Education
Access to higher education and opportunity for academic success are essential if all citizens are to achieve their full potential, lead productive lives, and contribute to the competitive strength and economic welfare of the country.
To assist in the realization of this goal and help meet President Obama’s mandate to have the world’s highest percentage of college graduates by 2020, The Kresge Foundation’s Education Team is focusing its efforts on two vital elements necessary to a well-educated citizenry – high-quality early-childhood education, and accessible, success-oriented two- and four-year higher education programs. Both efforts are focused on the needs of underserved and under-represented students.
Our programmatic approach
Four of Kresge’s nine values criteria are central to the grantmaking of the Education Team:
- Creating opportunity for underserved and neglected students through increased access and avenues for academic success
- Making diversity – racial, ethnic and gender – a demographic priority among staff and board members so as to reflect the student populations served
- Establishing environmental conservation as a strategic institutional objective to both contribute to the mitigation of climate change and serve as a community model for sustainable design and construction
- Achieving positive community impact beyond the confines of the educational institution.
Community colleges, four-year colleges and universities that cater to the needs of low-income and minority students, and students who are the first-in-their-families to attend college, most closely advance Kresge’s values. These institutions include Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, U.S. Title III and V schools, and community colleges nationwide, as well as those mainstream institutions that can demonstrate significant ongoing actions taken and results achieved in providing access and fostering academic success among these underserved populations.
Kresge’s early childhood education efforts seek to support national and state policy to encourage and expand high quality programs.
Kresge also makes grants to colleges and universities in South Africa, believing that strong educational institutions are the best engines of economic growth in the fledgling democracy. See the South Africa Initiative for more information.
Funding methods
The Education Team awards challenge grants for facilities projects. Academic institutions and early-childhood centers serving a significant number of low-income children interested in applying for facilities capital should visit the Challenge Grant page to learn about our eligibility requirements and, if appropriate, initiate the process with a five-page letter of intent as directed.
Beginning in June 2010, Kresge only will fund facilities that are designed to achieve a Silver-level rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program or an equivalent ranking from another recognized rating organization.
On a very limited basis, the Education Team identifies and initiates projects with organizations already doing important work in the areas outlined above for other types of grant funding as described in Our Funding Methods.
At this time, we do not offer a mechanism for applying for other types of funding. As our strategies are defined, we will determine how best to make these funds available. New developments will be announced as program updates on the front page of our Web site.
If you have questions, e-mail the Grants Inquiry Coordinator or call 248-643-9630.
Image credit: Lee College, Baytown, Texas