In a sentence: STEM education is one of the few areas where corporate funders play an outsized role in philanthropy.
What’s going on
STEM education is a favorite of corporate funders and major donors including Jeff Bezos and Phil Knight, as well as many foundations, as we reported in our State of American Philanthropy paper.
The federal government is by far the biggest funder of STEM education, which is viewed as a way to boost the economy and bolster national defense. Yet the U.S. still lags behind other nations in the number of graduates with STEM degrees.
A growing number of philanthropists are giving significantly for STEM education, with priorities including educating teachers to teach STEM, curriculum reform; and diversifying STEM fields through quality STEM education for all students, encouraging more women and girls to pursue STEM, and addressing inequities in pedagogy.
Nonprofits receiving funding for STEM initiatives include school districts, science museums, policy organizations, documentary productions and after-school programs. Splashy donations to universities for STEM programs and new research centers get a lot of media coverage, but the majority of philanthropic giving for STEM is actually targeted at K-12 education, based on the belief that students who gain interest in STEM early are more likely to pursue it in college and as a career.
By the numbers
“In private philanthropy, funding explicitly targeting groups underrepresented in STEM comprised just 5.8% of total STEM higher education investments,” wrote Lorelle L. Espinosa and Tashera Gale here, reflecting on Candid data from 2016 to 2021.
Key funders
STEM education is one of the few areas of philanthropy where corporate funders play an outsized role, reflecting the belief that people who are well-versed in STEM will contribute to a more innovative and vibrant U.S. economy, as well as the straightforward need to train people to perform STEM-related jobs. Boeing, ExxonMobil, Apple, Chevron and many other corporate funders give big for STEM programs. Boeing told IP it gave $50 million in 2020 for STEM education and workforce development programs.
Big-name private foundations including Carnegie, Gates, Hewlett, Schusterman, and Simons are among those making grants for STEM initiatives. Several of them are partnering on OpenSciEd, which aims to make high-quality science instructional materials freely available. The Simons Foundation, one of the nation’s largest foundations devoted to science and math research, is the principal funder of Math for America, which provides professional development to math and science teachers in NYC.
Major individual donors in the field include Jeff Bezos, Craig Newmark, and several ultra-high-net-worth people who support STEM education at their alma maters, including Phil Knight (University of Oregon), Eric Schmidt (Princeton), and Steve Ballmer (Harvard).
Some community foundations are significant funders of local STEM programs, especially in places where STEM is already part of the local economy, like San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
New and Notable
Food for Thought
“We are in what amounts to a war to solve the climate crisis, and to not have the talents of women working on these issues would be crazy.” — Roy Vagelos, who with his wife, Diana, made a major gift to Barnard College to renovate and expand its science building and facilities
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