Grants for Coding Programs for Kids 2026: CS Funders
Quick Answer: If you're running a coding club, a youth computer science nonprofit or a girls-in-tech program, grants for coding programs for kids come mostly from private foundations, and many of those are the charitable arms of technology companies.
Full answer and how we checked it
Grantsights analysis of 990-PF education grants pulled October 31, 2026 found 89 foundations that made 146 grants to youth coding and computer science programs, totaling $21,391,434. California (20 foundations), New York (18) and Washington (11) lead, and California's free preview sample is the Broadcom Foundation. Federal school money can pay for computer science too, but it flows through states and districts, not straight to clubs.
This guide is for founders and staff at youth coding nonprofits, teachers who run school coding clubs, librarians running after-school coding, and leaders of girls-in-tech programs. If your students build and compete with robots, grants for robotics teams covers the competition sponsors that fund them, and those funders differ from the ones below.
Data note: The coding counts come from a Grantsights search of 990-PF education grants, pulled October 31, 2026, for recipients or purposes naming coding clubs, coding classes, youth or K-12 computer science, computer science teachers and well-known youth coding groups. Grantsights checked 40 matched recipients by hand, and 36 were youth coding or K-12 computer science programs (counting school coding classes and computer science teacher groups); the 4 misses were adult coding and civic technology groups. Medical coding and "non-coding" genome research were excluded, and so were Broadcom Coding with Commitment science fair awards. Statewide education figures come from Grantsights analysis of 990-PF education grants by state, pulled October 29, 2026.
In this guide (11 sections)
- Coding Programs Aren't Robotics Teams: 4 Differences in Who Pays
- Grants for Coding Programs for Kids: What 990-PF Filings Show
- Why the Education List, Not the Youth List
- What NSF and the Education Department Don't Tell You About Coding Clubs
- Costing a Coding Program for a Grant Request
- 6 Coding Projects Foundations Have Paid For
- Common Mistakes in Coding Program Grant Requests
- A Coding Program's Funding Calendar
- Related Guides for Coding and STEM Programs
- FAQ: Common Questions
- Sources
Foundations near you already fund this work. See three in your state that take requests, with how to apply. Free, about a minute.
Foundations that fund this work
67,088 private foundations gave to schools, colleges, libraries and scholarship funds
From their own IRS Form 990-PF filings (tax years 2019 to 2025). Pick your state to see who gave there, with one foundation in full. About the list
Across the US, these foundations gave 871,704 grants totaling $51,422,345,287.
Historical giving does not establish an open application or eligibility for your organization. For-profit operators should check each foundation's applicant rules before buying.
The full list names all 67,088, state by state: what each gave, to whom, for what, and a link to its filings. One payment, no subscription.
Computer science source review, Grantsights, October 31, 2026: Grantsights checked the National Science Foundation's Computer Science for All program page (opens in a new tab), the U.S. Department of Education's Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment page (opens in a new tab), its 21st Century Community Learning Centers page (opens in a new tab), the Bureau of Labor Statistics outlook for software developers (opens in a new tab) and the statutory definitions in 20 U.S.C. 7801 (opens in a new tab), then checked them against foundation filings. Where official sources stop: none of them counts how many kids attend coding clubs outside school or what a club costs per student, and that's the number your proposal has to supply.
Coding Programs Aren't Robotics Teams: 4 Differences in Who Pays
A coding program and a robotics team often share a classroom, yet 4 differences send them to different funders. Get these straight before you borrow a robotics team's prospect list.
| Feature | Robotics team | Coding program |
|---|---|---|
| Biggest cost | Competition registration, kits, travel to events | Instructor pay, laptops, curriculum and teacher training |
| Typical sponsor | FIRST and REC Foundation sponsor grants, NASA team grants, local manufacturers | Software, chip and finance company foundations, family foundations |
| Outcome a funder counts | Seasons completed, events attended, awards | Students completing a course, girls and first-generation students reached, teachers trained |
| Where the work happens | One team, one season | Clubs, classes or summer cohorts that can run all year |
The second row matters most, and it's the strongest reason to keep separate prospect lists. The robotics funders in the competition world rarely show up in the coding filings, and the coding filings are full of company foundations from software and semiconductor firms. If your program mixes both, write 2 versions of your case: one about the build season and one about the year-round course.
