Research Grants on Education: Large

Overview:

Current application processes are described in the How to Apply section below. Please see the October 2025 Spencer news update from Dr. Nasir and Dr. Bricker for information about how we have changed our processes to respond to the large volume of applications we are currently receiving. Starting in 2026, we are moving to a single cycle of Large Grants per year, but as we have communicated to the field, we will fund more proposals than in past years.   

The Large Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets ranging from $125,000 up through $500,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. We accept applications once a year.

This program is “field-initiated,” meaning that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method. Our goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. We seek to support scholarship that develops new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse.

We recognize that learning occurs across the life course as well as across settings— from the classroom to the workplace, to family and community contexts and even onto the playing field—any of which may, in the right circumstance, provide the basis for rewarding study that makes significant contributions to the field. We value work that fosters creative and open-minded scholarship, engages in deep inquiry, and examines robust questions related to education. To this end, this program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their career. We anticipate that proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that innovatively investigate questions central to education, including for example education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, or neuroscience, amongst others.

Moreover, we expect and welcome methodological diversity in answering pressing questions; thus, we are open to projects that utilize a wide array of research methods including the diverse range of quantitative and qualitative methods, mixed-methods, ethnographies, design-based research, participatory methods, and historical research, to name a few. We are open to projects that might incorporate data from multiple and varied sources, span a sufficient length of time as to achieve a depth of understanding, or work closely with practitioners or community members over the life of the project. In addition, we welcome proposals submitted by multidisciplinary and multigenerational teams who are positioned to both contribute to the project as well as contribute to the teaching and learning of fellow team members.

Finally, we encourage teams to thoughtfully consider and describe plans regarding the trajectories of their project’s findings, implications, and potential effects, especially how the knowledge may be shared and utilized across the field in practice, policy making, or with broader publics.

Solicitation limitations:

Projects proposed may not be longer than 5 years in duration.

PIs and Co-PIs may only hold one active research grant from the Spencer Foundation at one time. PIs and Co-PIs may apply for a new grant while they have an active grant at the Spencer Foundation if the active grant will end before the anticipated start date of the new project. Note that this restriction does not apply to the administering organization; organizations may submit as many proposals as they like as long as they are for different projects and have different research teams.

PIs and Co-PIs may not submit more than one research proposal or preproposal to the Spencer Foundation at a time. This restriction applies to the Small Grants Program, Large Grants Program, Racial Equity Research Grants Program, and Research-Practice Partnership Program. If the PI or any of the Co-PIs currently have a research preproposal or proposal under consideration in any of these programs, they are required to wait until a final decision has been made before they can submit a new preproposal or proposal. Note that an exception to both of these restrictions is the Spencer Vision Grants program. PIs and Co-PIs may apply for a Vision Grant if they have another active research grant from the Spencer Foundation or if they have another Spencer grant proposal or preproposal in review. However, the projects proposed in a Vision Grant proposal and in another Spencer grant program proposal or preproposal must be distinct.

Other information:

Applications Open: December 10, 2025 
Intent to Apply: February 24, 2026, 12:00 PM Noon (Central Time/North America) 
Full Proposal Deadline: June 23, 2026, 12:00 PM Noon (Central Time/North America)

Awards: The Large Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets ranging from $125,000 to $500,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. We anticipate awarding grants with budgets across each of the following funding tiers: $125,000 to 250,000; $250,001 to $375,000; and $375,001 to $500,000. 

Computer and Information Science and Engineering : Future Computing Research (Future CoRe)

Overview:

The NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) supports transformative research and education projects that develop new knowledge in all aspects of computing, communications, and information science and engineering through multiple research programs. These programs support research and education activities that advance: 

• mathematical, scientific and technological foundations of computing communication, hardware, software and emerging technologies; 
• understanding and development of computer and network systems, cyber-physical systems, and cybersecurity as well as their roles in solving complex scientific, engineering, and societal problems; and
• understanding of the inter-related roles of people, computers, and information.

