Philanthropy Front and Center - Washington, DC

Foundation Center Launches National Education Stimulus Initiative

The Foundation Center announced the launch of Foundations for Education Excellence, a national initiative to engage philanthropic institutions and education leaders across the country in a unified, strategic drive to improve public education.

Foundationcenter.org/educationexcellence, the web portal developed by the Foundation Center with a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, was launched in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education. It connects foundation funders in education to information and tools that will help them support ARRA's education reform goals.

"There is a unique window of opportunity in the coming weeks and months for private philanthropy to leverage its investment in education," said Bradford K. Smith, the Center's president. "Funders need fast-track tools to target areas of need and collaborate in new ways to improve educational opportunities across the country. The Foundation Center is ideally positioned to provide foundations with the knowledge platform needed to advance this process."

Read the full press release for details on the contents and uses of the portal.

Foundationcenter.org/educationexcellence, the web portal developed by the Foundation Center with a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, was launched in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education. It connects foundation funders in education to information and tools that will help them support ARRA's education reform goals.

"There is a unique window of opportunity in the coming weeks and months for private philanthropy to leverage its investment in education," said Bradford K. Smith, the Center's president. "Funders need fast-track tools to target areas of need and collaborate in new ways to improve educational opportunities across the country. The Foundation Center is ideally positioned to provide foundations with the knowledge platform needed to advance this process."

Read the full press release for details on the contents and uses of the portal.

Listen! Jamie Merisotis Discusses Lumina Foundation's Investments in Higher Education

Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation for Education, discusses the foundation's strategic, outcomes-based approach to expanding college access and success, particularly among low-income, minority, and other under-represented populations. Listen!

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our Focus on Funding for Education page for more podcasts, news, and resources.

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our Focus on Funding for Education page for more podcasts, news, and resources.

Would You Like Your College Loan Forgiven?

Debt does not appear to deter graduates from seeking and securing jobs in the nonprofit sector, according to a 2005 report by the Building Movement Project. Although that’s good news for the sector, the impact of education debt is a source of financial hardship for many nonprofit employees, especially since nonprofit workers earn 21.5% less than private sector workers and 10.9% less than public sector employees.

Yet there is hope for debt-laden nonprofit workers. There are two major types of publicly-financed debt relief programs currently benefiting nonprofit workers. One is the education reward provided by
Americorps, for which only Americorps participants are eligible.

Another debt relief program is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program [PDF]. This program was created by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (CCRAA) and is intended to encourage individuals to enter and continue in full-time public service employment by forgiving the remaining balance of their eligible Federal loans.

Many nonprofit workers can take advantage of this opportunity, so here’s what you can do to qualify:

1. Make 120 monthly payments on your loan after October 1, 2007.
2. Be employed by a “public service organization” at the time that loan forgiveness is requested and granted, as well as during the period you make the required 120 monthly payments.
3. Ensure your loan is not in default at the time of the request.

To learn more about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, contact the Department of Education at 1-800-4FED-AID (1-800-433-3243).

The best defense against costly student loans, however, is a good offense of scholarship awards and grant money. To help you avoid education debt, the Foundation Center has Foundation Grants to Individuals Online, a database to quickly search through detailed descriptions of more than 6,000 foundations and other grantmakers that offer funding to students, artists, researchers, and other individual grantseekers. 

You can also register for our free class, Finding Foundation Support for Your Education, which is available as an online webinar or as an in-person class.

(Thanks to Asia Hadley, Training Coordinator, Foundation Center-Atlanta, for sharing this post.)

Yet there is hope for debt-laden nonprofit workers. There are two major types of publicly-financed debt relief programs currently benefiting nonprofit workers. One is the education reward provided by
Americorps, for which only Americorps participants are eligible.

Another debt relief program is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program [PDF]. This program was created by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (CCRAA) and is intended to encourage individuals to enter and continue in full-time public service employment by forgiving the remaining balance of their eligible Federal loans.

