Supports & Resources

Ventures will receive a one-year, unrestricted grant ranging from $150,000 to $250,000, depending on the stage of the idea. If you are still developing your strategy or are in the process of piloting your idea, you are likely to receive a grant on the lower end of our range. If you already have a clear strategy and a successful pilot under your belt, you will probably land toward the top of our range. 

Yes! In addition to financial support, venture leaders participate in an active community of practice to build relationships with and learn from peer organizations, and we convene our cohorts approximately two times a year to facilitate this exchange.

In addition, ventures receive relevant, timely and differentiated support, including one-on-one support with a member of our staff, as well as access to experts and resources to meet their needs in areas such as school model or program design, staffing, DEI, fundraising, financial sustainability, and operations. We also provide support in relation to data collection, impact measurement, analysis, and continuous improvement.

You can learn more about what it is like to be a part of our portfolio in this video featuring some of our Diverse Leaders innovators. 

No, you do not have to be legally incorporated  to apply for NewSchools funding. We can grant funds through fiscal sponsors or, at times, to individuals directly, but we expect that you are working towards securing your non-profit or for-profit status.  For more information regarding eligibility, please take our eligibility quiz. 

While we prioritize investing in new, early-stage organizations (which are typically 0 to 2-years old), we also invest in new initiatives at existing organizations. If you fall in the latter category, know that we are interested in truly new and untried efforts, not incremental improvements to your current work. The early-stage organizations and new initiatives within existing organizations that we fund have a vision for scale — whether it is growing the number of people you serve, deepening the offerings you provide, or influencing the practice of others. For more information regarding eligibility, please take our eligibility quiz. 

NewSchools does not fund 501c4s or policy-focused efforts.

You must first start an account in our funding portal to access and submit the application. We suggest you start your account as soon as possible so that we may send you email updates through the portal. You can preview our application by reviewing this downloadable copy of the application.  

We are excited to learn more about you and your idea through your application, and also want to support you in submitting the strongest application possible. For that reason, we have several opportunities for you to learn more about the funding opportunity, the application and our team.  

Webinar Recording

Office Hours: 

• Monday, March 7 10:30 am -12 pm PT
• Wednesday, March 16 7 am -8:30 pm PT
• Thursday, March 17 1 pm -2:30 pm PT
• Thursday, March 24 3:30 pm -5 pm PT

In addition, feel free to contact us at any time by submitting an inquiry via our inquiry form, or calling our application support hotline (415) 615-6864.

Office hours are informal and a time for you to ask any questions you have regarding the funding opportunity or application. We strongly suggest that you view our webinar prior to joining our office hours as many of your questions may be addressed. We ask you to register for office hours so we have a sense for your questions and can follow-up with you after the session.   

To stay up to date on NewSchools funding opportunities, we encourage you to join our email list.  

If you are not ready to apply, that’s okay. You can join our email list to learn about future opportunities. Remember, we invest in early-stage ideas, so you do not need to have a fully operational organization to apply. If you are unsure whether to apply, we encourage you to  contact us by submitting an inquiry via our inquiry form, or application support hotline (415) 615-6864.

Over the years we’ve heard feedback from applicants that it can be hard navigating our different funding opportunities. Applicants are eager to share their ideas with us but don’t always know how to do it. To make our processes more accessible and equitable for applicants, we have decided to launch a new, centralized funding opportunity for our Learning Solutions, Diverse Leaders and Racial Equity investment areas, as well as our EDge Fund. Throughout this process we will ask you for your feedback to continue to refine our process to ensure your experience is a positive and meaningful one.

Within our EDge fund, we will invest in solutions that extend beyond any single investment area, with a focus on innovations that empower students with learning differences, specifically those who are also facing the impacts of poverty and racism, as well as innovations emerging in response to the pandemic. We are interested in hearing your best ideas for how schools can recover and rebuild from the pandemic and chart new paths for students to realize their full potential.

It depends.

• If you are a school or school system interested in either designing and/or opening a new school in the coming school years, please do not apply to this funding opportunity. NewSchools offers a separate funding opportunity focused on new innovative public schools.  Our most recent funding opportunity closed on January 7, 2022. If you would like to submit an overview of your idea and receive future communications about our school-specific grants, you can do so here.
• If you are applying to implement a specific program or project at only your school, please do not apply  to this funding opportunity. We invest in ideas that can scale beyond one school site.
• If you are a school with an idea that can be scaled to impact students beyond your school or a district with a new idea that will be implemented across your system and it is aligned with our focus areas, investment criteria and eligibility requirements then yes, please apply to this funding opportunity. 

If you are still unsure if you should apply, please send us your question by submitting an inquiry via our inquiry form, or calling our application support hotline (415) 615-6864.