NEA Foundation News Releases

NEA Foundation Awards $211K in Grants to Educators

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The NEA Foundation announced today that it is awarding 50 grants totaling $211,000 to support public school educators’ efforts to improve student achievement or strengthen their own skills. The grants, of $2,000 or $5,000, were awarded to educators in 33 states.

NEA Foundation Awards $3.75M to Close Achievement Gaps in Three Communities

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Three partnerships bringing together the local education association, the school district, and community leaders, each have been selected by the NEA Foundation to participate in a five-year, $1.25 million effort to transform sets of the nation’s most challenged schools into local and national models for teaching and learning as part of the Foundation’s Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative. The partnerships selected to receive funding are: Columbus, Ohio; Springfield, Mass.; and Durham, N.C.

GE Foundation Awards $1M to Fund NEA Foundation’s Institute for Local Innovation in Teaching & Learning

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The NEA Foundation announced today that it has received a $1 million, two-year grant from the GE Foundation to support the launch of the NEA Foundation’s Institute for Local Innovation in Teaching and Learning. The Institute, which is also funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will serve as a capacity-building engine for collaboration and reform between education unions and their school districts.

New England College Celebrates Founders Day; NEA Foundation President and Alum Serves as Keynote Speaker

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The New England College community will celebrate Founders’ Day 2010 on Tuesday, January 26 at 11:30 a.m. in the Field House. The keynote speaker is Harriet Sanford, a graduate of the NEC Class of 1974 and the President and CEO of the NEA Foundation. Ms. Sanford will receive the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

NEA Foundation’s Institute for Local Innovation in Teaching & Learning Plan Awarded $358K from Gates

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The NEA Foundation announced today a $358,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to plan the creation of the Institute for Local Innovation in Teaching and Learning. The Institute will serve as a capacity-building engine for collaboration and reform between education unions and their school districts.

NEA Foundation Awards $1.12 M to Close Gaps

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The NEA Foundation announced today that it is funding $1.12 million for projects in Milwaukee, Wis., Seattle, Wash., Connecticut, and rural Ohio. These projects are all part of the Foundation’s signature Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative, a set of ground breaking union-district partnerships collaborating to develop and implement comprehensive, sustainable approaches to close the achievement gaps and advance academic achievement

The NEA Foundation Awards $234K in Grants to Educators

Friday, October 23, 2009

The NEA Foundation announced today that it is awarding 51 grants totaling $234,000 to support public school educators’ efforts to improve student achievement or strengthen their own skills. The grants, of $2,000 or $5,000, were awarded to educators in 29 states:

NEA Foundation Announces Finalists for National Education Award

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The NEA Foundation announces today the five national finalists for The NEA Foundation Awards for Teaching Excellence. These five educators will be recognized as the top professionals in their field and the national winner will be announced at the Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education awards gala on Feb. 12, 2010 in Washington, DC.

NEA Foundation and Nickelodeon Partner to Award The Big Green Help Grants to Public Schools across the Country

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The NEA Foundation and Nickelodeon’s The Big Green Help campaign have partnered to award $200,000 in grants to public educators across the country. Forty The Big Green Help Grants in Public Education, ranging up to $5,000 each, will be awarded to support the development and implementation of programs teaching “green” concepts to public elementary and middle school students. The partnership is part of Nickelodeon’s The Big Green Help initiative, which connects kids to energy-saving and earth-friendly activities in their everyday lives, and the NEA Foundation’s grants program that helps prepare the next generation “green” workforce.

NEA Foundation and Staples Foundation for Learning Partner to Award $50,000 in “Green” Grants for Educators

Monday, August 17, 2009

Staples Foundation for Learning (SFFL), a private foundation created by Staples, Inc., today announced it is awarding a $50,000 grant to the NEA Foundation. Funding from SFFL will support Green Grants, a program that provides support for educators to develop and implement ideas, techniques and approaches that integrate environmental education into the classroom to increase student engagement and improve academic achievement.

NEA Foundation Promotes Grant Program; Presents Nobel Prize nominee at 2009 NEA Expo

Friday, July 3, 2009

Thousands of educators visited the NEA Foundation’s booth at the NEA’s 2009 Expo in San Diego to learn more about the Foundation’s grants, for a chance to win an iPod Touch, and to pick up a coveted NEA Foundation “Need a Grant?” bag.