Many nonprofit workers can take advantage of this opportunity, so here’s what you can do to qualify:

1. Make 120 monthly payments on your loan after October 1, 2007.
2. Be employed by a “public service organization” at the time that loan forgiveness is requested and granted, as well as during the period you make the required 120 monthly payments.
3. Ensure your loan is not in default at the time of the request.

To learn more about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, contact the Department of Education at 1-800-4FED-AID (1-800-433-3243).

The best defense against costly student loans, however, is a good offense of scholarship awards and grant money. To help you avoid education debt, the Foundation Center has Foundation Grants to Individuals Online, a database to quickly search through detailed descriptions of more than 6,000 foundations and other grantmakers that offer funding to students, artists, researchers, and other individual grantseekers. 

You can also register for our free class, Finding Foundation Support for Your Education, which is available as an online webinar or as an in-person class.

(Thanks to Asia Hadley, Training Coordinator, Foundation Center-Atlanta, for sharing this post.)

Listen! John Beahm Discusses Jenzabar Foundation's Support for Student Humanitarian Work

John Beahm, executive director of the Jenzabar Foundation, discusses the foundation's investments in education aimed at fostering a culture of service and educating and inspiring future generations to create a better world. Listen!

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our Focus on Funding for Education page for more podcasts, news, and resources.

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our Focus on Funding for Education page for more podcasts, news, and resources.

Listen! Bruno Manno Discusses Annie E. Casey Foundation's Investments in Education

Bruno Manno, Ph.D., senior associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, discusses the key role that schools play in advancing the foundation's efforts to improve outcomes for families and children. As the lead in the foundation's education portfolio, Dr. Manno shares information about the foundation's experiences investing in programs that give low-income parents the opportunity to send their children to high quality schools and to get services that strengthen their community-school connections. Listen!

To learn more about foundation support for education, join our free webinar on June 29 at 3:00 pm, Foundation Funding Trends in Higher Education.

5 Tips to Fund Your Education

Do you or someone you know need funding for your education? Whether you desire to earn a bachelor's, master's, or a doctorate degree, money is available to help you achieve your educational goals.

Kimberly Sellars-Bates, president/CEO of KSTB Enterprises, LLC, presented a scintillating class recently at the Foundation Center-Atlanta on how to search and maximize your chances of receiving funds for your education.

Below are some tips she shared, plus a few of my own, to help you achieve your educational funding goals.

#1: Treat your scholarship search like a job. Although funding is available for your education, it will take consistent, persistent effort to find funding opportunities that fit your needs. Ms. Sellars-Bates recommends applying for a minimum of two scholarships per week, beginning as early as possible. Before you can apply for these scholarships, you first have to find the opportunities.

#2: Research funding opportunities. The research takes time, effort and energy. Here are some tools to expedite the process:

• Our web site for individual grantseekers has worksheets to help you focus and organize your research.
• Foundation Grants for Individuals Online is our searchable online database of more than 6,500 grantmakers that fund individual grantseekers, including those looking for financial aid. You can use it for free at the Foundation Center-Washington, DC and its Cooperating Collections. Or you can subscribe to it for $19.95 per month.
• For recent books and articles on finding support for your education, search for "Scholarships, fellowships and loans" or "Travel and study abroad" in our library catalog, Catalog of Nonprofit Literature.
• Ms. Sellars-Bates also recommends these web sites: Scholarships.com, College-Scholarships.com and Brokescholar.com.

#3: Organize your information. It is important to be highly organized as you search and apply for funding. All funders have their own application processes and submission deadlines. Being organized can help you to avoid rushing to submit applications at the last minute. Ms. Sellars-Bates recommends creating a scholarship binder. Here is a binder checklist to get you started:

• Extended Cover D-Ring View Binder, 3" wide
• Index Dividers (Jan-Dec)
• Extra-wide Insertable Dividers
• Sheet Protectors
• Post-It Notes or Index Cards
• 8½" x 11" White Paper, at least 20 pound weight
• Envelopes, Legal Size
• First Class Postage Stamps
• Large (9" x 12") White Envelopes (Ms. Sellars-Bates prefers white, but manila will do.)

