Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation
ActivePhilanthropy & Voluntarism
About Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation
The Stuart Foundation is a California-focused education philanthropy that backs organizations working to improve public school systems, policy, and student outcomes rather than direct-service charities. Its portfolio leans heavily toward research, advocacy, field-building, and intermediary organizations that influence statewide education reform, with strong ties to California institutions and a few national thought leaders. The repeated support for the foundation’s own Stuart Foundation entity, plus multiple grants to the same partners, suggests a relationship-based strategy with sustained commitments to a core set of grantees.
Focus Areas
California public school reformEducation policy research and advocacyHigh school redesign and college/career pathwaysEquity-focused education organizations serving California studentsTeacher and school district improvement initiativesYouth law and education justice
Giving Approach
Concentrated giving with many repeat grantees and multi-grant relationships; it tends to make relatively substantial grants to a core network of policy, research, and advocacy organizations, often through California-based intermediaries and universities.
Learning Policy Institute, Linked Learning Alliance, EdSource Inc., Alliance for Excellent Education Inc, National Center for Youth Law
About Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation
The Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation made two very large grants in the most recent reporting period, including a 2025 grant of $28,947,847 and a 2024 grant of $25,666,224. The reported recipients are redacted as “See Statement 19” and “See Statement 20,” but the scale points to concentrated, institutional-level giving rather than a broad set of small awards. That pattern fits the foundation’s public program structure in California, where it supports adolescent learning, civic education, systems change, and targeted work for students furthest from opportunity. Its named grantmaking areas show a strong education orientation. The foundation backs collaborative funds such as the Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund and the Purpose of Education Fund, both housed at the California Community Foundation, along with the California Thriving Youth Initiative. It also maintains a separate Dwight Stuart Youth Fund for direct services to children and youth from underserved communities in Los Angeles County. Across those efforts, the throughline is support for public education, youth development, and the systems around them. The recent grant record suggests the foundation operates with large, infrequent commitments at the institutional level while keeping its program focus centered on California youth.
What Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation Funds
In adolescent learning, the foundation supports the Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund, a collaborative fund housed at the California Community Foundation that funds research, policy, and scaled practice to improve high school experiences, assessments, college admission practices, and transitions to postsecondary education. It also backs the California Thriving Youth Initiative, which combines strategic grantmaking, convenings, and narrative work around adolescent thriving. Civic education is another clear emphasis. Through the Purpose of Education Fund, the foundation supports young people as informed, engaged agents of change, with a focus on public education’s role in building civic participation, belonging, purpose, leadership, and agency. Its systems work is equally explicit: the Transforming Systems for Equity focus targets equitable and adequate funding, coherence and continuous improvement, and assessment and accountability systems that measure what matters for thriving students. The Foster Youth and Other Priority Populations focus extends that approach to students furthest from opportunity, including youth experiencing homelessness, justice-involved youth, newcomer students, and multilingual students.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$25M
Total Assets
$520.3M
Total Revenue
$41.2M
Total Expenses
$34M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $10K and $60K, with a median of $30K.
25th Percentile
$10K
Median
$30K
75th Percentile
$60K
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation Funds
Top 2 recipient countries by grant volume for Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 432 | $25.5M | 99.5% |
| 2 |
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