The NSF CISE Directorate supports research and education projects that develop new knowledge in all aspects of computing, communications, and information science and engineering through the following Future Computing Research (Future CoRe) programs: 

• Algorithmic Foundations (AF) program; 
• Communications and Information Foundations (CIF) program; 
• Computer Systems Research (CSR) program; 
• Computing Education Research (CER) program; 
• Cyber-Physical System Foundations and Connected Communities (CPS) program; 
• Foundations of Emerging Technologies (FET) program;  
• Human-Centered Computing (HCC) program; 
• Information Integration and Informatics (III) program; 
• Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program;  
• Robust Intelligence (RI) program; and 
• Software and Hardware Foundations (SHF) program;

Broadening Participation In STEM: NSF has a mandate to broaden participation in science and engineering, as articulated and reaffirmed in law since 1950. Congress has charged NSF to “develop intellectual capital, both people and ideas, with particular emphasis on groups and regions that traditionally have not participated fully in science, mathematics, and engineering."

Merit Review Criteria
All NSF proposals are evaluated through use of the two National Science Board approved merit review criteria. In some instances, however, NSF will employ additional criteria as required to highlight the specific objectives of certain programs and activities.

The two merit review criteria are listed below. Both criteria are to be given full consideration during the review and decision-making processes; each criterion is necessary but neither, by itself, is sufficient. Therefore, proposers must fully address both criteria. (PAPPG Chapter II.D.2.d(i). contains additional information for use by proposers in development of the Project Description section of the proposal). Reviewers are strongly encouraged to review the criteria, including PAPPG Chapter II.D.2.d(i), prior to the review of a proposal.

When evaluating NSF proposals, reviewers will be asked to consider what the proposers want to do, why they want to do it, how they plan to do it, how they will know if they succeed, and what benefits could accrue if the project is successful. These issues apply both to the technical aspects of the proposal and the way in which the project may make broader contributions. To that end, reviewers will be asked to evaluate all proposals against two criteria:

• Intellectual Merit: The Intellectual Merit criterion encompasses the potential to advance knowledge; and
• Broader Impacts: The Broader Impacts criterion encompasses the potential to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes.

[Note: This RFP may be using outdated verbiage regarding Broader Impacts. Check with MLFC RD Office if you are interested in this call, and we will follow up with the sponsor for clarification.]

Solicitation limitations:

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: 2

Other information:

Anticipated Type of Award: Standard Grant or Continuing Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: 400 to 600
Anticipated Funding Amount: $280,000,000 
Dependent upon the availability of funds.
The CISE Future Computing Research program anticipates a portfolio of awards with a range of budgets and durations, including projects of smaller scope. Project durations and budgets must be commensurate with the scope of the proposed work up to the maximum limit of $1,000,000 with the duration up to 4 years.  Typical projects are approximately $150,000 to $250,000 per year and are 3 to 4 years in duration. Projects are discouraged from exceeding $300,000 in any single year.  Estimated program budget, number of awards, and average award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds.

Full Proposal Target Date(s): 

• September 11, 2025
  Second Thursday in September, Annually Thereafter
• February 05, 2026
  First Thursday in February, Annually Thereafter

While proposals are accepted anytime, proposers are highly encouraged to submit by the target dates to ensure consideration during the corresponding panel review cycle.

Science and Technology Studies

Overview:

Science and Technology Studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the conceptual foundations, historical developments and social contexts of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), including medical science. The STS program supports proposals across a broad spectrum of research that uses historical, philosophical and social scientific methods to investigate STEM theory and practice. STS research may be empirical or conceptual; specifically, it may focus on the intellectual, material or social facets of STEM.

STS research seeks to understand how scientific knowledge is produced and sanctioned, and how it is challenged and changes. It examines the theoretical foundations of science, brings to light underlying presuppositions and alternative interpretations, and assesses the reliability of research methods. It investigates how materials, devices and techniques are designed and developed; how and by whom they are diffused, used, adapted and rejected; how they are affected by social and cultural environments; and how they influence quality of life, culture and society. It also considers how socio-cultural values are embedded in science and technology, and how they evolve with the development and use of scientific knowledge and technological artifacts. In addition, it explores relationships between STEM and fundamental social categories.

