Education funders are focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and expanding in-school support for children’s mental health, while funding for low-performing schools has declined, a report from Grantmakers for Education (EdFunders) finds.

Based on survey responses from 142 education funders, including 100 members, the report, Trends in Education Philanthropy: Benchmarking 2023 (36 pages, PDF), highlights evolving trends identified in the group’s 2018-19 report, and is the association’s first assessment of the state of education philanthropy following the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

A focus on racial equity, including an intentional focus on using race/ethnicity as a lens in grantmaking decisions, appears to be on the rise. The report found that 52 percent of respondents indicated that their organization focused funding on specific populations based on race/ethnicity, up from 42 percent in 2018. The number of education funders expecting written DEI policies from applicants or grantee staff, boards, and/or populations served rose to 46 percent from 33 percent. Among funders themselves, the share of those committing to internal DEI initiatives increased, but only nominally, to 32 percent from 28 percent.

According to the survey, 62 percent of respondents reported increased funding to support social and emotional learning (up from 33 percent in 2018) and for mental health/trauma-informed care. In addition, 46 percent anticipated increasing support for mental health/trauma-informed care over the next two years. Quoting several respondents, the report noted, “children need to be ready socially and emotionally in order to learn academically….Kids under overwhelming stress can’t learn.”

With respect to school-based change and academic improvement, respondents appear to be prioritizing support for “whole child, wraparound, social-emotional, and community or family engagement efforts,” with less focus on low academic performance. In 2015, respondents reported allocating about 2.5 percent of grant dollars to turning around low-performing schools, a number which dropped to 2 percent in 2018 and in 2023 stands at 0.1 percent. One respondent noted, “I still believe in schools as a unit of change [but] school turnaround/improvement has fallen off the radar.”

“Post-pandemic, as students returned to in-class learning, educators saw widespread evidence of trauma—whether from the pandemic or other factors,” said Denver Public Schools Foundation president and CEO and EdFunders board chair Richard Tagle. “Funders recognize that if students are to learn, many will need to access broad supports both in and out of school, including mental health and trauma-informed care.”

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