BENCHMARKING 2008 Grantmakers for Education is philanthropy’s knowledge source for achieving results in education. Our mission is to strengthen philanthropy’s capacity to improve educational outcomes for all students, which we achieve by: • Sharing successful grantmaking strategies, best practices, and lessons learned that exemplify responsive and responsible grantmaking in education. • Creating venues to collaborate on projects, share knowledge, develop leadership, advocate for change and debate strategies with other education grantmakers. • Interpreting data, illustrating trends, and conducting research to improve the effectiveness of education grantmaking and to highlight innovative educational approaches. Our efforts are informed by eight Principles for Effective Education Grantmaking, designed both to guide funders in increasing their impact and to ensure GFE’s services and programs help funders accomplish their goals for change. Editorial by Anne MacKinnon, Education First Consulting and Grantmakers for Education staff. Design by Studio 209. Copyright © 2008 Grantmakers for Education BENCHMARKING 2008 CONTENTS page 2. Foreword page 3. Methodology: Analyzing data from education grantmakers page 4. Education grantmaking: Ecology of the fi eld page 8. Funding styles and strategies: What are funders funding? page 15. Priorities in education: What’s promising? What’s troubling? and the assets and expertise other funders, Using data gathered from a majority of GFE networks and organizations offer. members—who we think are collectively GFE believes it’s vital for funders to representative of the current leadership and understand how their efforts are rein- thinking in the fi eld—we’ve endeavored to forced—or undercut—by others in the fi nd answers to these questions: fi eld, and we believe there is important FOREWORD • Which education issues and solutions value in looking beyond individual grants are now drawing the most attention and examining the bigger picture. from funders? In a fi eld where private investments are dwarfed by public budgets, grantmak- • What are the ways in which most Grantmakers for Education’s mission is to ers can’t afford to work in isolation. funders are approaching their work and improve the effectiveness of education GFE is working to foster greater awareness thinking about the role of philanthropy philanthropy. And GFE’s greatest strength and alignment of grantmakers’ efforts in causing change? is the power of our network, through which in several key areas—for example, by • What challenges do funders see on funders learn from and leverage one anoth- supporting issue-based funder networks, the horizon—both for education and er’s efforts to improve education outcomes. mapping investment patterns, and work- for philanthropy? As one way of helping both the organiza- ing with place-based networks to help tion itself and the fi eld consider ways that foster more collaboration among local and philanthropy can have the greatest impact, national funders. GFE also continues to In an era of information overload, GFE gave in 2005 GFE developed eight Principles for challenge the silos that too often defi ne careful consideration to the idea of add- Effective Education Grantmaking (see inside the work in education, seeking more oppor- ing another report to the library. But we back cover). One principle speaks to the tunities to improve school systems from see there has been too much anecdote and importance of knowledge in effective grant- prekindergarten through higher education, too little data to help education grantmak- making: Information, ideas and advice from working both in school and outside the ers size up the fi eld. In the end, we decided diverse sources, as well as openness to criti- school day. to create Benchmarking 2008 because we cism and feedback, can help a funder make In this vein, Benchmarking 2008 is a new believe grantmakers can learn a great deal by wise choices. In particular, this GFE principle tool to help funders better understand examining what their colleagues are doing, urges grantmakers to understand the fi eld their colleagues and their priorities in the exchanging insights about focus and strategy, of philanthropy—to know where and how enterprise of education philanthropy. GFE and even looking for ways to align their work. other funders are working on similar issues, is pleased to offer this fi rst-ever snapshot We hope Benchmarking 2008 begins to what is being learned from this other work, of the fi eld’s trends and emerging issues. fi ll these knowledge gaps. 2 / GRANTMAKERS FOR EDUCATION Our online questionnaire was circulated • Priorities in education and issues on in late 2007 to all grantmaking organiza- the horizon: We all know that funders’ tions in GFE’s membership.1 A sample of emphases shift— new priorities come 152 education-grantmaking organizations, into view while older ones fade or merge or 64% of the total membership, responded. with other work. We asked about hot and We were careful to collect information from not-so-hot topics to see where interest METHODOLOGY: a single reporter from each organization. is rising, where it’s falling and where it As part of the questionnaire, we included seems to stay balanced. We also invited open-ended questions