Traditional STS Focus Areas -- The program encourages research that furthers STS as a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field, including, but by no means limited to the following:

• Research on the social organization of scientific work and how this shapes the production of knowledge and its intellectual and social impacts.
• Research on the historical, conceptual and methodological foundations of any of the natural, social or engineering sciences including their foundations, origins or place in modern society.
• Mixed methods approaches and other approaches that integrate multiple STS perspectives with each other or with innovative approaches from the arts or humanities.
• Interdisciplinary projects on topics of broad societal concern that engage in integrative, collaborative research involving at least one STS expert and at least one expert in some other STEM field, with prospective outcomes that serve to advance both fields.
• STS projects that contribute to NSF's research-focused Big Ideas, or that contribute to other pertinent initiatives such as Ethical and Responsible Research (ER2), Science of Broadening Participation and ADVANCE.
• How can emerging technologies such as machine learning systems, gene drives or quantum computers be developed and implemented so that they can benefit everyone? How are people interacting with these emerging technologies and how will they affect culture, society and norms?
• What are the best approaches for maintaining and developing the built environment while respecting the natural environment as well as local cultures and values? What factors need to be considered to ensure that technologies work well within social and cultural contexts?
• How can major technological shifts in energy, algorithm usage, transportation or communication be accomplished in ways that are transparent and consistent with societal values, engage diverse perspectives in all phases of development and benefit broad sectors of society?

New Areas of Emphasis for STS
The STS program strongly encourages research that addresses complex socio-technical and techno-scientific problems from multiple perspectives that capture the different social facets of the problem. The goal is to bring different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives to the problem and thereby make use of a variety of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. Some examples of questions that address such problems may include, but are by no means limited to, the following:

Link to Guidelines for Developing Effective STS Proposals

GRANT TYPES SUPPORTED BY STS
STS program supports a variety of grant types [see full RFP for details] with associated guidelines. Funding caps on the grant types supported by the STS program are expressed in terms of the requested amount, which is the amount listed on the cover page of the proposal.

• The program mainly supports Standard Research Grants, Grants for Collaborative Research, Scholars Awards, Research Community Development Grants, Conference Grants and Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants.
• In addition, the program may support other NSF-wide grant mechanisms that are detailed in NSF's PAPPG, including Rapid Response Research (RAPID), Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) and Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE).

Solicitation limitations:

Who May Serve as PI: PI eligibility limit varies by the type of proposal. [See Section II. Program Description for detailed information about each type of proposal.] 

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: There are no restrictions or limits.

Other information:

Budget Guidelines [see full proposal announcement for complete details]

• Standard and Collaborative Research Grant Proposals -- Amount will rarely exceed $750,000 including indirect costs. 
• Scholars Award Proposals -- Amount will rarely exceed $350,000. The duration is usually one year. 
• Research Community Development Grant Proposals -- There is no award ceiling…typical research community development grant award in the STS Program is expected to be in the range of $75,000-$100,000 per year of the project (corresponding to line L of the yearly budget), for up to 36 months. 
• Conference Grant Proposals -- Expected to be under $50,000.
• Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant Proposals -- Should not exceed $25,000.
• Faculty Early Career Development Grant Proposals -- The minimum Requested Amount is $400,000 and the duration must be for five years. 
• Mid-Career Advancement Grant Proposals -- Funds may include up to a total of 6.5 months of salary (plus fringe benefits) over the course of the award, and up to $100,000 for other direct costs in support of the research advancement and training plan. 
• Research Coordination Network Grant Proposals -- The maximum Requested Amount is $500,000 and the maximum duration is five years. 
• EAGER Proposals -- The maximum Requested Amount is $300,000 and the maximum duration is two years.
• RAISE Proposals -- The maximum Requested Amount is $1 million and the maximum duration is five years.
• RAPID Proposals -- The maximum Requested Amount is $200,000 and the maximum duration is one year.
• REU Supplemental Funding Requests -- The maximum Requested Amount is $16,000 to support up to two STS undergraduate students at $8,000 per student to support the cost of the student's independent research activity.

