Educational Foundation of America
OVERVIEW: The Educational Foundation of America works to combat the erosion of democratic institutions in the United States, particularly in Florida and North Carolina.
IP TAKE: This long-established funder is not particularly accessible except when it releases Requests for Proposals (RFP). It does, however, welcome Letters of Inquiry (LOI) for certain program areas. Its grants are typically for general operating support and may be awarded for multiple years. Because of the latter, this is a more crowded playing field, which makes it harder to get through the door of this funder’s grantmaking. However, EFA is a refreshingly transparent funder that uses all of its resources as “responsible investors” to help with capacity building – so long as your program or project advances their philanthropic goals.
PROFILE: Established in 1959, the Educational Foundation of America was founded by Richard Prentice Ettinger, co-founder of middle- and high-school textbook publisher Prentice Hall, and his wife Elsie P. Ettinger. The EFA is still a family foundation, today run by Ettinger’s descendants and dedicated to his legacy of “lifelong altruistic commitment.” It primarily provides long-term, capacity-building and general operating support to organizations in Appalachia, the South, and the Pacific Northwest whose work relates to the Arts, Environment, Food Security, Democracy, and Reproductive Health and Justice.
Educational Foundation of America takes an impact investing approach to its philanthropy. A leader in the movement, it is also an original member of the Divest-Invest movement, and has “sparked a new movement to bring the tools of impact investing to support increased access to reproductive healthcare through the Reproductive Healthcare Investors Alliance.”
Grants for the Arts
EFA broadly invests in the arts through its Creative Placemaking program, which works in partnership with “identified communities to make long-term change through arts and culture.” The program believes in information sharing, encouraging grantees to “exchange their ideas, inspirations – even their setbacks – in order to improve the projects” currently being worked on and to come. For EFA, creative placemaking refers to art that plays a role in a region’s “transition towards more equitable and resilient local economies.”
Geographically, EFA’s arts program prioritizes organizations located in the Black Belt of Alabama and Central Appalachia, places that have historically lacked “strong philanthropic support.” The foundation does not appear to have a strong preference for the type of art an organization or individual may focus on, but rather, is interested in a grantee’s location and commitment to the long-term change influence of art, and its role in community revitalization. EFA funds work related to performing arts, theater, music, creative writing, dance, and many other creative areas.
Past arts grantees include Arts Revive, Black Belt Benefit Group, Coleman Center for the Arts, Selma Redevelopment Authority, William King Museum of Art, City of Asylum Pittsburgh, and Storyville Center for the Written Word, among others.
Grants for Women and Public Reproductive Health
EFA conducts grants to benefit women and public health through its Reproductive Health and Justice program, which invests in state-based organizations using “civic engagement, litigation, communications, and advocacy efforts to improve access to abortion and contraception.” The program benefits Appalachia and Florida; however, EFA may expand its geographic focus here, so check back periodically to see if it does. The foundation also funds organizations that seek to ensure access to reproductive healthcare at the national level. In partnership with other colleagues, EFA is a leader in reproductive health work having catalyzed the creation of the Reproductive Healthcare Investors Alliance, which uses “shareholder engagement and other impact investing tools” to increase reproductive health access. The foundation also invests in work that seeks to keep doctors and abortion providers safe so they may, in turn, provide safe and compassionate care.
Past reproductive health grantees include Appalshop; Kentuckians for the Commonwealth; Kentucky Civic Engagement Table; Power to Decide; Women Have Options, ACLU of Florida; Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida and Progress Florida; Resources for Abortion Delivery; Reproductive Health Investors Alliance; Center for Reproductive Rights; and State Innovation Exchange, among many others in the reproductive health space.
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
The EFA’s Make Democracy Work program is one of its newest initiatives. It awarded its first round of grants in 2017 to select organizations in North Carolina and Florida that are working to “repair and protect the pillars of a free, transparent, and fair democratic system, and to protect and expand access to voting.” In Florida, the EFA’s main goal is “restoring voting rights for returning citizens”—that is to say, those who are “disenfranchised due to past felony convictions.” To that end, the foundation supports efforts such as voter education; civic engagement targeted at ex-convicts, and “get out the vote” initiatives. In North Carolina, the EFA is working to combat “extreme attempts to undermine the central tenants of democracy,” with an emphasis on “civic engagement in the Eastern part of the state.”
Note that while this program currently only operates in two states, the foundation has made it clear that it plans to expand it in the future. Past civic and democracy grantees include Central Florida Jobs with Justice, Engage Miami, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Alliance of North Carolina Black Elected Officials, Campus Vote Project, Democracy North Carolina, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
Grants for the Environment
The Educational Foundation of America’s environment program may sound broad, but it centers on climate change and clean energy. The program uses several strategies in the hopes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a known accelerator of climate change, caused by humans. In particular, EFA focuses on the “transition to a net-zero electricity system with an interest in organizations and communities pursuing local, state, and regional carbon emissions strategies.” The program has a particular interest in the electricity sector. EFA, through its environment program, also invests in “upstream market and infrastructure policies related to generation, transmission, and distribution, as well as local and regional opportunities for accessing affordable clean energy solutions. Current initiatives include rural access to affordable clean energy, renewable energy, regional state policy, and coal ash containment.
As an original member of the Divest-Invest movement, EFA takes its climate-related investments very passionately. While EFA’s environment grants don’t seem to prioritize certain areas, they tend to cluster in the Pacific Northwest. Past climate change and clean energy grantees include Clean Energy Works, EarthJustice, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute, among others.
Important Grant Details
Grants generally range from $10,000 to $300,000. The foundation is transparent about its grantmaking habits, and grantmakers can find information about its previous grantees on its grants database. The majority of EFA’s grantmaking concentrates on the Appalachian region of the U.S., as well as the South and Pacific Northwest. Beyond these regions, EFA offers modest discretionary grants by initiation only. Explore its grantees for a deeper understanding of how EFA makes grants and at what level.
The EFA does not generally accept unsolicited proposals, except when it releases Requests for Proposals (RFP). However, as it seeks to expand certain program areas, it is currently accepting program ideas related to voting access in Florida, and fair redistricting or voter engagement in North Carolina. Moreover, EFA welcomes 250 word submissions summarizing new project or program ideas that advance its program’s goals.
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