardens can make a big difference. Through our Garden Grant program, schools and non-profit organizations turn outdoor spaces into powerful hands-on learning gardens that connect kids with food, spark their curiosity and support classroom curriculum.

About the Program

At Whole Kids Foundation, we know that the more kids know and feel connected to their food, the more curious they become about how things grow or taste, and the more willing they are to try new foods. This is why we believe in edible garden learning spaces!

Our Garden Grant program provides a $3,000 monetary grant to support a new or existing edible educational garden located at either a:

• K–12 School
• Non-profit organization (501(c)(3) in the US/Registered Charity in Canada) that serves children in the K-12 grade range