Professional Education & Training Grants

Overview:

RRF funds professional education and training projects that will be broadly disseminated to achieve a national impact. RRF recognizes the importance of a well-trained work force to serve older persons.

Of particular interest are programs that:

• Increase the knowledge and skills of professionals and paraprofessionals who serve older people
• Expand the capacity and number of professionals and paraprofessionals prepared to meet the growing needs of an aging population

Professional Education and Training Grants are provided to nonprofit organizations that are:

• Proposing a project that has a significant focus on those working with persons, age 60 and older
• Proposing a project that will have national reach across the U.S. or regional reach within the state of Illinois

Priority Areas
RRF Foundation for Aging focuses on improving the quality of life for older people. In an effort to strengthen the Foundation’s impact, RRF has established Priority Areas. These Priority Areas are specific topics in aging that will be given higher priority within the Foundation’s grantmaking program.

• Caregiving: Ensuring that caregivers are informed, well-trained, and supported, while providing care to older people in community settings.
• Economic security in later life: Valuing the dignity of older people through efforts that ensure and protect their economic security and well-being.
• Housing: Promoting efforts that make housing more affordable and provide coordinated services that enable older people to live safely in community settings.
• Social and intergenerational connectedness: Strengthening social bonds through efforts that promote meaningful connections, including those that span generations.
• Organizational capacity building: Improve management and governance of organizations in Illinois.
• Other promising projects: While Priority Areas reflect RRF’s primary funding interests, we remain open to supporting other opportunistic aging projects (on a selective basis).

Solicitation limitations:

ASU may submit only one (1) letter of inquiry to the sponsoring organization per deadline. 

Other information:

Application Information & Tips: At RRF, we want you to have the resources you need to prepare successful grant applications. Here you’ll find general grant exclusions, frequently asked questions, and more.

Awards: 2025 awards ranged between $50,000 and $375,000. See 2025 funded projects here.

Science of Learning and Augmented Intelligence

Overview:

Science of Learning and Augmented Intelligence (SL) supports potentially transformative research that develops basic theoretical insights and fundamental knowledge about principles, processes and mechanisms of learning, and about augmented intelligence — how human cognitive function can be augmented through interactions with others or with technology, or through variations in context. 

The program supports research addressing learning in individuals and in groups, across a wide range of domains at one or more levels of analysis, including molecular and cellular mechanisms; brain systems; cognitive, affective and behavioral processes; and social and cultural influences. 

The program also supports research on augmented intelligence that clearly articulates principled ways in which human approaches to learning and related processes, such as in design, complex decision-making and problem-solving, can be improved through interactions with others or through the use of artificial intelligence in technology. These could include ways of using knowledge about human functioning to improve the design of collaborative technologies that have the capacity to learn to adapt to humans.

For both aspects of the program, there is special interest in collaborative and collective models of learning and intelligence that are supported by the unprecedented speed and scale of technological connectivity. This includes emphasis on how people and technology working together in new ways and at scale can achieve more than either can attain alone. The program also seeks explanations for how the emergent intelligence of groups, organizations and networks intersects with processes of learning, behavior and cognition in individuals.   

Projects that are convergent or interdisciplinary may be especially valuable in advancing basic understanding of these areas, but research within a single discipline or methodology is also appropriate. Connections between proposed research and specific technological, educational and workforce applications will be considered as valuable broader impacts but are not necessarily central to the intellectual merit of proposed research. The program supports a variety of approaches, including experiments, field studies, surveys, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence or machine learning methods.

