2025 Research Grants on Reducing Inequality

Overview

This program funds research studies that aim to build, test, or increase understanding of programs, policies, or practices to reduce inequality in the academic, social, behavioral, or economic outcomes of young people ages 5-25 in the United States, along dimensions of race, ethnicity, economic standing, language minority status, or immigrant origins.

We fund:

• Descriptive studies that describe, explore, or explain how programs, practices, or policies reduce inequality
•  Intervention studies that provide causal evidence on the effectiveness of programs or policies for reducing inequality
• Measurement development studies that can enhance the work of researchers, practitioners, or policymakers to reduce inequality

Background 
Our focus on reducing inequality grew out of our view that research can do more than help us understand the problem of inequality—it can generate effective responses. We believe that it is time to build stronger bodies of knowledge on how to reduce inequality in the United States and to move beyond the mounting research evidence about the scope, causes, and consequences of inequality. 
 
Research Interests 
Our research interests center on studies that examine ways to reduce inequality in youth outcomes. We welcome descriptive studies that clarify mechanisms for reducing inequality or elucidate how or why a specific program, policy, or practice operates to reduce inequality. We also welcome intervention studies that examine attempts to reduce inequality. Finally, we welcome studies that improve the measurement of inequality in ways that can enhance the work of researchers, practitioners, or policymakers.

Recognizing that findings about programs and practices that reduce inequality will have limited societal impact until the structures that create inequality in the first place have been transformed, the Foundation is particularly interested in research to uproot systemic racism and the structural foundations of inequality that limit the life chances of young people.

Applications for research grants on reducing inequality must:

1. Identify a specific inequality in youth outcomes. We are especially interested in research to reduce inequality in academic, social, behavioral, or economic outcomes. 

• Show that outcomes are unequal in a brief discussion of existing literature. 

2. Highlight the main explanations for the unequal outcomes that are relevant for your study. 

• Make a convincing case for the dimension(s) of inequality the study will address. We are especially interested in research to reduce inequality along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, economic standing, sexual or gender minority status, language minority status, or immigrant origin status. 
• Be very specific in naming the groups on which the study will focus. Avoid vague terms such as “at-risk youth” or “vulnerable youth.”
• Offer a well-developed conceptualization of inequality. Avoid treating dimensions of inequality (e.g., race, economic standing) as variables without providing conceptual and/or theoretical insight into why and how the identified inequality exists. 

• Research that focuses on a dimension other than race, ethnicity, economic standing, sexual or gender minority status, language minority status, or immigrant origins must be in intersection with one of these dimensions. 

3. Articulate how findings from your research will help build, test, or increase understanding of a program, policy, or practice to reduce the specific inequality that you have identified. 

• Draw on extant theoretical and empirical literature to provide a rationale for why the specific programs, policies, or practices under study will equalize outcomes between groups or improve outcomes of a particular group. In other words, specify your theory of change. 
• Identify how the study will investigate this rationale to determine whether it holds up to empirical scrutiny.

The Foundation makes grants only to tax-exempt organizations. We do not make grants to individuals. 

We encourage proposals from organizations that are under-represented among grantee institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native Serving Institutions, Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions.

LOI Required: The application process for all research grants begins with a letter of inquiry, a five-page proposal.

While we value research on the causes and consequences of inequality, we do not fund this work. Instead, we support research that informs or examines a policy, program, or practice response that can be implemented through an organization, institution, or system. 

Only studies that:

1. align with the stated research interests of this program and 
2. relate to the outcomes of young people between the ages of 5 and 25 in the United States are eligible for consideration.

We do not support non-research activities such as program implementation and operational costs, or make contributions to building funds, fundraising drives, endowment funds, general operating budgets, or scholarships.

Award Information
Major Research Grants 
• $100,000 to $600,000 over 2-3 years, including up to 15% indirect costs. 
• Projects involving secondary data analysis are typically at the lower end of the budget range, whereas projects involving new data collection and sample recruitment can be at the higher end. Proposals to launch experiments in which settings (e.g., classrooms, schools, youth programs) are randomly assigned to conditions are usually on the higher end. We encourage applicants pursuing cluster randomized designs to apply for additional sources of funding to ensure support for a sufficient sample. 

Officers’ Research Grants 
• $25,000–$50,000 over 1-2 years, including up to 15% indirect costs. 
• Studies may be stand-alone projects or may build off larger projects. The budget should be appropriate for the activities proposed.