Education Week - March 6, 2019 - 7

Shift in Grant Priorities
For Education Donors
Survey tags 'whole learner' investments
By Christina A. Samuels
Education philanthropy groups
may be moving away from big new
investments in areas with a K-12
academic focus-teacher preparation,
turnaround of low-performing schools,
new school models, and the like-in
favor of "whole learner" investments,
according to a new survey of education
funders.
That means more attention and
money could be spent on supporting
social and emotional learning, families and community engagement, and
wraparound services, according to
"Trends in Education Philanthropy:
Benchmarking 2018-2019," written
by Grantmakers for Education.
Grantmakers is the nation's largest
and most diverse network of education funders dedicated to improving
educational outcomes; nearly 300
organizations and 1,800 individuals are members of the organization.
Grantmakers surveyed 91 funders,
65 of which are members of its organization and are collectively responsible for nearly $800 million in
philanthropic spending in their most
recent fiscal year. The foundations
surveyed include large players in the

field, such as the Ford, Kresge, and
Lumina foundations, which each have
assets in the billions of dollars. The
survey also included the perspectives
of smaller, regional funders, such as
the Grable Foundation, which is based
in Pittsburgh and makes grants of
$10 million to $12 million annually.

Spotting Trends
Because the organizations represent a fraction of funders, Grantmakers said that the findings should be
seen as suggestive of funding trends
and priorities, but not conclusive.
However, the survey does offer a
snapshot of where some funders are
seeing the best bets for future investments-as well as areas that are potential concerns.
The funders surveyed also said
they were focusing their spending on
the time periods before and after the
K-12 years, which means renewed
or continuing interest in early-childhood education and in postsecondary
education.
The Grable Foundation has long
focused its efforts in supporting
young children, said Kristen Burns,
the foundation's associate director.

Grable, along with the Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation, have supported the Pennsylvania
Early Learning Investment Commission. The commission conducts
outreach with state business leaders
to promote the importance of early
learning.
"I see more and more funders joining us in this space," Burns said. "It's
been wonderful coming to the table
and seeing others adding to this work.
When there are more people at the
table, obviously, we can make a bigger
impact."
However, the survey found that
the amount of money spent in early
childhood was dwarfed by the funding spent on postsecondary programs.
About a third of respondents said
they funded early-learning projects
in fiscal 2018, but that accounted for
only 4 percent of the money spent by
those surveyed. In contrast, 66 percent of respondents said they spent
money on "postsecondary education
and workforce/career readiness," and
that accounted for 49 percent of the
money that these funders allocated
in fiscal 2019.
Of particular interest in the postsecondary area are programs that expose
children to college classes or career
training early, and that help them stay
in college once they enroll, said Celine
Coggins, the executive director of the
Grantmakers group.
"What it takes to get through college and be successful in college is
very different from what we've tended
to focus on in the past," Coggins said.
"If a student can't buy books and does

not have a place to live and is hungry, then we need the same supports
around that person at the postsecondary level that we did at the K-12 level.
Those challenges don't go away."

Attention to Equity
Another focus among funders is on
educational equity, but that is defined
broadly in the philanthropic field, including racial, gender, and socioeconomic diversity, Coggins said.
A last trend noted among the survey respondents is a loss of confidence
in the federal government as a leader
in education reform. That may be one
reason why the funders in this study
have renewed their focus on local and
state-focused initiatives.
An example of both the recent focus
on supporting the "whole learner" as
well as focus on local programs is the
Bridgeport public schools' SEL Initiative in Connecticut. The program,
supported by the Tauck Family Foundation in Bridgeport, works to build
the social-emotional skills of school
administrators, teachers, students,
and families.
"There is a moving away from the
belief that the federal government is
the main thought leader in the field,"
Coggins said. But, while philanthropy
is essential, that money cannot replace the gap created by inadequate
state and federal funding, she said.
In the coming years, one issue to pay
attention to is if the interest in topics
such as social-emotional and early
learning is followed up by large investments, and if the move away from

CHANGING FOCUS
Grantmakers for Education,
an organization of education
philanthropists, interviewed
91 funders responsible for
nearly $800 million in education
funding to find out about their
priorities. The survey found that
education funders have:
* Markedly increased their
focus on the learning stages
before and after K-12 education.
*R
amped up support for
strategies embracing the whole
learner, while moving away from
the academic areas of focus
that characterized the prior
decade of education reform.
* Lost confidence in federal
government leadership on and
funding for education reform.
SOURCE: Trends in Education Philanthropy:
Benchmarking 2018-2019

academic reforms continues.
"Is this a shift away from something,
or is this an evolution where we're
recognizing it takes all of these things
to educate students?" Coggins said.
"What the survey doesn't tell us is if
people feel like the [education reform]
job is done" or if the shift in focus has
come because some of the large investments in educational reform initiatives have had mixed or negative
results, she said.

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