By Juliana Tillema

Education Grantmaking is Increasing

More of Minnesota’s grant dollars go to education than any other interest area, in line with national giving trends. Approximately $212 million, or 26 percent of all grant dollars in the state, went to education in 2006 (the latest date for which complete data are available).¹ This is the largest amount given to education since MCF began tracking annual giving in the state. Nationally, the most recent Foundation Center data show that $4.9 billion went to education in 2007, or 22.8 percent of total foundation dollars in the country.²

Care should be taken in making direct comparisons between national and Minnesota grantmaking data. The data differ in several ways. First, MCF and Foundation Center use different fiscal years, as footnoted below. Second, Foundation Center does not include data on corporate giving programs, while MCF does.

Funding for education has been increasing nationally and in Minnesota in recent years. Minnesota experienced a 38 percent increase in grant dollars to education from 2005 to 2006, following a drop of 24 percent from 2004 to 2005. Changes in the composition of the Giving in Minnesota sample account for some of the increase: Best Buy Children’s Foundation grants and Target’s Take Charge of Education grants were not in the sample in 2005 but were included in 2006, adding $33 million to the education category.

 Nationally, funding for education declined between 2001 and 2004, but increased between 2004 and 2007 at an average annual rate of 10.9 percent.

Giving Within Education Subcategories Differs

Education grantmaking includes contributions to educational institutions (schools, colleges and universities), libraries and other organizations that provide education-related services, alumni associations, English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs, and adult literacy services.

The largest education grantmaking subcategory in Minnesota is elementary and secondary education, which received 40 percent of the education dollars in 2006. (See Figure A: Minnesota Education Grantmaking by Subcategory.) Nationally, elementary and secondary education received 31 percent of education grant dollars. (See Figure B: National Education Grantmaking by Subcategory.)

Nationally, the largest share of education grant dollars went to higher education (42 percent) and graduate education (12 percent), for a total of 54 percent of the share of education dollars. Notably, in Minnesota giving to higher education and graduate education combined totaled only 24 percent in 2006.

The share of education dollars going to the student services subcategory – organizations that provide education-related services – is also substantially different between Minnesota and the nation. A solid 20 percent of Minnesota’s education grant dollars go to student or educational services such as after-school, college readiness and academic success programs, tutoring, drop-out prevention and reading promotion programs. Nationally, a total of 9 percent of education dollars went to educational services (6 percent) or student services (3 percent), according to the most recent Foundation Center data.

Comparing Giving by Grantmaker Type

Corporate grantmakers in Minnesota, including foundations and corporate giving programs, provided the largest share of funding for education, at 54 percent in 2006, up from 44 percent in 2005. As noted above, changes in the research sample in 2006 – specifically the addition of Target’s Take Charge of Education program grants – account for a large portion of the increase. Private foundations provided 36 percent of education funding in the state, followed by community and public foundations, which provided 10 percent.

Nationally, private foundations provided by far the largest share of funding for education, at nearly $3.9 billion dollars, 78 percent of all grant dollars to education. Among private foundations, however, education ranked second behind health as a grantmaking priority, reflecting the rise and focus of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Corporate foundations provided 10.6 percent,³ and community foundations provided 10.3 percent of grant dollars to education. Among corporate and community foundations, though, education ranked as the top grantmaking priority.

The largest education funders in Minnesota and the nation are illustrated in Tables 1 and 2.

¹ Figures based on a sample of 100 of the largest grantmakers in the state by grants of $2,000 or more paid in fiscal year 2006, representing 81 percent of the state’s total giving. Minnesota grantmaking figures come from MCF’s Giving in Minnesota, 2008 Edition. The 2006 data include grantmakers with fiscal years ending between 6/1/06 and 5/31/07.

² All national data come from The Foundation Center, Foundation Giving Trends, 2009. Based on all grants of $10,000 or more awarded by a sample of 1,339 larger foundations and reported to the Foundation Center between October 2007 and September 2008. Grants were awarded primarily in 2007 or 2006.

³ National data do not include corporate giving programs.

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