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Grants for Coding Programs for Kids: What 990-PF Filings Show
Foundations reporting grants on IRS Form 990-PF are a main source for youth coding nonprofits, along with company sponsorships, school district contracts and individual donors. According to IRS guidance about Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), private foundations use the form to report charitable distributions and activities, so each grant below traces to a public return. Grantsights analysis of 990-PF education grants pulled October 31, 2026 found 89 foundations that made 146 grants to youth coding and computer science programs, totaling $21,391,434, which works out to roughly $146,500 per grant. That average is lifted by a few national gifts. These grants show the range:
| Funder | Coding program | State | Grant | Purpose as filed | Tax year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Musk Foundation | Code.org, Seattle | WA | $2,130,000 | Access to and participation in computer science in schools | 2024 |
| Salesforce Foundation | Code.org, Seattle | WA | $2,000,000 | Education and career opportunities for young people | 2024 |
| Gordon E. and Betty I. Moore Foundation | Scratch Foundation, Boston | MA | $1,960,000 | AI in a coding platform for creative learning for youth | 2024 |
| MKA Charitable Fund | Kode With Klossy, New York | NY | $1,300,000 | Purpose and operations | 2024 |
| TE Connectivity Foundation | Technovation, Menlo Park | CA | $500,000 | Technology education for girls from under-resourced communities | 2025 |
| Infosys Foundation USA | Computer Science Teachers Association, New York | NY | $300,000 | Teacher training | 2025 |
| Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation | Code in the Schools, Baltimore | MD | $200,000 | General operations for coding and computer science teaching | 2024 |
| Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation | Code Girls United, Kalispell | MT | $80,000 | After-school coding program | 2024 |
For example, Code Girls United in Kalispell, Montana, received $80,000 from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation in 2023 and again in 2024 for its after-school coding program, which shows a regional funder backing a small-state program 2 years running. One organization in Pennsylvania, STEM Coding Lab in Pittsburgh, drew $100,000 a year from the Trivedi Family Foundation for its operating budget in 2023 and 2024, $100,000 from the Hillman Family Foundations in 2024 and $25,000 from the Grable Foundation in 2023 for computer science teaching in the Clairton and Sto-Rox school districts and Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Youth coding grants by state
| State | Foundations that gave to youth coding | Grants | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 20 | 31 | $8,053,217 |
| New York | 18 | 28 | $2,129,500 |
| Washington | 11 | 15 | $7,767,020 |
| Texas | 8 | 11 | $255,500 |
| Illinois | 5 | 7 | $975,000 |
| Mississippi | 5 | 7 | $536,725 |
| Pennsylvania | 4 | 8 | $280,000 |
| Wisconsin | 3 | 3 | $14,700 |
These state figures come from the October 31, 2026 Grantsights pull of 990-PF education grants and count where the recipient sits, not the funder. 8 states had 3 or more foundations giving to youth coding.
Why Washington, California and New York look so large
Read the top 3 rows with care, because national groups sit in each. Code.org is in Seattle, so Washington's $7.8 million includes gifts from funders across the country, among them the Musk Foundation, the Salesforce Foundation and the Gates Foundation, which gave $450,000 in 2024 under K-12 education. California holds Technovation, a girls' technology entrepreneurship program in Menlo Park, and New York holds Girls Who Code, Kode With Klossy, Code Nation and the Computer Science Teachers Association. A local club in Seattle or Brooklyn competes with those national brands, not alongside them.
Texas and Wisconsin show the local pattern. In Texas, The Electric Company Charitable Foundation gave the Boys & Girls Clubs of El Paso $5,000 in 2024 for a science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) program for ages 6 to 18. In Wisconsin, the Annmarie Foundation gave the Carleton A. Friday Memorial Library in New Richmond $9,700 in 2022 for a coding class pack and other hands-on kits. Mississippi's count includes young-adult coding academies such as Base Camp Coding Academy in Water Valley, which drew $75,000 from the C Spire Foundation in 2024, so a middle school club there has fewer true peers than the number suggests.
California's coding funders
California's 20 foundations made 31 grants worth $8,053,217 in the pull. The free preview on the Grantsights education funder list for California leads with the Broadcom Foundation, which doesn't list itself as taking unsolicited requests. Its filings show $125,000 to the Discovery Science Center of Orange County in 2023 for code curriculum and code clubs, $100,000 to Raspberry Pi Foundation North America in 2023 for Code Club development in the United States, $50,000 to the Tiger Woods Foundation for multi-site code clubs and $10,000 to Girls Inc. of Orange County in 2024 for after-school STEM with an emphasis on coding. Other California gifts in the pull went to public institutions: the Fremont Bank Foundation gave New Haven Unified School District $50,000 in 2023 for an elementary and middle school coding and robotics pilot, and the KLA Foundation gave the San Jose Public Library Foundation $50,000 in both 2024 and 2025 for library coding and computer science programs.
