William T. Grant Foundation Research Grants on Reducing Inequality

The William T. Grant Foundation’s mission is to support research to improve the lives of young people ages 5-25 in the United States. One way it pursues this mission is by investing in high-quality field-initiated studies on reducing inequality in youth outcomes. Research grants on reducing inequality should aim to build, test, or increase understanding of programs, policies, or practices to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.

The Foundation welcomes descriptive studies that clarify mechanisms for reducing inequality or elucidate how or why a specific program, policy, or practice operates to reduce inequality. It also welcomes intervention studies that examine attempts to reduce inequality. In addition, the Foundation seeks studies that improve the measurement of inequality in ways that can enhance the work of researchers, practitioners, or policymakers. The common thread across all of this work, however, is a distinct and explicit focus on reducing inequality—one that goes beyond describing the causes or consequences of unequal outcomes and, instead, identifies leverage points for reducing inequality.

Applications for research grants on reducing inequality must:

• Identify a specific inequality in youth outcomes and show that the outcomes are currently unequal by engaging with the extant literature on the causes and consequences of inequality
• Make a compelling case for the basis of inequality the study will address
• Articulate how findings from the proposed research will help build, test, or increase understanding of a specific program, policy, or practice to reduce the specific inequality that has been identified

The Foundation awards two types of grants:

• Major research grants: Projects involving secondary data analysis are at the lower end of the budget range, whereas projects involving new data collection and sample recruitment can be at the higher end. Proposals to launch experiments in which settings (e.g., classrooms, schools, youth programs) are randomly assigned to conditions sometimes have higher awards.
• Officers’ research grants: This is a funding mechanism for smaller projects than those supported by major research grants. Some are stand-alone projects; others build off larger projects. Projects involving secondary data analysis are typically at the lower end of the budget range, whereas projects involving new data collection and sample recruitment can be at the higher end.

Amount:

• Major research grants: Grants typically range between $100,000-$600,000 and cover two to three years of support
• Officers’ research grants: Grants support projects with budgets ranging from $5,000-$50,000

Eligibility: Tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations.

Link: http://wtgrantfoundation.org/grants/research-grants-reducing-inequality

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