Ciresi Walburn Foundation Annual Grants

The Ciresi Walburn Foundation supports innovative educational initiatives in Minnesota, focusing on eliminating inequities for children and youth. They partner with K-12 schools and nonprofits to enhance educational opportunities, emphasizing early learning, parent engagement, and diverse educator recruitment. The foundation prioritizes projects that foster equitable access to quality education while strategically investing in transformative ideas. However, past funding does not guarantee future support, and technology expenses are only considered if ancillary to broader proposals.

We also established a scholarship fund to help African-American males complete their undergraduate degrees and stride forward as tomorrow’s leaders.
Therefore, past recipients of funding should not necessarily assume that they will receive funding every year.
The Foundation will not consider for funding project or program budgets which are solely or predominantly related to technology expenses, but will consider requests for support for technology (hardware and software) that are ancillary to broader, innovative proposals.
The Foundation requires all K-12 School finalists to complete our Schools Data Dashboard Form, which can be downloaded from our website or the online application portal. In order to be eligible for funding, schools must commit to, during the grant period, assess all students, as appropriate, using either:

Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, an organization must be tax-exempt or operate under the fiscal sponsorship of a tax-exempt nonprofit. The Foundation will not consider for funding project or program budgets which are solely or predominantly related to technology expenses, but will consider requests for support for technology (hardware and software) that are ancillary to broader, innovative proposals. The Foundation requires all K-12 School finalists to complete our Schools Data Dashboard Form, which can be downloaded from our website or the online application portal. In order to be eligible for funding, schools must commit to, during the grant period, assess all students, as appropriate, using either: a) The State Standards-Based Accountability Assessments (MCAs or MTAS); and/or b) A nationally-normed growth and proficiency assessment (such as the NWEA/MAP) at least twice during the school year; and, to share the results of the assessment(s) with the Foundation.

Ineligibility

What We Don’t DoWring our hands on the sidelines or accept a system that doesn’t provide all children the opportunity for the very best.The Foundation does not fund individuals, endowments, political organizations, or political lobbying.