Research Brief Series: Twenty Years of Education Funding in the U.S.

Grantmakers for Education engaged in several projects in the past two years to understand philanthropic priorities, approaches and investments in education, historical and current. By collecting and analyzing new data as well as analyzing data available through a licensed database, we conducted a comprehensive scan. These research briefs, produced as part of this scan, comprise a series that shares information on giving patterns in education over the past twenty years among foundations and other grantmakers, from 2003 to 2023. Giving data was sourced from Candid’s Foundation Directory. The analyses presented in these briefs were conducted over a six-month period in 2024 and 2025.

• All Education Funding, by Education Level
• All Education Funding, by Region- Southwest
• All Education Funding, by Region- The Deep South
• Focus on STEM Education
• Focus on Literacy
• Focus on Out-of-School Time and Extended Learning
• Focus on Secondary Vocational Education
• Focus on Teacher Education and the Educator Workforce
• Focus on Education Supports- Capacity Building and Technical Assistance
• Focus on Education Supports- Policy, Advocacy and Systems Reform

Thank you to our partners on this project:

Mellie Torres, Ph.D., Research Consultant
Will Wiggins, Brand & Visual Designer, Illustrator, Content Creator, Black Oni.