Strategic Initiative Grants: BPI Advancing Equity in Education Grants

The Strategic Initiative Grants: BPI Advancing Equity in Education program by the Winston-Salem Foundation aims to tackle systemic inequities in education that affect Black and brown communities. By supporting programs that ensure equitable access to resources, it prioritizes initiatives designed by and for Black students. This grant program invites proposals that focus on improving educational experiences, including remote learning access and implicit bias training for educators, fostering an inclusive and supportive learning environment.

BPI’s focus of advancing racial equity in education comes from the data in BPI’s Rethinking Philanthropy report released in 2018, which reveals how systemic inequities have disproportionately affected Black residents. As a strategic initiative of The Winston-Salem Foundation, this grant program directly aligns with one of the Foundation’s focus areas: to advance equity in education.
BPI wants to address the deliberate and systematic efforts that deprive schools in Black and brown communities, therefore denying students the resources to thrive and reach their full potential. We want to ensure that students of color, especially Black students, are able to learn in a supportive environment that respects their humanity, upholds their dignity, and has the resources to provide students with the space to learn, grow, and thrive.
Examples of potential grant requests include programs that address inequities with remote learning access, improve disciplinary policies and practices that impact students of color, and provide implicit bias training for educators.