Why the Education List, Not the Youth List
Youth coding programs sit between 2 causes, and the filings lean toward education. In a broader October 30 to 31, 2026 search that wasn't hand-checked across causes, about 92 foundations tagged their coding gifts as education against about 70 that used a youth tag, and most matched gifts carried no cause tag at all. That's why this guide points to the education list. It also fits the pitch: funders read a coding club as a way to add computer science where a school can't.
| State | Education grants on file | Funders in the state | Funders open to requests | Median gift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 82,254 | 13,764 | 3,279 | $5,000 |
| California | 81,479 | 12,291 | 2,871 | $5,000 |
| Pennsylvania | 49,046 | 8,016 | 2,493 | $5,000 |
| Texas | 48,431 | 6,756 | 2,256 | $5,000 |
| Illinois | 37,987 | 6,431 | 1,921 | $5,000 |
| Washington | 14,231 | 2,593 | 835 | $5,000 |
| Mississippi | 3,631 | 858 | 312 | $5,000 |
According to Grantsights analysis of 990-PF education filings pulled October 29, 2026, the median education gift was $5,000 in every state in this table, so a first ask of $5,000 to $10,000 from a family foundation is a sensible size. One state's funder list costs $29; $99 buys a year of every cause list; and either list can be returned for a refund inside 30 days. Many of the funders open to requests in these states also back school foundations, which is why grants for school foundations is worth a read if a district foundation hosts your club.
What NSF and the Education Department Don't Tell You About Coding Clubs
Federal pages describe computer science money that a local club rarely touches directly. These 5 points come from reading them next to the filings.
- Computer Science for All is archived. According to NSF (the National Science Foundation), the Computer Science for All (CSforAll: Research and RPPs) funding opportunity, NSF 24-555, now has a program status of archived, with the page last updated July 24, 2025. It funded research and research-practice partnerships to bring computer science to preK-12 schools, not after-school clubs, so don't apply to it or list it as an open prospect.
- Computer science is in the law's definition. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act defines a well-rounded education to include courses and programming in subjects such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science, along with arts, music and others the state or district chooses. Quote that line when you ask a district to pay for your club.
- Title IV-A money goes to states first. According to ED (the U.S. Department of Education), the Student Support and Academic Enrichment program shows estimated total funding of $1,380,000,000, lists state education agencies as eligible and supports a well-rounded education plus better use of technology and digital literacy. The district decides, so your proposal goes to its federal programs office. Read the Title IV-A guide before that meeting.
- 21st Century Community Learning Centers are subgrants. The Education Department describes the program as supporting community learning centers that offer academic enrichment during non-school hours, especially for students at high-poverty and low-performing schools, with state agencies as the eligible applicants. A coding nonprofit usually joins as a partner of a center that already holds a subgrant. Grants for after-school programs covers that route in detail.
- The jobs case is real, so cite it carefully. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) outlook data, employment of software developers, quality assurance analysts and testers is projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, with about 106,100 openings a year and a 2025 median pay of $134,040. Those are adult job numbers; pair them with what your students actually learn, not a promise that a 10-year-old will land one.
What most guides don't mention is that a corporate foundation's gift often follows its employees. Infosys Foundation USA gave the Computer Science Teachers Association $300,000 in 2025 for teacher training, and the AMD Foundation gave Code.org $150,000 in 2024 for young women in computer science. If a local tech employer's staff already volunteer with your club, ask them who runs their company's giving.
Costing a Coding Program for a Grant Request
Most coding programs underestimate the cost of keeping devices working and instructors paid between grant cycles. Free curricula cover lessons, but they don't cover people or hardware. This table is illustrative, not data: costs vary by region, program length and whether a school lends you its lab.
| Cost line | Why it matters | Often missed? |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor or coach stipends | Volunteers drop off mid-semester without pay | No |
| Laptops or Chromebooks | Students without a device at home can't practice | No |
| Device repair and replacement | Batteries and keyboards fail after 2 to 3 years | Yes |
| Teacher training | A school can't keep the class after you leave without trained staff | Yes |
| Snacks and transport | After-school attendance drops without them | Yes |
| Software licenses and hosting | Some tools are free for students but not for programs | Yes |
Report cost per student completing a course, not cost per student enrolled. Completion is the number a careful funder trusts, and it's the one that shows whether your girls or first-generation students stay through week 10.
