About Spencer Foundation
The Spencer Foundation concentrates its funding on strengthening advanced education research by underwriting dissertation fellowships. All reported grants support the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship cohorts, signaling a strategic investment in developing early-career scholars who produce rigorous education scholarship. The foundation appears focused on building research capacity rather than direct service delivery or institution-building outside of fellowship support.
Focus Areas
Doctoral dissertation fellowships in education researchEarly-career scholar development for education PhD candidatesNationwide cohorts of education researchers (NAEd/Spencer Fellowship program)
Who They Fund
postdoctoral scholars and dissertation researchers (early-career researchers)novice teachers and K-12 educatorspreschool children with diverse abilitiesAfrican American studentsIndigenous communities (e.g., Inga, Natinixwe)low-income students and youth
About Spencer Foundation
The Spencer Foundation’s recent giving is dominated by long-running fellowship support for education researchers, especially through the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program and the NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Those cohort-based grants account for the largest recent awards, including $3,748,782 to the National Academy of Education for postdoctoral fellows and $2,571,900 for dissertation fellows in 2023, followed by renewed multiyear support in 2025. That pattern shows a funder investing in scholar development rather than one-off projects. Beyond fellowships, the foundation also backs education research and public-facing scholarship. It has funded education journalism training at Columbia University and research projects on language variation, disciplinary action, Indigenous language resurgence, and community engagement in schooling. The recent grants list shows support for universities, research centers, and fellowship administrators rather than direct service providers. Across the data, the Spencer Foundation appears to prioritize training pipelines, research capacity, and projects that produce education knowledge over short-term program delivery.
What Spencer Foundation Funds
One clear strand is scholar training. The Spencer Foundation gave $593,600 to Columbia University in the City of New York for the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship Program, 2024-2028, and earlier supported the same program with $592,869 in 2024. It also funds dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships through the National Academy of Education. Another strand centers racialized discipline and language in schools: it awarded $671,438 to Pomona College for "Don't Take That Tone With Me': Linguistic Variation and Disciplinary Action on African American Children in Schools," and $392,629 to the University of California Berkeley for a related project with the same title. The foundation also supports Indigenous education work, including $309,617 to Humboldt State University Sponsored Programs Foundation for "Renewed Approaches to Education: Expanding Natinixwe Indigenous Language Resurgence" and $382,906 to the University of Kansas Center for Research Inc for "The Tribal Education Department Capacity Building Project."
How Spencer Foundation Gives
The typical grant size is $25,000 at the 25th percentile, $50,000 at the median, and $75,000 at the 75th percentile, but the recent record also includes much larger cohort awards and research grants. Grantmaking is recurring: the same fellowship programs appear across multiple years, with renewed payments in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The foundation is a regular funder and funds individuals, consistent with its fellowship-heavy portfolio. Several programs are field-initiated and accept unsolicited applications, including the small and large education research grants and the dissertation fellowship. Other programs, such as the transformative pathway and field-building grants, are invitation-based or otherwise not open in the same way.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$22.8M
Total Assets
$664.8M
Total Revenue
$235.6M
Total Expenses
$36.1M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $25K and $75K, with a median of $50K.
25th Percentile
$25K
Median
$50K
75th Percentile
$75K
Geographic Reach
National45 states funded
About 14% of grants go to recipients in PA.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where Spencer Foundation Funds
Top 10 recipient countries by grant volume for Spencer Foundation.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 973 | $136.4M | 92.4% |
| 2 | Canada | 25 | $2.1M |
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