Other information:

To get some feedback on alignment of project ideas to the Program priorities, please send a 1-page summary of the proposed project that addresses both NSF merit review criteria (Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts) to the program director Soo-Siang Lim, PhD. These resources can be helpful as potential applicants develop projects: 

• NSF merit review criteria: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/merit-review#our-merit-review-criteria-f24
• NSF broader impacts framework: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/learn/broader-impacts

Deadlines:
Second Wednesday in February, Annually Thereafter 
First Wednesday in August, Annually Thereafter

Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics (MMS)

Overview:

The Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics (MMS) Program is a standing, interdisciplinary program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE). MMS supports the development of innovative analytical and statistical methods and models for those sciences. The Program interacts with the other programs in SBE as well as other programs in the Foundation. The Program also partners with a consortium of federal statistical agencies to support research proposals that further the production and use of official statistics.

The MMS Program seeks proposals that are methodologically innovative, grounded in theory, and have potential utility for multiple fields within the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Successful proposals often integrate across the following areas:

• The development, application, and extension of formal models and methodology for social, behavioral, and economic research, including methods for improving measurement. The proposed research must show promise for having value for multiple fields in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
• The development of formal models that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries, including research on statistical methodology or statistical modeling. The proposed research must show promise for having value for multiple social and behavioral science fields.
• Research on methodological aspects of new or existing procedures for data collection, including
  • methodological advances for survey research;
  • research to evaluate or compare existing databases and data collection procedures; and
  • research on methodological issues related to the use and analysis of new sources of data for the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
• Infrastructure projects that facilitate the research activities of the MMS community.
  
  The MMS Program provides support through a number of different types of proposals including:
• Regular Research Awards
• Awards for conferences and community-development activities
• Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (DDRI) Grants
• Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Supplements

MMS also supports Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards. Please see the CAREER Program Web Site for more information on this activity.

Solicitation limitations:

Who May Serve as PI:
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Awards: DDRI proposals must be submitted with a principal investigator (PI) and a co-principal investigator (co-PI). The PI must be the advisor of the doctoral student or another faculty member at the U.S. institution where the doctoral student is enrolled. The co-PI must be the doctoral student whose dissertation research will be supported.

For all other types of awards, there are no restrictions or limits.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: There are no restrictions or limits.

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: There are no restrictions or limits.

Other information:

Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time):
August 29, 2019; Last Thursday in August, Annually Thereafter 
January 30, 2020; Last Thursday in January, Annually Thereafter

Estimated Number of Awards: 15 to 35 
Anticipated Funding Amount: $3,760,000 (Approximately $3.76 million will be awarded annually, contingent upon the availability of funds. Additional funds may be available from participating federal statistical agencies for competitive research proposals of interest to those agencies.)

EDU Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER)

Overview:

ECR’s Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR:BCSER) supports projects that build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research that will enhance the nation’s STEM education enterprise. In addition, ECR:BCSER seeks to broaden the pool of researchers who can advance knowledge regarding STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development. Researchers from across institution types, are encouraged to submit proposals.

Specifically, ECR: BCSER supports activities that enable researchers to expand their areas of expertise and acquire the requisite knowledge and skills to conduct rigorous research in STEM education. Career development may be accomplished through investigator-initiated professional development and research projects or through institutes that enable researchers to integrate methodological strategies with theoretical and practical issues in STEM education.

Broadening Participation in STEM
NSF has a mandate to broaden participation in science and engineering, as articulated and reaffirmed in law since 1950. Congress has charged NSF to “develop intellectual capital, both people and ideas, with particular emphasis on groups and regions that traditionally have not participated fully in science, mathematics, and engineering."

Program Description
ECR: BCSER supports three types of projects designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research. The Individual Investigator Development in STEM Education Research track (ECR: BCSER: IID) invites proposals to support individual investigators – both experienced and new to STEM education research – who have identified specific capabilities they need to develop more fully to conduct high-quality STEM education research in a critical area, along with a detailed professional development plan that will enable the investigator to complete a research project. The Institutes for Methods and Practices in STEM Education Research track (ECR: BCSER: IMP) invites proposals for institutes that would provide training and support in the use of cutting-edge methodological techniques and/or research practices to advance participants’ knowledge, skills and competencies in STEM education research. Proposals that seek support to conduct well-focused conferences (ECR: BCSER: CONF) relevant to the competition goals also are invited.