#4: Know what makes you stand out. There are grants for students with many different characteristics. Do you have physical or learning disabilities? Are you or a parent in the military? Are you a single parent? Are you involved in a religious community? Are you affiliated with any organizations?

Explore your hidden treasures to learn more about your unique attributes. Scholarships are given for a variety of reasons. Through time and effort you can find scholarships that fit your circumstances and life experiences. Use the worksheets under Tip #2 to guide your exploration.

#5: Select individuals to write letters of recommendation. In order for people to be willing to write glowingly about you, you have to be of service and demonstrate attributes worthy of a letter. How have you demonstrated your organizational skills, tenacity, persistence, determination or other characteristics others could write about?

The person who writes a recommendation for you should be someone how knows you relatively well. That doesn't mean that only long-time associates qualify. It does mean that the recommender has had enough interaction with you to give a genuine assessment of your skills and achievements. -- Kimberly Sellars-Bates

Just as the grantseeking process is competitive, so is earning scholarship awards. If there is ever a time to demonstrate focused, consistent effort, searching for scholarships for your education is that time. Apply for any scholarship that you believe is a good fit, even if you don't believe that you stand a chance. You will never know unless you try, so get started today. 

If you have had success with your own scholarship search, please share your tips and ideas with us by posting a comment to this blog.

(Thanks to Asia M. Hadley, Training Coordinator, Foundation Center-Atlanta, for sharing this post.)

Kimberly Sellars-Bates, president/CEO of KSTB Enterprises, LLC, presented a scintillating class recently at the Foundation Center-Atlanta on how to search and maximize your chances of receiving funds for your education.

Below are some tips she shared, plus a few of my own, to help you achieve your educational funding goals.

#1: Treat your scholarship search like a job. Although funding is available for your education, it will take consistent, persistent effort to find funding opportunities that fit your needs. Ms. Sellars-Bates recommends applying for a minimum of two scholarships per week, beginning as early as possible. Before you can apply for these scholarships, you first have to find the opportunities.

#2: Research funding opportunities. The research takes time, effort and energy. Here are some tools to expedite the process:

• Our web site for individual grantseekers has worksheets to help you focus and organize your research.
• Foundation Grants for Individuals Online is our searchable online database of more than 6,500 grantmakers that fund individual grantseekers, including those looking for financial aid. You can use it for free at the Foundation Center-Washington, DC and its Cooperating Collections. Or you can subscribe to it for $19.95 per month.
• For recent books and articles on finding support for your education, search for "Scholarships, fellowships and loans" or "Travel and study abroad" in our library catalog, Catalog of Nonprofit Literature.
• Ms. Sellars-Bates also recommends these web sites: Scholarships.com, College-Scholarships.com and Brokescholar.com.

#3: Organize your information. It is important to be highly organized as you search and apply for funding. All funders have their own application processes and submission deadlines. Being organized can help you to avoid rushing to submit applications at the last minute. Ms. Sellars-Bates recommends creating a scholarship binder. Here is a binder checklist to get you started:

• Extended Cover D-Ring View Binder, 3" wide
• Index Dividers (Jan-Dec)
• Extra-wide Insertable Dividers
• Sheet Protectors
• Post-It Notes or Index Cards
• 8½" x 11" White Paper, at least 20 pound weight
• Envelopes, Legal Size
• First Class Postage Stamps
• Large (9" x 12") White Envelopes (Ms. Sellars-Bates prefers white, but manila will do.)

#4: Know what makes you stand out. There are grants for students with many different characteristics. Do you have physical or learning disabilities? Are you or a parent in the military? Are you a single parent? Are you involved in a religious community? Are you affiliated with any organizations?

