Education Funding Watch

Foundation Center: Helping grantseekers succeed.

January 13, 2010

In this issue of Education Funding Watch, the Foundation Center's newsletter devoted to education, you'll read about a new public-private initiative that will work to address the issue of U.S. students lagging many of their international counterparts in math and science. You'll also find links to other education-related news, resources, funding opportunities for individuals and organizations, and job listings. Education Funding Watch is available exclusively to visitors who register at the Foundation Center's Web site.

White House Launches $250 Million Public-Private STEM Initiative

The White House has announced a $250 million public-private initiative to improve science and mathematics instruction, with the goal of helping the nation compete in key fields against global economic rivals, the Washington Post reports. With additional funding provided by technology companies, universities, and foundations, the program will work to prepare more than 10,000 new math and science teachers over five years and provide on-the-job training for an additional 100,000 in science, technology, engineering, and math. Commitments made as part of the initiative include $200 million in cash and in-kind support from Intel and its foundation for expanded teacher training and other measures over the next ten years, and $40 million from state governments, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and other private funders to enable the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to place more teachers in hard-to-staff schools in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Read the article»

Recent Education News from
Philanthropy News Digest

Kresge Foundation Awards More Than $1 Million to Help Double Number of College Graduates in Michigan
The grant to the Michigan College Access Network will be used to help make postsecondary education more accessible, particularly among low-income and first-generation college students, through newly established college-access networks....
Posted: 1/11/10

McDonnell Foundation Announces 2009 Grants for
Science Initiative
As part of its 21st Century Science initiative, the James S. McDonnell Foundation has awarded more than $14 million in research grants in three program areas — understanding human cognition, brain cancer research, and studying complex systems....
Posted: 1/07/10

Reynolds Foundation Commits $4.6 Million for Training for High School Journalism Teachers
The grant will support the Reynolds High School Journalism Institutes, which are designed to help teachers and advisors empower students to produce high-quality journalism and become the next generation of journalism and civic leaders....
Posted: 1/01/10

Pittsburgh Promise Receives $500,000 Grant From
BNY Mellon
A supporting organization of the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Pittsburgh Promise is designed to help students graduating from Pittsburgh public schools pursue higher education regardless of need or income....
Posted: 12/29/09

McCormick Foundation Announces $880,000 in Grants to Strengthen Literacy
The foundation awarded grants totaling $880,000 through its Chicago Tribune Charities fund to thirty-eight programs working to provide adult and children's literacy services in the Chicago metropolitan area....
Posted: 12/23/09

Atlantic Philanthropies Awards $12 Million to Boost Elev8
in Baltimore
The grant will be used by the recently launched Elev8 Baltimore project to transform Collington Square School for the Arts, Dr. Rayner Browne Academy, Tench Tilghman Elementary/Middle School, and East Baltimore Community School....
Posted: 12/22/09

More education news...

Funding Opportunities

Point Foundation Opens 2010 LGBT Scholarship
Application Season
Grants of up to $33,000 plus programmatic support will be awarded to individuals selected as Point Scholars who are academically proficient, participate in Point activities, and give back to the LGBT community through community service projects....
Deadline: 2/12/10

Intel Schools of Distinction Awards Open for Applications
One winner out of eighteen finalists will receive up to $100,000 worth of products and services in addition to a $15,000 cash grant for developing an environment and curricula that performs above the national mathematics and science content standards....
Deadline: 2/17/10

FINRA Investor Education Foundation Announces 2009 Grant Program
Grants will be awarded to nonprofits working to provide unbiased information about the markets and fundamental financial issues to at-risk audiences, including seniors and first-time investors....
Deadline: 3/04/10 (Project Concept Forms)

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Invites Applications for North Carolina Student Science Enrichment Program
Grants of up to $60,000 per year for three years will be awarded to nonprofits working to provide creative, hands-on science education activities for K-12 students....
Deadline: 4/15/10

More requests for proposals...

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Teach for America

Assessing the Long-Term Effects of Youth Service: The Puzzling Case of Teach for America, a new report funded by
the William T. Grant Foundation, finds that while graduates of Teach for America are far more active in civic affairs than their peer group, the program neither achieves an earlier organizational goal of "making citizens" nor produces people who, in great numbers, take their civic commitments beyond the field of education. According to Stanford sociologist Doug McAdam, one of the authors of the report, reasons for the lower rates of civic involvement include exhaustion, burnout, and disillusionment with TFA's approach to the issue of educational inequity.

New Report on
Student Debt

Against a backdrop of rising unemployment, college seniors who graduated in 2008 carried record amounts of student debt,
a new report from the Project on Student Debt finds. The report, Student Debt and the Class of 2008 (12 pages, PDF), found that 2008 graduates carried an average of $23,200 in student loan debt, while unemployment for college graduates between the ages of 20 and 24 climbed from 7.6 percent in the third quarter of 2008 to 10.6 percent a year later — the highest third-quarter rate
for that cohort since 2002.

Kauffman Emerging Scholars Announced

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has announced the 2010 recipients of its Kauffman Emerging Scholars Program, which recognizes the achievements of young scholars who are making significant contributions to research in entrepreneurship. The foundation awarded $50,000 fellowships to five tenured or tenure-track junior faculty members whose research will contribute to the body of literature in the field, and $20,000 fellowships to fifteen exceptional doctoral students to support their dissertation research. Click here
for details.

Job Opportunities

Director of Advancement
Woodlands Academy
of the Sacred Heart
Lake Forest, Illinois
Posted: 1/12/10

Director, Advancement Research/Prospect Management
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, New Jersey
Posted: 1/06/10

Director, Annual Giving
Columbia College
New York, New York
Posted: 1/06/10

President & CEO
Alliance for Education
Seattle, Washington
Posted: 1/01/10

Senior Corporate Development Manager
Science Buddies
San Francisco Bay Area (Telecommute), California
Posted: 12/29/09

More job opportunities...

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