See Relevant Capacity-Building Foci

Proposal Types

1. Individual Investigator Development in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER: IID)

   A. Investigators New to STEM Education Research

   B. Investigators Experienced in STEM Education Research

2. Institutes for Methods and Practices in STEM Education Research
3. Conference Proposals

Solicitation limitations:

Who May Serve as PI: Co-PIs are not allowed on Individual Investigator Development proposals.
Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: There are no restrictions or limits.
Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: There are no restrictions or limits.

Other information:

See Important Information And Revision Notes

Award Information
NSF expects to make 29 standard or continuing grant awards. The ECR: BCSER competition anticipates having approximately $12,000,000 for new awards in FY 2022, subject to availability of funds, as follows:

• Individual Investigator Development in STEM Education Research: Up to 19 awards. The maximum award amount is $350,000 for three years.
• Institutes for Methods and Practices in STEM Education Research: Up to 5 awards. The maximum award amount for is $1,000,000 for three years.
• Conference: Up to 5 awards. The typical award amount for a conference is $25,000 to $100,000.

Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood (LOIs)

Overview:

The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood is an incubator of promising research and development projects that appear likely to improve the welfare of young children, from infancy through 7 years, in the United States.

Welfare is broadly defined to support, acculturation, societal integration and childcare. Grants are only made if a successful project outcome will likely be of significant interest to other professionals, within the grantee’s field of endeavor, and would have a direct benefit and potential national application.

The Foundation’s goal is to provide seed money to implement those imaginative proposals that exhibit the greatest chance of improving the lives of young children, on a national scale. Because of the Foundation’s limited funding capability, it seeks to maximize a grant's potential impact. 

The Foundation provides funding in the following areas:

• Early Childhood Welfare: Providing a safe and nurturing environment is essential as is imparting the skills of social living in a culturally diverse world. Therefore, the Foundation supports projects that seek to perfect child rearing practices and to identify models that can provide creative, caring environments in which all young children thrive.
• Early Childhood Education and Play: We seek to improve the quality of both early childhood teaching and learning, through the development of innovative curricula and research based pedagogical standards, as well as the design of imaginative play materials and learning environments.
• Parenting Education: To help parents create nurturing environments for their children, we support programs that teach parents about developmental psychology, cultural child rearing differences, pedagogy, issues of health, prenatal care and diet, as well as programs which provide both cognitive and emotional support to parents.

There are many proposals that we do not consider because they do not meet the criteria stated in our website. We strive to fund ideas that are adventurous, thoughtful and challenge the status quo. They should have a fresh concept (not rehash an older idea) and a defined method of implementation that promotes new approaches and understanding of early childhood and pushes the boundaries of academic, social and cultural studies and practices.

Other information:

Application Process: The Foundation employs a two-step grant application process that includes the submission of both a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) and a Full Proposal–the latter only by those applicants requested to do so. This ensures that consideration of Full Proposals is limited to those applications that strictly comply with the Foundation’s programmatic guidelines.

Award: Recent prior awards have ranged between $40,000 and $100,000.

Your Letter of Inquiry must follow the number format listed [on sponsor website]. Failure to follow the specified format will disqualify your LOI from review by the Board of Directors. Please note LOI and the name of your organization in the subject line of your email. 

Pop Culture Collaborative Grants

Overview:

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports the growth of a pop culture narrative change field capable of inspiring most Americans—including our leaders and icons—to navigate their lives as pluralists, actively engaged in the hard, delicate, and ultimately, joyful work of belonging—and even thriving—together in justice. Our grantmaking approach reflects our belief that pop culture stories and experiences have a critical role to play in helping people discover, experiment with, and embody pluralist identities, behaviors and norms.

