Grantmakers › District of Columbia
The Nea Foundation for the Improvement
Washington, DC · EIN 23-7035089. Reported 94 grants totalling $6,588,815 to 49 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For The Nea Foundation for the Improvement, by its IRS classification it exists to support one specific institution in education -- typically its own parent hospital, university or school (NTEE B112).
- How spread out its giving is. 49 distinct organizations, with 12% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 48% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $45,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $115,000; the smallest was $5,948 and the largest $250,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Little Rock Co Little Rock Public Schools | Little Rock, AR | $773,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Aaron E Henry Community Health | Clarksdale, MS | $675,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Batesville School District | Batesville, AR | $617,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Community Foundation for Mississippi | Jackson, MS | $566,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| National Center for Youth Law | Oakland, CA | $390,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| The Institute for Educational Leadership Inc | Washington, DC | $356,841 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| National State Teachers of the Year Inc | Wichita, KS | $276,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Institute for Democratic Education in America | Jackson, MS | $260,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Education First Consulting LLC | Seattle, WA | $215,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Advocates for Community and Rural Education | Little Rock, AR | $214,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Louisiana Association of Educators | Baton Rouge, LA | $211,422 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| New Venture Fund | Washington, DC | $199,200 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Arkansas Education Association | Little Rock, AR | $185,500 | 5 | 4 | 2024 |
| Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization | Chicago, IL | $172,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| One Voice | Jackson, MS | $149,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff | Pine Bluff, AR | $149,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Forward Arkansas | Little Rock, AR | $125,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Clarksdale Municipal School District | Clarksdale, MS | $116,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Grantmakers for Education | Portland, OR | $81,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc | New York, NY | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Green Bay Area Public School District | Green Bay, WI | $75,874 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| National Public Education Support Fund | Washington, DC | $65,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Schott Foundation for Public Education | Cambridge, MA | $60,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| North Iberville High School Iberville STEM Academy | Rosedale, LA | $58,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Network for Public Education Fund Inc | New York, NY | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| West Tallahatchie School District | Sumner, MS | $45,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Emmett Till Interpretive Center | Sumner, MS | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Learning Policy Institute | East Palo Alto, CA | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Partnership for the Future Inc | Glen Allen, VA | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Communityshare | Tucson, AZ | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation Inc | Chicago, IL | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| International Community High School | Bronx, NY | $26,525 | 3 | 2 | 2022 |
| Quitman County School District | Marks, MS | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Stone Lantern Films Inc | Suffern, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Namie Foundation Inc | Poughkeepsie, NY | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Step Up Louisiana Organizing Fund | New Orleans, LA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The National Teachers Hall of Fame Inc | Emporia, KS | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lindbergh Schools | St Louis, MO | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| La Grange School District 102 | La Grange Park, IL | $14,005 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Stonington Middle School | Mystic, CT | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Billings Public Schools | Billings, MT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Education Leaders of Color Inc | Los Angeles, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gateway Municipalities Community | N Brentwood, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Growth Philanthropy Network Inc | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Madison Metropolitan School District | Madison, WI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Milwaukee Board of School Directors | Milwaukee, WI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Californians for Justice Education Fund Inc | San Francisco, CA | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Quitman County Development Organization Inc | Marks, MS | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Edmonds Education Association | Seattle, WA | $5,948 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
23 of 49 (47%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- National Network of State Teachers of the Year
TEACH FOR EQUITY AND CAPACITY BUILDING - Kenwood Oakland Community Organization
JOURNEY 4 JUSTICE - COMMUNITY SCHOOLS - New Venture Fund
COMMUNITY FOR JUST SCHOOLS FUND - EDUCATION EQUITY - National Public Education Support Fund
EDUCATION NETWORK SUPPORT
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 27 of 49 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 13 | $1,365,074 | $100,000 |
| 2021 | 24 | $1,444,973 | $33,000 |
| 2022 | 15 | $1,076,841 | $50,000 |
| 2023 | 14 | $1,087,000 | $51,750 |
| 2024 | 28 | $1,614,927 | $30,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
31% of its giving went to organizations in Arkansas. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $45,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Arkansas.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Nea Foundation for the Improvement's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 26 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 2 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 1201 16TH Street Nw 416, Washington, DC, 20036.
EIN 23-7035089 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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