Institutional Grants: Education

The Tinker Foundation's Institutional Grants program supports initiatives aimed at improving educational access and quality in Latin America. With a focus on foundational learning, particularly in early primary education, the program prioritizes projects that enhance literacy and numeracy, evolve curricula, and foster educational equity. Grants range from $50,000 to $150,000 annually, promoting collaboration among civil society organizations to address significant learning gaps exacerbated by recent challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

NOTE: We invite a limited number of proposals from the LOI process, and not all requested proposals will receive funding.
Tinker realizes its mission by providing funding to civil society organizations – among them nonprofit entities, research institutes, and universities – working to address the region’s most pressing challenges.
For that reason, we encourage comparative and collaborative work, and support grantees to learn from others’ experiences.
The Foundation’s Institutional Grants program seeks to support changes to policy and practice that improve the lives of Latin Americans. The Foundation’s funding encompasses three program areas in which research, innovation, scaling of proven models, and exchange of ideas have the potential to make significant, positive impact.
Over the past decade, the Foundation has supported programs that improve educational access and quality throughout Latin America.
While Latin America has made important gains in educational access, the region continues to see significant challenges and unrealized opportunities. In recent years, impacts on schooling and learning continuity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, natural hazards, and social disruptions have disproportionately affected populations that already faced barriers to learning. The Tinker Foundation is committed to addressing the persistent learning gaps that have widened in recent years, and supporting strategies that lead to more effective, inclusive, and resilient educational systems in the region.
Funding Priorities
Tinker welcomes promising projects from across the region that:
Promote foundational learning recovery and acceleration, with a specific focus on literacy and numeracy in early primary school.Evolve curricula and teaching approaches to increase educational equity and quality.
Through the Education program area, we will provide grants to civil society organizations in Latin America aiming to achieve these objectives by partnering with school systems, educational leaders, and families. Some examples of interventions to be prioritized include:

• Diagnostic and formative evaluations to improve learning outcomesDeveloping capabilities in educational communities
• Teacher training and coaching (in-service and pre-service)In-school targeted support and learning remediation to perform at grade level

We welcome projects at different stages of implementation, ranging from experiments and pilots of new models, to impact evaluations for promising projects, and strategies for scaling proven interventions.
Funding and Project Duration
From $50,000 to $100,000 per year and up to three years of support, depending on the scope and scale of the project. We will consider projects of up to $150,000 per year in extraordinary cases where projects focus on securing longer-term changes or larger scale work with educational systems.

Eligibility

The Tinker Foundation provides grants only to organizations that are charitable in nature, i.e., with a United States 501(c)(3) tax status or its equivalent if the organization is located outside the U.S. Organizations from Latin America do not need to have United States 501(c)(3) status.Type of Organization: Regional and international organizations with substantial on-the-ground presence and a proven track record of collaboration with local stakeholders may apply.Geographic Focus:The Education program invites projects from all Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America.Argentina
Uruguay
VenezuelaProject activities must take place in our areas of geographic interest.Educational Level: Tinker will prioritize projects focused on lower primary school education (typically ages 5 – 10) where foundational learning strategies can make the biggest difference.School System: We anticipate that many projects will involve direct work with school systems and educational communities.Funded activities may include, but are not restricted to, community engagement and capacity-building, applied research, measurement and evaluation activities, and workshops and conferences related to the Foundation’s areas of interest.

Ineligibility

Our funds may not be used for:Individuals, including individual research
Lobbying and Political Campaigning Rules for Grantees)
School tuition or scholarships, or child sponsorships
Support for building construction or major equipment purchases
Art museum collections, films, and exhibits
EndowmentsWe rarely fund capital equipment purchases on any single tangible item that has a useful life of more than one year and a value equal to or greater than $5,000.