Grants are awarded to United States–based nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, and individuals (with fiscal sponsorship) working to drive transformative experiences for mass audiences (i.e., more than 1 million people) through pop culture stories, media, and social networks. These include initiatives focused on the development and distribution of content, design of audience engagement strategies, and the creation of immersive narrative environments through cultural, narrative, and behavioral change approaches.

WHO WE FUND

Pop Culture Collaborative grantee partners are strategizing, creating, and collaborating to increase the American public’s yearning for a pluralist society rooted in justice.

These grantees are most often working in one or a combination of these sectors: social justice movement building, entertainment and/or the arts, advertising and brands, journalism, academia, digital content (online and/or video), science and/or technology, immersive and/or experiential media, and/or pop culture communities (e.g., fandoms). That said, we welcome relevant ideas and approaches from any sector.

In partnership with the Pop Culture Collaborative, our grantees:

• Commission and/or develop creative work that excavates and illuminates who we are as a nation and who we yearn to become.
• Build critical pieces of new and evolving narrative infrastructure, and establish and/or strengthen field-based networks.
• Produce groundbreaking culture change research, including audience research and industry research.
• Design and/or implement long-term mass audience narrative and culture change strategies that sit at the intersection of pop culture and social change, particularly those that emerge from collaboratively designed narrative systems.
• Develop and/or advance innovative mass audience activation initiatives and campaigns that seek to transform toxic narrative environments into ones powered by pluralist mental models, behavioral norms, and cultural values.

FUNDING PRIORITIES

• PROGRAM AREA 1: Artists Advancing Culture Change -- The Pop Culture Collaborative provides grants to artists and organizations or companies that support artist cohorts, from various disciplines, locations, and industries to bring their artistic vision to mass audiences, while also contributing to field-wide efforts to build public yearning for a pluralist America. 

  We seek to create a large, networked community of artists who believe that their creative work and leadership have the power to inspire millions of Americans to actively co-create a pluralist society. Areas of interest include:

  • Supporting artists and cultural organizations to conceptualize, develop, and produce creative works that can help build public yearning for pluralist culture in America.
  • Supporting artists to gather for shared learning, networking, community-knitting, and power-building, especially spaces that bring artists into direct and meaningful connection with frontline activists and culture change strategists.
  • Helping artists and organizations develop the methodology, networks, infrastructure, pipelines, and leadership skills needed to redistribute access and power in their respective industries to historically excluded communities.
• PROGRAM AREA 2: Building the Pop Culture for Social Change Field -- The Pop Culture Collaborative supports artists, activists, strategists, researchers, and other practitioners in the entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic fields to build a robust pop culture change field capable of achieving widespread narrative and cultural change at scale. Together, they can form narrative networks that have the knowledge, connections, skills, and infrastructure that can align and create transformative narrative environments in our society. Areas of interest include:
  • Creating resources and/or infrastructure that support the design, testing, and/or activation of long-term pop culture strategies.
  • Developing, testing, and strengthening partnerships among artists, the entertainment industry, and social justice movements via convenings, cohorts, campaigns, and/or programs.
  • Designing, testing, and/or advancing narrative infrastructure (convenings, emergent technologies, community knitting spaces, and programs) that create access and long-term career sustainability for the next generation of pop culture–focused strategists, campaigners, and artists.
• PROGRAM AREA 3: Culture Change Research -- The Pop Culture Collaborative supports grantees to unearth new data, develop analysis, and share insights with and among entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic sectors in order to inform content development, advance cultural strategies, and activate collaborations in the pop culture for social change field. Areas of interest include:
  • Audience Research. Research that helps the field understand who the people in key audiences are, what motivates their beliefs, (e.g., media, culture, family, economics), and how their beliefs compel and shape their behaviors.
  • Industry Research. Research that delves into the ecosystem of a specific field of cultural production (e.g., television industry, music industry, or sports broadcasting industry) to inform and/or activate short- and long-term culture change strategies.
  • Impact and Evaluation Research. Research that examines and analyzes past and current pop culture change experiments, campaigns, and/or partnerships; utilizes formal evaluation and longitudinal impact methodologies to understand impact; and/or leverages trend tracking and analysis to make sense of current narrative environments and cultural norms, or anticipate future patterns in pop culture content creation, consumption, and engagement.
• PROGRAM AREA 4: Movement-Led Pop Culture Narrative Strategies -- The Pop Culture Collaborative supports social justice organizations and initiatives to design, coordinate, and activate long-term narrative change strategies at the pop culture (mass audience) level. Areas of interest include:
  • Design and implementation of multilayered culture change strategies, including content/story strategy design and audience experience design.
  • Reimagining and testing new roles and relationships between the social justice and entertainment fields to advance the development of narratives, story creation, and audience activation opportunities.

