When it comes to schools and educational programs, it seems like there’s never enough money to go around. Fortunately, there are a lot of terrific education nonprofits and charities out there willing to help. If you’re looking for funding or resources for students, schools, or projects, these can be a good place to start.
Note: If you’re considering donating to or working with a charity, it’s always a good idea to check them out thoroughly using sites like Charity Navigator and GuideStar first.
Jump to:
- General Education Nonprofits
- Literacy Education Nonprofits
- STEM Education Nonprofits
- Music and the Arts Education Nonprofits
- Physical Education and Healthy Living Nonprofits
General Education Nonprofits
AdoptaClassroom.org
This popular crowdfunding platform helps willing donors find teachers and programs who deserve their help.
Afterschool Alliance
Quality after-school programs keep kids off the streets and out of trouble. Afterschool Alliance helps communities fund these vital activities across the country.
Association of American Educators
AAE is the largest national, non-union, professional educators’ organization. They offer education resources, grants, support, and much more.
Carnegie Corporation of New York
The Carnegie Corporation has been around for more than 100 years. Their grants and programs support many educational endeavors, especially in urban areas.
CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning)
This the nation’s leading nonprofit dedicated to social-emotional learning, providing free quality resources for teaching and learning on this important topic.
Children’s Scholarship Fund
This organization supplies scholarships to families in need so they can choose the schools and learning environments that are the best fit for their children, regardless of their ability to pay or where they live.
DonorsChoose
Another crowdfunding nonprofit, DonorsChoose lets teachers and schools ask for funding for specific projects, supplies, and other educational resources.
The Education Trust
This nonprofit org is committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle the racial and economic barriers embedded in the American education system.
Fund for Teachers
Professional development helps educators stay on top of their game and meet professional certification requirements. Fund for Teachers helps teachers access and pay for the PD they need and want.
Generation Teach
Although more than half of American students are people of color, fewer than one-quarter of educators and administrators are. This nonprofit seeks to correct the racial imbalance in our educational system.
iCivics
This organization provides teachers with quality resources for civics learning, including topics like the Constitution, civil rights, citizenship, voting, and more.
Junior Achievement USA
JA community volunteers partner with local classrooms to provide educational activities on career readiness, leadership, financial literacy, and more.
Khan Academy
Teachers everywhere love Khan Academy for its free educational resources on every subject imaginable, and donors help keep everything free.
Let’s Get Ready
This organization helps low-income high school students get into college by providing free SAT preparation, admissions counseling, and other resources.
McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation
Innovative teachers can apply for grants to help them improve their classroom instruction with unique new methods and ideas.
The NEA Foundation
The NEA Foundation provides grants, programs, and professional development to support quality education for all students.
Pets in the Classroom
Many studies support the benefits of classroom pets for student learning and achievement. This org provides grants to help schools support pets in their classrooms.
Project Lead the Way
PLTW provides career awareness curriculum programs and resources for pre-K–12 students and teachers across the country.
Save the Children
Around the world and here in the United States (especially in rural areas), Save the Children works with vulnerable children whose educations are affected by crises and lack of resources.
Scholarship America
This philanthropic organization assists communities, corporations, foundations, and individuals with fundraising, managing and awarding scholarships to students in need.
S.E.E.K. Foundation
Through workshops and after-school programs, S.E.E.K makes STEM education accessible for K-12 children, especially minorities and those living in underserved communities.
SEO (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity)
The SEO Scholars project is a free eight-year academic program that gets low-income public high school students to and through college, with a 90% college graduation rate.
Teach for America
TFA works to engage more quality professionals in teaching in one of the low-income communities they serve, recruiting from colleges and providing the support and training they need as they serve.
Teaching Matters
This teacher development nonprofit is committed to increasing teacher effectiveness to prepare urban students with critical-thinking and college-readiness skills.
TNTP (The New Teacher Project)
Through impact consulting, research, advocacy, and leadership development, TNTP strives to increase academic experiences for young people of color and students experiencing poverty.
Year Up
Year Up’s programs work with high school grads to help them gain valuable career-readiness skills, including community college education and networking connections.
Literacy Education Nonprofits
826 National
This national youth writing organization is dedicated to helping K-12 students and schools improve their writing education programs.
American Association of School Librarians
As a division of the American Library Association, AASL supports school libraries, librarians, and library education with awards, conferences, publications, and more.
Barbara Bush Foundation
This foundation believes literacy is vital to our country and funds a wide variety of literacy programs to ensure all Americans can read fluently.
Children’s Literacy Initiative
CLI provides books and professional development programs that are independently evaluated and proven to transform learning outcomes for children.
Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
This foundation supports arts and literacy programs in public schools and libraries, including a Bookmaking Competition. They also celebrate new writers and illustrators of exceptional picture books for a diverse audience of children through the Ezra Jack Keats Awards.
First Book
The Stories for All Project™ curates high-quality books representing diverse races, cultures, and identities, and makes them available and affordable to kids in need.
International Literacy Association
The International Literacy Association (ILA) is a professional membership organization for literacy professionals across 128 countries.
Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries
This organization provides grants to school libraries to expand, diversify, and update their collections.