Explore your hidden treasures to learn more about your unique attributes. Scholarships are given for a variety of reasons. Through time and effort you can find scholarships that fit your circumstances and life experiences. Use the worksheets under Tip #2 to guide your exploration.

#5: Select individuals to write letters of recommendation. In order for people to be willing to write glowingly about you, you have to be of service and demonstrate attributes worthy of a letter. How have you demonstrated your organizational skills, tenacity, persistence, determination or other characteristics others could write about?

The person who writes a recommendation for you should be someone how knows you relatively well. That doesn't mean that only long-time associates qualify. It does mean that the recommender has had enough interaction with you to give a genuine assessment of your skills and achievements. -- Kimberly Sellars-Bates

Just as the grantseeking process is competitive, so is earning scholarship awards. If there is ever a time to demonstrate focused, consistent effort, searching for scholarships for your education is that time. Apply for any scholarship that you believe is a good fit, even if you don't believe that you stand a chance. You will never know unless you try, so get started today. 

If you have had success with your own scholarship search, please share your tips and ideas with us by posting a comment to this blog.

(Thanks to Asia M. Hadley, Training Coordinator, Foundation Center-Atlanta, for sharing this post.)

Resources on Education Philanthropy

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center and we have developed an education philanthropy topical resource list to highlight a number of readings and resources.

Here are a few examples from the list:

• 2008 Index of Higher Education Fundraising Performance: Summary of Annual Fund Key Performance Indicators. Cambridge, MA: Target Analysis Group, 2009. Analyses are based on fiscal year 2008 donor transactions from 33 public and 32 private universities and colleges. Available online
• Benchmarking 2008: Trends in Education Philanthropy. Portland, OR: Grantmakers for Education. 2008. Analyzes a survey of 152 funders to assess the current state of educational grantmaking, and examine the ways in which funders' priorities have been shifting in recent years. Available online
• Strategic Grantmaking: Foundations and the School Privatization Movement. Washington, DC: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2007. Cohen shows how philanthropic capital from small and large foundations has helped build political support for the school privatization agenda using movement-building grantmaking strategies. Available online

More web resources on this topic:

• The Foundation Center has created a new Focus on Funding for Education area of the Center’s web site, which serves as a “one-stop shop” for information on events, classes, interactive charts, news, and more.
• Global Philanthropy Forum 
• Grantmakers for Education is a network of more than 230 funders dedicated to improving educational opportunities and success for students from the pre-kindergarten level through college.

We are holding some special programs as part of Funding for Education Month here in DC, so be sure to check out our calendar of events.
(Thanks to Sarah Jo Neubauer, Assistant Librarian, Foundation Center-San Francisco, for sharing this post.)

Here are a few examples from the list:

• 2008 Index of Higher Education Fundraising Performance: Summary of Annual Fund Key Performance Indicators. Cambridge, MA: Target Analysis Group, 2009. Analyses are based on fiscal year 2008 donor transactions from 33 public and 32 private universities and colleges. Available online
• Benchmarking 2008: Trends in Education Philanthropy. Portland, OR: Grantmakers for Education. 2008. Analyzes a survey of 152 funders to assess the current state of educational grantmaking, and examine the ways in which funders' priorities have been shifting in recent years. Available online
• Strategic Grantmaking: Foundations and the School Privatization Movement. Washington, DC: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2007. Cohen shows how philanthropic capital from small and large foundations has helped build political support for the school privatization agenda using movement-building grantmaking strategies. Available online

More web resources on this topic:

• The Foundation Center has created a new Focus on Funding for Education area of the Center’s web site, which serves as a “one-stop shop” for information on events, classes, interactive charts, news, and more.
• Global Philanthropy Forum 
• Grantmakers for Education is a network of more than 230 funders dedicated to improving educational opportunities and success for students from the pre-kindergarten level through college.