The Pop Culture Collaborative has three grantmaking areas:

• Infrastructure Grants can support new and/or established initiatives, organizations, or companies that are working to advance long-term narrative change goals and/or to build the pop culture for social change field or support emerging and timely initiatives and experiments at the intersection of pop culture and social justice. Please read our Infrastructure Grants Guidelines.

• The Becoming America Fund brings together a network of entertainment, philanthropic, cultural strategy, and social justice leaders who spend two years together creating and distributing content that immerses millions of people in a vision of the pluralist society we are becoming.

• Rapid Response Grants support projects that respond to and/or quickly anticipate peak and timely cultural moments. Rapid response grants can be requested and are approved year-round. Rapid Response grants are available up to $100,000. Please read our Rapid Response Grants Guidelines.

Other information:

Submit an Idea for Consideration: The Pop Culture Collaborative accepts proposals by invitation only. We have created a simple process for potential grantees to self-evaluate whether they are a match with the Collaborative’s goals and guidelines, and if so, to submit an idea for our consideration. It is important to note that an idea submission is not a proposal. The Collaborative will respond only to idea submissions that the staff team has reviewed and deem a potential match.

• STEP 1: Please read our grants overview page as well as the Pop Culture Collaborative’s Infrastructure and/or Rapid Response grant guidelines.
• STEP 2: Read our Grantmaking Frequently Asked Questions.
• STEP 3: Take our brief self-assessment quiz to see if your project idea and/or organization is a good match for the Collaborative’s goals and guidelines.
• STEP 4: Submit your idea through our submission portal if you believe the idea is a match for the Collaborative’s goals and guidelines. Please note that this is not a proposal but a brief opportunity for the Collaborative to learn more about your work.  

Good Neighbor Citizenship Company Grants

Overview:

For over 100 years, State Farm® has helped people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected and realize their dreams. One of the ways we do this is through our philanthropic efforts.

State Farm is committed to helping build safer, stronger and better-educated communities in three areas that strongly align with our brand and our business: Safety, Community Development and Education.

Safety grants
We strive to keep our customers and communities safe. That's why our funding is directed toward:

• Auto safety — improving driver, passenger, vehicle or roadway safety
• Home safety — shielding homes from fires, crime or natural disasters
• Disaster preparedness and mitigation
• Disaster recovery

Community development
We support nonprofits that invest in and develop stronger neighborhoods. That's why our funding is directed toward:

• Affordable housing — home construction, repair, and sustainable housing
• Commercial/small business development
• Financial literacy
• Food insecurity 

Education
Education builds for the jobs of today and tomorrow. Our education funding is directed toward initiatives that support higher education, K-12 academic performance, and K-12 STEM, primarily near the company’s major employment hubs.

Other information:

State Farm grant application process
State Farm charitable funding is offered through an invitation only process each year. If you did not receive an invitation, support requests for programs that meet grant focus areas can be submitted here. This questionnaire is designed to ensure that programming fits the State Farm community grant funding guidelines. You will only be contacted if additional information related to your request is needed or State Farm is interested in pursuing a grant relationship. State Farm receives a large number of requests each year and regrettably we are unable to support or respond to every request.