OVERVIEW: The Raikes Foundation is a youth-oriented funder that primarily works to reduce youth homelessness and improve educational outcomes in the United States. The Raikes Foundation supports school reform, research, and advocacy toward improved K-12 education. Its homelessness grantmaking is mainly targeted at minority and LGBTQ youth.
IP TAKE: This funder does not accept unsolicited proposals, and its focus areas are highly targeted. It values innovation, collaboration, and data-driven research. It’s not an accessible funder, but it’s a good one to know given its desire for collaboration. It’s a tough nut to crack.
PROFILE: The Raikes Foundation was established in 2002 by Jeff and Tricia Raikes, who met in the early 1980s while working for Microsoft. The couple later married and Jeff Raikes went on to serve as the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2017, the foundation’s focus evolved to “break down the barriers that stand in the way of young people’s success and build up the environments where they learn, live and grow.” The foundation’s grantmaking programs include Education and Youth Homelessness.
Grants for K-12 Education and Racial Equity
The foundation’s Education program names equity, research based learning, and the development of responsive schools as areas of interest. It aims to address issues caused by a school system that was “designed for a previous generation when fewer careers required college degrees,” when “student population was far less diverse” and “antiquated, destructive ideas about race, indigenous people, gender and disability status shaped perceptions of whether a student could succeed.” Its grants have supported charter school development, research on learning and development, advocacy and teacher education. Past grantees and partners include the National Equity Project, the Learning Policy Institute and the Children First Fund of Chicago.
Grants for Homelessness
The Raikes Foundation’s Youth Homelessness program works to bring together “young people who have experienced homelessness, homelessness providers, community organizations and government partners” to address this issue in American cities. Its two-pronged approach consists of prevention and early intervention grants, which aim to “reach at-risk young people and prevent them from ever experiencing homelessness,” and rapid response to crisis, which works to ensure that “communities can better understand young people’s needs, align available services and respond quickly to end the crisis of homelessness.” Previous grantees include Legal Counsel for Youth and Children, A Way Home Washington, and The Mockingbird Society.
Other
The Raikes Foundation established its Impact Driven Philanthropy program based on the concern that “while most donors indicate they want to make donations that are impactful, many lack access to high-quality resources or advice to guide their giving.” The foundation’s strategy centers around field building and convening: noting that most available resources for high-impact giving are aimed at foundations and organizations, Raikes is working to build “a strong system of individual donor support” through its Impact Driven Philanthropy Collaborative, which brings together “other foundations, donor education providers, donor organizers, nonprofit leaders, researchers and academics who study donor behavior, philanthropy advisors, wealth advisors, philanthropy staff in private banks, public charities and intermediaries, and others” in order to build a stronger network of individual donors and resources. Grants generally go to support research, innovation, and capacity-building efforts. Grantees include Proteus Fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and Global Giving.
Important Grant Details:
The Raikes Foundation’s grants range from $750 to nearly $2 million, but the majority fall between $10,000 and $250,000. To learn more about the types of organizations Raikes supports, explore its grantees list.
Other
The Raikes Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding.
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