Teagle Foundation
OVERVIEW: The Teagle Foundation aims to strengthen the role of humanities courses in higher education and college readiness.
IP TAKE: Teagle’s grantmaking is project-based. A fairly accessible foundation, Teagle accepts concept papers of three to five pages as preliminary applications and provides RFPs for each of its grantmaking programs on its website.
This is a transparent funder that clarifies what it’s looking for so grantees don’t have to guess. Teagle wants to help its grantees succeed in their work. They are communicative about how they conduct funding, even providing grantee feedback for prospective grantees to study to learn more about what it’s like to work with this funder and how those funds have helped grantees realize their goals. If you have questions about their grant application or process, reach out to their responsive and supportive staff, which encourages contact.
PROFILE: Headquartered in New York City, the Teagle Foundation was established in 1944 by Walter Teagle, a former chairman of Standard Oil, which is now the Exxon Mobil Corporation. The foundation aims “to support and strengthen liberal arts education” as a means of helping individuals achieve “meaningful work, effective citizenship and a fulfilling life.” Its funding initiatives address learning for living, knowledge for freedom, education for American civic life and pathways to the liberal arts.
Grants for Higher Education and the Humanities
The Teagle Foundation supports higher education through its Cornerstone: Learning for Living, Education for American Civic Life and Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts initiatives.
Teagle and the National Endowment for the Humanities co-sponsor the Cornerstone: Learning for Living program, which aims to “reinvigorate the role of the humanities in general education” by increasing both learning and teaching opportunities in the humanities at institutions of higher education in the U.S. The foundation is specifically interested in supporting the planning and implementation of projects that emphasize shared intellectual experiences of humanistic texts, humanities experiences for students in STEM and pre-professional majors and projects that feature assessment and/or educational research components.
The foundation awards planning grants in amounts up to $25,000 for a planning period of 6 to 12 months, and implementation grants in amounts up to $350,000 for a 24-month period. Applications to this program begin with submission of a concept paper (due by December 1). For additional information, see the program’s annual RFP. Recent grants support programs at public and private colleges and universities including Michigan State, Johns Hopkins, Lehman College of the City University of New York and Smith College.
Teagle’s Education for American Civic Life program supports projects that “confront gaps in undergraduates’ civic knowledge and prepare them for the intellectual demands of democratic participation.” The foundation invests in programs that frame questions about democracy through the lens of local history and those that involve opportunities for students to “learn about and work in public service.” Grants generally fund projects that involve faculty leadership and development, that are deemed sustainable beyond the period of funding and that feature components of student assessment and educational research that might be disseminated in the forms of instructional materials, published articles, conference presentations or workshops. Teagle offers support for program planning through $25,000 grants, while program implementation grants generally range from $100,000 to $300,000.
The foundation accepts concept papers for the Education for American Civic Life program on an ongoing basis, meeting three times per year to review applications. For additional information, see this program’s RFP. Recent implementation grantees include Brandeis University, DePaul University and the Community Learning Partnership, a consortium of two- and four-year colleges in California, New York, Michigan, Utah and Pennsylvania.
Higher education grants also stem from Teagle’s Transfer Pathways to Liberal Arts program, which the foundation co-sponsors with the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation. The program’s goal is to build curricular connections between liberal arts courses at two- and four-year colleges, making it easier for students to transfer credits between schools and graduate on time. Grants generally fund consortia of independent colleges partnering with community colleges in the facilitation of transfer programs, and Teagle prefers programs that involve student assessment, educational research and/or plans for sustaining pathway programs beyond the life of the grant. This program awards $25,000 planning grants and program implantation grants in amounts up to $350,000. Recent pathway grantees include transfer facilitation programs at Georgia State University, the California State University System, and the City University of New York.
Grants for College Readiness
The Teagle Foundations funds college readiness programs via its Knowledge for Freedom program, which aims to bring high school students to college campuses to engage in liberal arts courses and “study humanity’s deepest questions about leading lives of purpose and civic responsibility.” Grants emphasize programs that reach underserved students who typically find themselves “shut out from opportunities available to their more affluent peers.” Programs that bring high school students to college campuses for summer study are also prioritized.
Applications for this program begin with three- to five-page concept papers, which are accepted at any time and reviewed at the foundation’s December, March and August meetings. Grants range from $100,000 to $300,000. Recent recipients include the Summer Humanities Liberation Scholar Program at George Fox University and Boston University’s summer pre-college program, the One and the Many.
Important Grant Details:
Planning grants are $25,000, while implementation grants range from $100,000 to $350,000. The Teagle Foundation makes over $3 million in grants a year. Most of its grants are awarded for either planning or program implementation. Recipients are two- and four-year colleges universities in the U.S. and higher education consortia. The Teagle Foundation maintains a database of past grants on its website.
This foundation accepts three- to five-page concept papers as preliminary applications for all four of its grantmaking programs and provides detailed guidelines, due dates and application materials on each individual program page. Teagle encourages prospective grantees to reach out to foundation staff with questions about opportunities and the application process.
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