6 Coding Projects Foundations Have Paid For
Each of these 6 projects matches a grant in the October 31, 2026 pull.
- School-day computer science. Snap Foundation gave 9 Dots Community Learning Center in Torrance, California, $50,000 in 2023 for an in-class computer science curriculum fund.
- Curriculum for a new school. All Points North Foundation gave the Ann Richards School Foundation in Austin $80,000 in 2023 for Year 1 of Hello World, which expanded its computer science curriculum.
- Coding for youth with disabilities. Baptist Community Ministries gave Families Helping Families in New Orleans $150,000 in 2023 for coding for transitioning youth with autism, and the Taft Foundation gave Tech Kids Unlimited in New York $90,000 in 2024.
- Code clubs inside a science center. The Broadcom Foundation gave the Discovery Science Center of Orange County $125,000 in both 2023 and 2024 for code curriculum and code clubs.
- District labs. The Wilson W. Phelps Foundation gave Fullerton School District $125,714 in 2023, partly to expand coding and science in a STEM lab.
- Girls' programs. The Henry Luce Foundation gave Girls Who Code $100,000 in 2023 for its mentoring corps; for more funders that back girls specifically, see grants for programs for girls.
Common Mistakes in Coding Program Grant Requests
These 5 mistakes show up when a coding program writes like a tech startup instead of a school partner.
- Pitching jobs instead of kids. A red flag for education funders is a proposal that promises six-figure careers to elementary students. Lead with skills, confidence and course completion.
- Counting sign-ups, not finishers. A common mistake is reporting 200 enrolled students when 70 finished. Report both, and explain the gap.
- Ignoring the school. Funders ask whether your class will outlast your grant. Show the teacher you've trained and the district's commitment.
- Underestimating hardware. Devices age fast, and a grant that buys laptops with no repair line leaves you short in year 3.
- Asking national-size amounts. Local coding groups shouldn't size asks on Code.org's gifts. Use how to read a 990-PF to find each foundation's usual gift.
A Coding Program's Funding Calendar
Here's a 12-month plan that splits asks between foundations and school partners.
| Month | Action |
|---|---|
| January | Total last year's students, completions, girls served and cost per completer |
| February | Meet district federal programs staff about Title IV-A and after-school partnerships |
| March to May | Send 6 to 10 foundation requests, starting with education funders near you |
| June | Report to current funders with student projects, shared with permission |
| July to August | Run summer camps and train teachers for fall |
| September to December | Ask local tech employers about volunteer teams and company giving |
The Grantsights grant database tracks open federal and state notices, including education programs where a coding nonprofit may partner with a district or library.
Related Guides for Coding and STEM Programs
These guides cover the partners and neighbors that share your funders.
If your program runs out of a public library, grants for libraries lists funders who pay for library technology programs. Clubs that share space with a makerspace can borrow ideas from grants for makerspaces. School enrichment programs that compete for the same education foundations include speech and debate, covered in grants for debate programs, and chess, covered in grants for chess programs. Programs that teach coding to adult women rather than kids fall outside the counts here, and grants for women's centers covers the community centers that run job training for women.
FAQ: Common Questions
Is there a federal grant for a kids' coding club? Not directly; federal school money reaches clubs through states and districts.
How many foundations fund youth coding programs? 89 in Grantsights' search of 990-PF education grants pulled October 31, 2026.
Why is Washington so high for coding grants? Code.org is in Seattle, so national gifts to it count as Washington grants.
How do coding funders differ from robotics funders? Coding leans on tech company and family foundations; robotics leans on competition sponsors.
Can federal money pay for computer science in schools? Yes. Computer science is in the law's definition of a well-rounded education.
What's a typical foundation grant for a local coding program? Often $5,000 to $25,000; the statewide education median is $5,000 in most large states.
Sources
- National Science Foundation: Computer Science for All (CSforAll: Research and RPPs), NSF 24-555 (opens in a new tab)
- U.S. Department of Education: Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program (Title IV, Part A) (opens in a new tab)
- U.S. Department of Education: Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers (Title IV, Part B) (opens in a new tab)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers (opens in a new tab)
- 20 U.S.C. 7801: Definitions (United States Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
- IRS: About Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)
Last updated October 31, 2026. Published by Grantsights from public sources. See our editorial policy, how we build and check guides, corrections and how we make money.
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