We are holding some special programs as part of Funding for Education Month here in DC, so be sure to check out our calendar of events.
(Thanks to Sarah Jo Neubauer, Assistant Librarian, Foundation Center-San Francisco, for sharing this post.)

Here are a few examples from the list:

• 2008 Index of Higher Education Fundraising Performance: Summary of Annual Fund Key Performance Indicators. Cambridge, MA: Target Analysis Group, 2009. Analyses are based on fiscal year 2008 donor transactions from 33 public and 32 private universities and colleges. Available online
• Benchmarking 2008: Trends in Education Philanthropy. Portland, OR: Grantmakers for Education. 2008. Analyzes a survey of 152 funders to assess the current state of educational grantmaking, and examine the ways in which funders' priorities have been shifting in recent years. Available online
• Strategic Grantmaking: Foundations and the School Privatization Movement. Washington, DC: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2007. Cohen shows how philanthropic capital from small and large foundations has helped build political support for the school privatization agenda using movement-building grantmaking strategies. Available online

Listen! Jonathan Bydlak Talks About Donor-Supported Scholarships

Jonathan Bydlak, executive director of DiscoverScholars.org, discusses a new vehicle for scholarship awards tied closely to the varied interests of its donors. DiscoverScholars.org creates a market for scholarships based on matching donors with students who match specific, donor-identified criteria.

Pat Pasqual, director of the Foundation Center-Washington, DC, recorded this interview as part of our special focus on Funding for Education in June. To find out more about the programs being offered during the month, visit our calendar of events.

Listen! Eva Blum Discusses Support for Education and PNC Grow Up Great

Eva Blum, senior vice president and director of community affairs at PNC Bank and chair of the PNC Foundation, discusses the PNC Grow Up Great program, a ten-year, $100 million dollar investment in early childhood education. Ms. Blum also shares information about PNC's additional philanthropic interests in education and other fields. Listen!

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our calendar of events.

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our calendar of events.

June is Funding for Education Month

As part of our month-long focus on education related funding, we are offering some special programs, both in person and online:

Attend a special event:

Finding Foundation Support for Your Education
Wednesday, June 3, 12:00-1:00 pm
Join us for our one-hour class on obtaining financial aid for your studies. We'll dispel some common myths about foundation support and discuss the different sources of funding. Register»

Dialogue with Donors: Trends and Challenges in Finding Support for Enrichment Programs for Elementary and Secondary School Youth
Thursday, June 18, 9:30-11:30 am
Held Offsite—Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation Conference Room, 1250 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 800
Grantmakers who fund enrichment programs for elementary and secondary school youth will share insights into their grantmaking priorities and discuss trends in the field of education grantmaking. Register»

Log on to a webinar:

Find and Apply for Government Grants Using Grants.gov: A Webinar for Organizations Focused on Education
Monday, June 8, 3:00-4:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
Schools, after-school programs, and other education projects can benefit from learning about funding available from federal agencies. Take this webinar in your office or home and learn how to research, identify, and apply for federal government grants. Michael Pellegrino of Grants.gov will provide details on how to use Grants.gov to research U.S. Department of Education grants. Register»

Researching Education Funders with Foundation
Directory Online
Friday, June 12, 1:00-2:00 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
Learn to create customized searches using Foundation Directory Online. You can develop lists of prospective foundation and corporate donors that will match your nonprofit organization's funding needs for educational programs. Register»

Foundation Funding Trends in Higher Education
Monday, June 29, 3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
Join Larry McGill, the head of the Foundation Center's research department, for a timely discussion on foundation funding trends in the field of higher education. Register»

And check our web site and blog in June for interviews with newsmakers in the field, national podcasts, book reviews, and more. You might also want to subscribe to Education Funding Watch, our free e-alert service featuring profiles of recent grants and news in the field. Visit our June calendar to learn more and register for upcoming programs.