Edward E. Ford Foundation: Grants for K-12 Education
/OVERVIEW: The Edward E. Ford Foundation supports independent secondary schools with traditional and leadership grants.
IP TAKE: Supporting independent secondary schools in the U.S. and its territories, the Edward E. Ford Foundation awards traditional grants to support the development of best practices, sustainability and institutional collaboration. It’s leadership grants invest in projects that have the potential to impact independent secondary schools broadly.
PROFILE: Based in Brooklyn, New York, the Edward E. Ford Foundation was founded in 1957 by Edward E. Ford, an entrepreneur and early director of IBM. The foundation aims to “improve secondary education by supporting U.S. independent schools and encouraging promising practices.” It prioritizes best practices for teaching and learning, sustainability, and institutional collaboration, offering traditional grants, educational leadership grants and, occasionally, multi-year collaborative innovation grants.
The foundation’s traditional grants address specific needs at individual schools such as program expansion or establishment, professional development or capital improvements. Educational leadership grants are larger and support projects that “promise significant impact on the practice and thinking in the independent school community throughout the country.” Ford’s collaborative innovation grants, awarded less frequently, are directed toward larger, multi-school collaborations.
The foundation’s leadership grants range from $25,000 to $100,000, while leadership grants are awarded in amounts up to $250,000. All grants require recipient schools to match awards dollar-for-dollar with their own fundraising. Only independent secondary schools in the U.S. and its territories are eligible to apply. Lists of past recipients of traditional and leadership grants are available on the foundation’s website.
The foundation requests that heads of schools make an appointment for an agenda placement phone call, after which schools may be invited to apply for grants using the online application materials.
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