designed to inspire speculation about issues on the horizon. funders to share ideas and insights. We also Together, these results provide a uniquely Through Grantmakers for Education’s asked members what they’re worried about, comprehensive picture of the fi eld and Benchmarking 2008 research report, we what they’re beginning to work on and useful intelligence for all funders, whether sought to make the act of sharing among where they see future needs. they are looking for a distinctive niche or GFE members as easy and worthwhile as Benchmarking 2008 summarizes all these thinking about co-funding or best ways to possible. We started with an online survey, survey results to report on three areas leverage their grantmaking. which was completed by education grant- of potential interest to GFE members: makers from more than 150 organizations. ________ • The ecology of the fi eld: The fi ndings We analyzed their responses for evidence paint an impressionistic picture of the about the state of the fi eld and clues about 1 G rantmakers for Education’s members include private, array of funders working in education. where the fi eld is going. This report shares community, corporate and operating foundations; What sort of funders are they? What’s corporate-giving programs; public charities that selected fi ndings in a way we hope will be their geographic scope? In what content devote 50% or more their budget to grantmaking; indi- useful and straightforward. vidual donors who make substantial grants to multiple areas do they work? How much do they The GFE survey for Benchmarking 2008 organizations; and other grantmaking organizations. invest in education annually? What’s their was not exhaustive, nor precise, nor scien- Grantmakers for Education estimates that its mem- average grant size? tifi c. We didn’t intend it to be. Rather, our bers collectively contribute $1.5 billion to education objective was to ask questions that people • Funding styles and strategies: We’ve efforts each year. could answer readily about their own organi- heard from GFE members that funding zations and that, in aggregate, would reveal styles are changing. Is that true and, if so, trends worth noticing. We asked about to what extent? Are once-scarce strate- current practice, changes over the past few gies (such as support for public-policy years and expectations for the period ahead. advocacy) becoming more common? Can we expect more changes ahead? BENCHMARKING 2008 / 3 Benchmarking 2008 respondents are: to improve K-12 education—but, signifi - • R epresentative of a variety of organi- cantly, only 17% report they work exclu- zational types. Education grantmaking is sively in that area. Large percentages increasingly diverse, and survey respon- (50-60%) couple their K-12 education dents refl ect the institutional breadth of investments with work in early education, the fi eld: private foundations (35%), family out-of-school time and/or higher educa- EDUCATION GRANTMAKING: foundations (28%), corporate foundations tion. In addition, 33% say they also fund and giving programs (12%), community workforce education and training. foundations (9%), public charities (9%) • Well distributed in terms of aver- and operating foundations (3%), with age grant size. Reporting on the size The fi eld of education grantmaking smaller percentages in other categories. of their education grants, 31% said their is vast, involving many thousands • W orking across the range of geographic average grant is $50,000 or less, 21% of organized philanthropies, indi- focus. Asked to choose one description, said $50,000-$100,000 and 20% said vidual donors and other funders. 34% said they work locally, 23% work in $100,000-$250,000; 28% reported an one or two states and 21% work nationally. average grant size above $250,000, of Grantmakers for Education mem- Fourteen percent chose “international” to which half said their average education bers are a subset of that universe, defi ne their grantmaking scope (although grant tops $500,000. but a meaningful one because of that choice most likely refl ects the total • Somewhat weighted toward smaller their interest in connecting with grantmaking footprint at those organiza- funders. Asked about their organiza- and learning from others and tions and doesn’t necessarily suggest tions’ annual education budgets, 70% that their education portfolios have an because most funders join GFE responded that their education grants overseas bent). to strengthen their strategies and total $10 million or less. Nearly 60% • F unding in multiple areas in educa- spend under $5 million and nearly 20% increase their impact. Their views, tion, with K-12 education as a common spend less than $1 million. In other words, we believe, offer a good snapshot denominator. The survey’s fi ndings smaller funders seem to characterize of a widely dispersed fi eld and help suggest education grantmakers tend to much grantmaking in the fi eld. to supplement the patchy knowl- work in more than one area of the sector, edge base about education-grant- learning, linking and applying lessons from different systems. Asked to check making patterns and practices. all areas in which they work, nearly all respondents (94%) said they make grants 4 / GRANTMAKERS FOR EDUCATION • S pecializing in education—but not necessarily. Close to one-third of Type of grantmaking organization Regional scope of education grantmaking respondents (30%) said their organiza- tions devote more than 80% of their total grantmaking to education. On the fl ip PRIVATE FOUNDATION 35% LOCAL (grants to projects in side, half said that education accounts a city or small region) 34% for 40% or less of their organizations’ total funding. Relatively few—only 20%—fall in between. The fi gures on the following pages (pp. 5-7) illustrate the different organiza- tional and grantmaking characteristics of FAMILY FOUNDATION 28% ONE OR TWO STATES 23% funders participating in the Benchmarking 2008 research. REGIONAL (grants to projects within several states in a region) 7% CORPORATE FOUNDATION OR GIVING PROGRAM 12% NATIONAL (grants to projects within many states across the country) 21% COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 9% PUBLIC CHARITY WITH SIGNIFICANT GRANTMAKING EFFORTS 9% INTERNATIONAL (grants made both OPERATING FOUNDATION 3% in the United States and overseas) 14% RESEARCH INSTITUTION 1% POOLED GRANTMAKING FUND / VENTURE PHILANTHROPY 1% GOVERNMENT AGENCY 1% OTHER 1% BENCHMARKING 2008 / 5 Education grantmaking content areas Average education grant size 94% $10,000 OR LESS 3% $10,001 - $50,000 28% 57% 57% 53% $50,001 - $100,000 21% 17% $100,001 - $250,000 20% 3% 2% 3% EARLY K-12 OUT-OF-SCHOOL HIGHER EDUCATION TIME EDUCATION $250,001 - $500,000 14% KEY Grantmakers with some funding in this area MORE THAN $500,000 14% Grantmakers funding exclusively in this area 6 / GRANTMAKERS FOR EDUCATION Annual education grants budget* Percent of total grants budget devoted to education $1 MILLION OR LESS 19% 0 - 20% OF BUDGET 22% $1 MILLION - $5 MILLION 39% 21 - 40% OF BUDGET 28% 41 - 60% OF BUDGET 11% $5 MILLION - $10 MILLION 11% 61 - 80% OF BUDGET 9% $10 MILLION - $50 MILLION 24% 81 - 100% OF BUDGET 30% $50 MILLION - $100 MILLION 4% MORE THAN $100 MILLION 1% * F or community foundations, budget estimate includes only discretionary grantmaking and not donor-advised funds managed by the foundation. BENCHMARKING 2008 / 7 Benchmarking 2008 respondents • Built-in adaptability: Even as grantmakers report the following developments with reported tighter focus, they also highlighted their grantmaking: the need to be adaptable, or at least open to shifting their strategies when new informa- • M ore clearly articulated strategies— tion is available or opportunities arise. Some with a sharper focus on results and noted that greater focus actually allows FUNDING STYLES & outcomes: Many funders have felt an them to be more responsive to opportuni- imperative to get more focused, more ties that are consistent with their objectives. STRATEGIES: clear about outcomes and more deliberate So even as funders say they are trying to about how their strategies yield concrete be more strategic, they also say that “being results. Respondents described making In their survey responses, GFE strategic” means re-evaluating regularly larger grants to fewer grantees and stated whether your strategy is making a differ- members talked about their current a preference for being “proactive rather ence, how it might need to change and how strategies and how they’re evolving. than reactive.” Many said they’ve adopted the education environment is shifting. The fi eld is far from static. More more prescriptive guidelines and are aim- ing for tighter strategic alignment. “We’ve • A drive to build constituencies and than three-quarters of respondents become more focused on mission compat- public will and to infl uence public-policy (78%) said that their education ibility,” one grantmaker offered, “and are changes: Half of respondents reported grantmaking has shifted in style in not as liberal with our defi nitions of what that they fund community organizing— recent years, and more than half fi ts our mission.” which seeks to organize and mobilize (52%) anticipate further changes to Another recurrent theme was that grant- historically disenfranchised people to apply makers increasingly expect measurable pressure on decision-makers for change— come. Change is being driven, they outcomes from their funding. “If we can’t and two-thirds said they make grants to said, by forces within their organiza- measure it, we don’t fund it,” said one. infl uence public policy or build public will tions, in the fi eld of education, and Several noted that they’re trying to fi gure for policy change. Overall, 38% of funders in the broader cultural, political and out how to get grantees to focus on out- have increased their support for community economic environment. The data comes, too. One funder explained, “We want organizing in the past fi ve years, while only to look at ways to improve the adaptability 8% have decreased their support. suggested several clear tenden- of teachers and schools to the multiple An even larger share of funders—58%— cies in the approaches education learning needs of students and keep better said their support for policy advocacy has funders are using. track of real-time educational results.” grown, while only 2% have drawn back from this approach. And the trend seems likely to continue: “We will probably move 8 / GRANTMAKERS FOR EDUCATION