NEA Foundation Funds Five Urban School Districts

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The NEA Foundation announced today that it will build upon the success of its collaborative Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative by awarding five urban public education partnerships $50,000 planning grants. These partnerships will develop proposals to demonstrate how they will work together to improve achievement rates for low income and minority students, while raising performance for all students.

NEA Foundation Supports New K-12 Service-Learning Curriculum

Monday, March 16, 2009

Through Greg Mortenson's best-selling Three Cups of Tea and the author's Pennies for Peace organization, thousands of educators are inspiring young people nationwide to raise money to build schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The NEA Foundation announced today that educators hoping to join this movement can download a free K-12 service-learning toolkit designed to help them create effective penny-raising campaigns as part of their schools' curriculum.

NEA Foundation Video Provides Detailed Guide to Online Grant Application

Friday, March 13, 2009

The NEA Foundation has posted a video that provides a guided tour and detailed instruction of its new online grants application process for its popular $2,000 and $5,000 Learning & Leadership Grants and its Student Achievement Grants. Applications are accepted, reviewed, and granted three times a year. Deadlines are June 1, October 15, and February 1.

New Grants Support Teaching Improvisation in Middle and High School Music Education

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The NEA Foundation, in partnership with MENC: The National Association for Music Education, today announced 10 new "Teaching Improvisation Grants," earmarked to support public educators' work to teach improvisation to middle and high school music students. Part of the NEA Foundation's popular Student Achievement and Learning & Leadership grants program, the $2,000 and $5,000 grants will be awarded over the 2009-2010 school year.

Illinois' Effingham High School Teacher Joseph Fatheree 2009 Member Benefits Awardee for Teaching Excellence

Monday, February 9, 2009

lllinois' Effingham High School teacher Joseph Fatheree won top honors at the NEA Foundation's annual Salute to Excellence in Education Friday night, taking home the coveted $25,000 Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence and sharing the stage with Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Sesame Street's Bob McGrath in front of 900 leaders from public education, business, philanthropy and the government. The gala, which is held in Washington, DC, is a national celebration of the men and women who work in America's public schools.

NEA Foundation Honors Sesame Workshop, Verizon at February 6 Gala in Washington, DC

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The NEA Foundation presented its inaugural Award for Philanthropy in Public Education to Verizon Communications and its 2009 Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education to Sesame Workshop at its annual Salute to Excellence in Education awards gala held on February 6 at the National Museum Building in Washington, DC. Known as the Academy Awards for public education, the Foundation's gala attracted more than 900 leaders from public education, business, philanthropy and the government.

NEA Foundation Applauds Educational Philanthropy

Monday, January 19, 2009

The NEA Foundation announced today that it will present its inaugural Philanthropy in Public Education Award to Verizon Communications in recognition of the company's support of public education and literacy.

NEA Foundation Announces Grants for Technology Teaching

Monday, December 15, 2008

The NEA Foundation's Board Chair, Lauri Fitz-Pegado, Partner of The Livingston Group, announced the receipt of a bequest to the Foundation from the estate of Corene Griffin, of Malibu, CA. The gift will total over $181,000 and will support technology in education.

NEA Foundation Awards $1.34M to Close the Achievement Gaps

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The NEA Foundation today announced that it will award $1,341,000 to three of its Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative pilot sites, continuing its work to advance systemic efforts to increase academic achievement, especially for low income and minority students. The initiative sets five-year goals for each of the pilot sites and is building a body of knowledge about teaching and learning that will be shared with the reform and philanthropic sectors in the years ahead.

NEA Foundation Launches Online Grants Application

Monday, October 20, 2008

In a move it says will make applying for grants easier, more convenient, and less prone to user error, the NEA Foundation today announced that it is launching a web-based application process for its popular $2,000 and $5,000 grants to support public school educators' ideas to improve teaching and learning.

NEA Foundation Names Five Finalists for National Award

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Five public school educators will receive $10,000 from the Horace Mann Companies and national recognition at a Washington, DC awards gala as the 2009 national finalists for the NEA Foundation's Award for Teaching Excellence, according to the NEA Foundation, a public charity created in 1969 to advance student achievement in America's public schools.

Eight Connecticut Schools Selected for Reform

Monday, September 8, 2008

Six organizations have agreed to collaborate on a school reform effort unlike any other in the country that will involve eight of Connecticut's most challenged schools. This unique collaboration will be funded, in part, by a $250,000 award from The NEA Foundation and a $480,000 appropriation from the Connecticut General Assembly.