The Lois Lenski Covey Association
Honoring the beloved writer, this nonprofit provides grants for the purchase of children’s books for bookmobile programs. They also fund grants to literacy programs in Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay area.
National Writing Project
This network of educators works to improve the teaching of writing and learning in schools and communities nationwide.
Reach Out and Read
Through a national network of clinicians, Reach Out and Read helps integrate reading into pediatric practices, advising families about the importance of reading with their children.
Room To Read
This global nonprofit works to improve literacy and gender equality in education in countries around the world.
Reading Is Fundamental
RIF is the oldest and largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization in the United States, providing books and reading resources to children nationwide.
ReadWorks
This ed-tech organization provides a free online platform to help children learn to read, along with resources, tools, and content for teachers.
Snapdragon Book Foundation
Snapdragon wants to help school libraries add quality books to their collections, providing grants for materials, resources, and reading projects.
STEM Education Nonprofits
Code.org
Sponsors of the popular Hour of Code project, this ed-tech nonprofit is also the largest provider of K-12 computer science curriculum programs in the United States.
Girls Who Code
Girls Who Code is on a mission to close the gender gap in technology by encouraging girls to take an interest in computer science, programming, coding, and more.
Kid Spark Education
Kid Spark programs help young students learn foundational STEM fluencies starting in pre-K and continuing through elementary and middle school.
MATHCOUNTS
This math-focused nonprofit works with students in grades 6 to 8 through the National Math Club and the MATHCOUNTS competition series.
National Math + Science Initiative
NMSI provides professional development programs for STEM educators, along with resources and support in their teaching endeavors.
NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)
As the world’s largest math education nonprofit, NCTM organizes conferences, provides professional development, issues publications, and advocates for issues that matter to math educators.
NSTA (National Science Teaching Association)
Science educators turn to NSTA for resources, professional development, publications, conferences, events, and more.
oSTEM
This nonprofit professional association is for LGBTQ+ people in the STEM community, including educators. It’s committed to making STEM a safe and diverse environment for all.
Project Scientist
Project Scientist delivers STEM-focused summer and after-school programs in partnership with local schools and organizations, focusing on underserved and marginalized girls ages 4 to 18.
SAE Foundation
Funds raised by the SAE Foundation support SAE International’s award-winning A World in Motion® (AWIM®) PreK-12 STEM education program and STEM scholarships.
Music and Arts Education Nonprofits
Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education.
Arthur Miller Foundation
This foundation provides equitable access to quality theater education in public schools, providing scholarships, resources, and support to new certified theater teachers.
Classics for Kids Foundation
CFKF works to build stringed-instrument education programs in schools, providing grants for instruments, instruction, and more.
Council for Art Education
This nonprofit promotes visual art education for all K-12 students and encourages funding for quality school art programs.
Guitars (and Ukes) in the Classroom
As the name implies, this organization works to put guitars and ukuleles into classrooms, making free music education a possibility for more students.
The Mockingbird Foundation
The Mockingbird Foundation provides funding for music education for children through competitive grants, emergency-related grants, and tour-related grants.
The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation
This music education nonprofit provides vital support services to school districts and new musical instruments to underfunded music programs nationwide
National Art Education Association
The NAEA funds grants for innovative initiatives to support instructional practice, research, and leadership in visual arts education.
P.S. Arts
Through a variety of school and community programs, P.S. Arts works to correct the inequities in public school arts education in underserved areas.
Save the Music Foundation
Save the Music partners with school districts and local communities to build sustainable music programs through grants for new musical instruments, technology, equipment, and resources.
Physical Education and Healthy Living Nonprofits
Action for Healthy Kids
Through a variety of programs, this nonprofit helps support nutrition, physical education, and social-emotional learning in schools and communities.
Common Threads
Common Threads provides cooking and nutrition education classes taught by trained chefs, as well as providing training to caregivers, educators, and healthcare professionals.
Fit Kids
This organization fills the fitness opportunity gap with structured programs that get kids moving, help them fall in love with fitness, and set them up for successful, healthy futures.
Girls on the Run
GOTR designs programming that strengthens 3rd- to 8th-grade girls’ social, emotional, physical, and behavioral skills through physical activity.
Good Sports
Good Sports works directly with the sporting goods industry to obtain a variety of athletic gear, apparel, and footwear that is then donated to children and community sports programs in need.
Green Our Planet
Green Our Planet trains teachers to use school gardens and hydroponic laboratories to teach students STEM, conservation, nutrition, and entrepreneurship.
National Fitness Foundation
The official charity of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, this program supports fitness education by emphasizing student health, goal setting, and personal progress.
SHAPE America
The Society of Health and Physical Educators supports instructors in these fields with professional development, publication, grants, awards, and other resources.
Slow Food USA School Garden Network
Slow Food USA’s School Garden Network aims to connect youth with their food by teaching them how to grow, cook, and enjoy real food.
Whole Kids
Whole Kids is a project supported by Whole Foods, providing garden grants to schools and promoting healthy eating through garden clubs and education.
Do you have any tips to share on working with education nonprofits for school funding? Come share your ideas and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.
Plus, 54+ Unique Fundraiser Ideas and Events for Schools.
