Grants for adult education centers

732 adult education and esl centers received at least $52.2 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 970 grants made from 773 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 773 foundations, 90% made just a single grant to adult ed centers, and 1% made grants to four or more adult ed centers. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.
$52,189,592
Total grant dollars given to adult education centers
970
Number of grants made annually to adult education centers
773
Number of grantmakers funding adult education centers
$1,000
Median grant size to adult education centers

Foundations that support adult education and esl centers

Out of all grants made to adult education centers, 75% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 96% of the dollar-value of grants to adult ed centers. Foundations funding adult ed centers also made grants to food banks, multiservice human service organizations, colleges, educational service providers, and homeless shelters.

Foundation size

Foundation size Number of grantmakers
Small
 
586
Medium
 
98
Large
 
88
Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type Number of grantmakers
Community
 
27
Private
 
648
Corporate
 
52
Other
 
46

Grants made

Grants made to adult ed centers Number of grantmakers
1
 
698
2-3
 
60
4-10
 
11
11+
 
4

Top 10 foundations supporting adult education and esl centers

Grantmaker State Geographic focus Percent of grant dollars to adult ed centers Number of grants made to adult ed centers Median grant size
Dollar General Literacy Foundation TN National 1.0% 41 $3,000
Community Foundation of Collier County FL National 0.2% 18 $1,141
Abbvie Foundation IL National 0.0% 15 $104
Seattle Foundation WA State 0.0% 11 $500
Westrock Foundation GA National 0.0% 10 $20
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) TN Metro 0.0% 6 $750
Shell Oil Company Foundation TX National 0.0% 6 $475
The Pitney Bowes Foundation CT National 0.6% 5 $2,750
Community Foundation of North Texas (NTXCF) TX State 0.0% 5 $1,000
Arkansas Community Foundation AR State 0.0% 5 $1,000

Adult education and ESL centers grantees

Adult education centers with more than $5 million in total revenues received 86% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 23% of all adult ed centers.

Grant amounts

Size of grant Number of grants
<$10k
 
964
$10k-$25k
 
0
$25k-$100k
 
0
$100k+
 
6

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue Median grant size
<$100k
 
$2,500
$100k-$500k
 
$2,000
$500k-$1M
 
$1,500
$1M-$5M
 
$1,575
>$5M
 
$500

Grantee states

State of grantee Number of grants
California
 
180
New York
 
144
Texas
 
54
Florida
 
54
Other
 
538

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee Number of grants
San Francisco
 
152
New York City
 
135
Boston
 
34
Washington DC
 
26
Other
 
550

Top 25 grants made to adult education centers

Grantee Grant size Purpose Grantmaker
Education at Work $15,857,962 FMV Strada Education Network
Education at Work $15,857,962 FMV Strada Education Network
Aspire Community Development Corporation $5,505,744 Agricultural Development Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Education at Work $5,275,000 FMV Strada Education Network
Education at Work $5,275,000 FMV Strada Education Network
Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) $2,541,000 Project Support Tides Foundation
Cambridge Center for Adult Education (CCAE) $5,000 Benevolent The Jonathan H Poorvu Foundation
Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley $5,000 Family Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Kleberg County Adult Literacy Council (KCALC) $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Eastern Shore Literacy Council $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Twin Lakes Literacy Council $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Forsyth County Certified Literate Community Program $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Racine Literacy Council $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Lafayette County Literacy Council $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Literacy New York Greater Capital $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Montgomery County Literacy Project $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Project Literacy of Greater Bergen County $5,000 Adult Literacy Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Harvard Business School Interactive $5,000 Scholarship Caldwell C W Scholarship Fund
The Litquake Foundation $5,000 To Support Educational Programs Thistlewood Foundation
Operation Never Forgotten (ONF) $5,000 B60 Adult Continuing Ed The Community Foundation of Louisville Depository
St Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center $5,000 Education DTE Energy Foundation
North House Folk School $5,000 General Support InFaith Community Foundation (ICF)
Literacy Partners $5,000 General Operating Support J M Kaplan Fund
The Institute of Classical Architecture and Art $5,000 Social Support The Bunny Williams Foundation
Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Adult education centers" category for this page is determined by the "B60: Adult, Continuing Education" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.