Teagle Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Teagle Foundation aims to strengthen the role of humanities courses in higher education and college readiness.
IP TAKE: Teagle’s grantmaking is project-based. A fairly accessible foundation, Teagle accepts concept papers of three to five pages as preliminary applications and provides RFPs for each of its grantmaking programs on its website.
PROFILE: Headquartered in New York City, the Teagle Foundation was established in 1944 by Walter Teagle, a former chairman of Standard Oil, which is now the Exxon Mobil Corporation. The foundation aims “to support and strengthen liberal arts education” as a means of helping individuals achieve “meaningful work, effective citizenship and a fulfilling life.” Its funding initiatives are learning for living, knowledge for freedom, education for American civic life and pathways to the liberal arts.
Grants for Higher Education and the Humanities
The Teagle Foundation supports higher education through its learning for living, education for American civic life and pathways to the liberal arts initiatives.
The learning for living program is co-sponsored by Teagle and the National Endowment for the Humanities and aims to “reinvigorate the role of the humanities in general education” by increasing both learning and teaching opportunities in the humanities at institutions of higher education in the U.S. The foundation is specifically interested in supporting the planning and implementation of projects that emphasize shared intellectual experiences of humanistic texts, humanities experiences for students in STEM and pre-professional majors and projects that feature assessment and/or educational research components.
The foundation awards planning grants in amounts up to $25,000 for a planning period of 6 to 12 months, and implementation grants in amounts up to $350,000 for a 24-month period. Application to this program begins with a concept paper to be submitted to the foundation by December 1. For additional information, see the program's annual RFP. Recent grants support programs at public and private colleges and universities including Michigan State, Johns Hopkins, Lehman College of the City University of New York and Smith College.
Teagle’s Education for American Civic Life program supports projects that “confront gaps in undergraduates’ civic knowledge and prepare them for the intellectual demands of democratic participation.” The foundation has expressed significant interest in programs that frame questions about democracy through the lens of local history and those that involve opportunities for students to “learn about and work in public service.” Grants generally go to projects that involve faculty leadership and development, that are deemed sustainable beyond the period of funding and that feature components of student assessment and educational research that might be disseminated in the forms of instructional materials, published articles, conference presentations or workshops. Grants for program planning are awarded in the amount of $25,000, and program implementation grants generally range from $100,000 to $300,000. The foundation accepts concept papers for this program on an ongoing basis, meeting quarterly to review applications. For additional information, see this program's RFP. Recent implementation grants have gone to Brandeis University, DePauw University and the Community Learning Partnership, a consortium of two- and four-year colleges in California, New York, Michigan, Utah and Pennsylvania.
Higher education grants also stem from Teagle’s Pathways to Liberal Arts program, which the foundation co-sponsors with Arthur Vining Davis Foundation. The program’s goal is to build curricular connections between liberal arts courses at two- and four-year colleges, making it easier for students to transfer credits between schools and graduate on time. Grants generally fund consortia of independent colleges partnering with community colleges in the facilitation of transfer programs, and preference is given to programs that involve student assessment, educational research and/or plans for sustaining pathway programs beyond the life of the grant.
This program awards $25,000 planning grants and program implantation grants in amounts up to $350,000. Recent pathway grants have supported transfer facilitation programs at Georgia State University, the California State University System, and the City University of New York.
Grants for College Readiness
The Teagle Foundations funds college readiness programs via its Knowledge for Freedom program, which aims to bring high school students to college campuses to engage in liberal arts courses and “study humanity’s deepest questions about leading lives of purpose and civic responsibility.” Grants emphasize programs that reach underserved students who typically find themselves “shut out from opportunities available to their more affluent peers.” Programs that bring high school students to college campuses for summer study are also prioritized.
Applications for this program begin with three- to five-page concept papers, which are accepted at any time and reviewed at the foundation’s November, February and May meetings. Grants range from $100,000 to $300,000. Recent recipients include the Summer Humanities Liberation Scholar Program at George Fox University and Boston University’s summer pre-college program, the One and the Many.
Important Grant Details:
The Teagle Foundation makes over $3 million in grants a year. Most of its grants are awarded for either planning or program implementation. Planning grants are $25,000, while implementation grants range from $100,000 to $35,000. Recipients are two- and four-year colleges universities in the U.S. and higher education consortia. The Teagle Foundation maintains a database of past grants on its website.
This foundation accepts three- to five-page concept papers as preliminary applications for all four of its grantmaking programs and provides detailed guidelines, due dates and application materials on each individual program page. Prospective grantees are encouraged to reach out to foundation staff with questions about opportunities and the application process.
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