Joyce Foundation: Education & Economic Mobility Grants

Joyce Foundation: Education & Economic Mobility Grants

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: The Joyce Foundation
Last Updated: November 24, 2025

Summary

The Joyce Foundation's Education & Economic Mobility Grants aim to close income and race disparities in college and career success. The foundation prioritizes equitable access to high-quality education, supporting policies for effective educators, high school graduation, and affordable college credentials. Focused on racial equity and economic mobility, it addresses the needs of historically underserved young people in the Great Lakes region and invests in research, policy development, and advocacy to help them recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overview

NOTE: The Joyce Foundation welcomes new ideas, but primarily funds on an invite basis.The Joyce Foundation accepts grant inquiries online throughout the year. Letters of inquiry should be submitted at least six to eight weeks prior to the proposal deadline for a given grant cycle. See Deadlines here represented by full proposal deadlines above.Applicants should anticipate the application process to take approximately four to six months from the initial submission of the letter of inquiry to the receipt of funding.Grant proposals are considered at meetings of the Foundation’s Board of Directors in April, July, and December. Applicants are strongly encouraged to plan their application and proposal submission process for the April or July meetings, since most grant funds will be distributed at those times. About Through its grantmaking and other policy-focused efforts, the Foundation seeks to: Racial Equity: Incorporate the voices of, and achieve more equitable outcomes for, Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities in the Great Lakes region. Economic Mobility: Improve the ability of individuals in the Great Lakes region to move up the economic ladder within a lifetime or from one generation to the next. Next Generation: Incorporate the voices of, and improve outcomes for, the next generation of Great Lakes residents, defined as young people born after 2000. Education & Economic Mobility Grants The mission of the Education & Economic Mobility Program is to close income and race disparities in college and career success through equitable access to high-quality education. We invest in local, state and federal policies that aim to ensure historically underserved young people 1) have effective educators; 2) graduate high school with academic and career momentum; and 3) attain affordable college credentials with economic value. In the short term, we will invest in research, policy development, and advocacy to help young people recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective Educators Evidence is clear that teachers and principals are the main in-school driver of student success. Yet, young people of color and those from underserved communities often have inexperienced, unqualified, or ineffective educators. To ensure historically marginalized students have top-notch and diverse educators, the Foundation invests in research, policy development, advocacy, and technical assistance to: 1) use data to better align educator supply and demand; 2) diversify the educator pipeline; 3) build strong pathways from high school into teaching; and 4) spread innovative school staffing models that attract educators, boost retention, and improve student outcomes. Our investments focus on Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and national efforts. College and Career Readiness There is overwhelming evidence that a college degree significantly improves life outcomes. Yet not enough high school students—especially young people of color and those from underserved communities—are prepared to succeed in post-secondary. To help students get on the right path, the Foundation supports federal and state policies to: 1) align K-12, higher education, and workforce systems; 2) increase access and success in rigorous courses; and 3) increase access to high-quality work-based learning activities connected to careers with family-sustaining wages. Post-Secondary Success A post-secondary degree remains the surest path to social and economic mobility. Yet colleges fail to enroll and graduate students of color and students from low-income households at the same rate as White and wealthier students. This contributes to racial and socioeconomic disparities in education and career outcomes. To address these disparities, the Joyce Foundation supports federal and state policies that: 1) scale proven student support models to improve community college outcomes; 2) preserve access for students of color and rural students to affordable, high- quality public college options and labor markets that require college degrees; 3) seek racial and family income representativeness at selective public universities; and 4) narrow gaps in post-graduate financial outcomes for students of color and low-income students.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. We generally make grants only to nonprofit organizations. However, we occasionally fund government initiatives that promise to lead to systems or policy changes. The Foundation funds efforts to address state and local public policy in the Great Lakes region, which we define as Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin; and national public policy designed to have impact on these Great Lakes states.In the K-12 portfolio, we focus mainly on Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota at the state level. At the district level, we focus on Chicago, Indianapolis and Minneapolis. We also fund limited college and career readiness work in Ohio. In the post-secondary success portfolio, we focus on Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan, but will consider select grants in Indiana and Wisconsin. In general, our investments are focused along the Joyce grant making continuum, strongly emphasizing research, policy development, advocacy and policy implementation. The Foundation seeks through its grantmaking to improve public policy in, and for the benefit of residents in, the Great Lakes region. Those efforts include:research and analysis; policy development; communications, media outreach and public engagement strategy; policy advocacy; coalition and constituency building and grass-roots organizing; implementation and enforcement; and evaluation.

Ineligibility

The Foundation does not fund:Capital proposals Endowment campaigns Direct service programs Commercial ventures Religious activities Scholarships.Topics that fall outside our priorities include:Pre-K programs aimed at children birth to five. Our education grant making is focused on policies in the kindergarten through post-secondary space; Scholarships, school voucher programs, and similar programs that primarily benefit individuals. Our focus is on district, state, and federal policy and system change; Capital campaigns directed at improving public schools; and We do not fund the teacher training programs, themselves, nor do we fund stipends for teacher candidates in the residency programs.Federal tax law prohibits private foundations from funding lobbying activities. As mentioned above, the Foundation may support organizations engaged in public policy advocacy by, for example, providing general operating support or funding educational advocacy such as nonpartisan research, technical assistance, or examinations of broad social issues. To ensure compliance with federal tax laws, we encourage grant applicants to describe the nature of advocacy activities in their grant applications and reports.