Grants for Field Trips 2026: 297 Funders, $3,000 Median

Field trip source review, Grantsights, November 6, 2026: Grantsights checked the Title IV-A spending rules at 20 U.S.C. 7116 (opens in a new tab) and 20 U.S.C. 7117 (opens in a new tab), the 21st Century Community Learning Centers activities list at 20 U.S.C. 7175 (opens in a new tab), the federal cost rule on entertainment at 2 CFR 200.438 (opens in a new tab), the National Park Service Every Kid Outdoors page (opens in a new tab) and Target's corporate giving page (opens in a new tab) against foundation filings that name field trips. Where official sources stop: no federal page says which bank foundation in your county pays for fifth-grade buses, or which museum will waive admission for a Title I school. The filings below answer both.

Grants for Field Trips: What 990-PF Filings Show

Grantsights analysis of 990-PF education grants pulled November 5, 2026 found 297 foundations that made 788 grants to 518 schools and programs for field trips, worth $12,471,034 in all. According to IRS guidance on Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), the return reports a private foundation's charitable distributions and activities, which is why a school's trip gift shows up there with a purpose line.

The average is about $15,800, and it misleads. According to the same November 5, 2026 pull, the median was $3,000, a quarter of the grants were $800 or less, a quarter were $10,550 or more, and 483 of the 788 came in at $5,000 or under. That's a bus and admission for one grade, not a building. A school asking a local funder for $2,500 to $4,000 is asking for a normal amount.

One gift drives the total. The William K. Bowes Jr. Foundation's $2,292,906 to the Exploratorium in San Francisco in 2023, filed as general operating support that includes the field trip program for schools serving low-income students, is 18% of the national figure by itself. The filing doesn't say how much of it went to trips. Add the Caerus Foundation's 2 Art Institute of Chicago grants and 3 gifts make up 22% of all the money.

Counting every cause, the same match pulled November 5, 2026 reaches 392 foundations and 1,052 grants worth $18,725,658, with a $4,901 median. The extra gifts were filed under youth, arts, environment and other causes, or with no cause tag at all. Grantsights didn't check them by hand, so read them as context; the education count is the checked one.

Private foundations are a real source for trips, but most trip money still comes from elsewhere: district budgets, parent fees, PTA fundraisers, booster clubs and free admission that museums fund themselves. A foundation grant usually fills the gap for students whose families can't pay, or covers the bus the district stopped funding.

Target Field Trip Grants in 2026: What Target's Pages Show

Target's field trip program is the single most searched name in this topic, and as of November 6, 2026 its own pages don't list it. Grantsights checked 2 Target pages that day:

The program appears to have ended. Grantsights didn't find a Target page giving an end date, so this guide doesn't guess one. Third-party grant lists still post old Target deadlines; treat those as stale.

What does exist at Target, per its corporate giving page: a 501(c)(3) nonprofit or an accredited school can fill out a gift card request form and bring it to a local store. The page says the average donation is $25 to $50, the cap is $500 per year per agency, requests run February through December as funding permits, and stores usually answer within 30 days. That covers snacks or a few tickets, not a bus. For the bus, the foundations below are the better route.

Two Kinds of Field Trip Grants: Schools and Destinations

The 788 grants in the November 5, 2026 pull split into 2 groups, and knowing which one you are changes the pitch. Schools ask for buses and tickets for their own students. Destinations (museums, nature centers, history sites, performing arts centers) ask funders to cover trips for schools that couldn't otherwise come, often Title I schools.

Destinations that bring schools in

The largest grants went to destinations. These rows are real filings:

The Brown-Forman gift pays for 2 things, free Sunday admission and Title I trips, so only part of it is trip money. The Curtis Finlay Foundation also gave the Alabama Wildlife Federation $75,000 in 2023 for the same Escambia trips, which makes it a steady yearly funder.

Title I schools are the common thread. The Scripps Family Fund for Education and the Arts gave the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford $20,000 in 2025 and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York $30,000 in 2025, both for trips by Title I schools. The Georgia Power Foundation gave History Cherokee $4,500 in 2024 for a Cherokee County Title I school field trip. A museum or nature center that can name the schools, the grades and the share of students on free lunch has the pitch these funders paid for.

Repeat school programs draw repeat gifts. The Max H. Gluck Foundation gave the Griffith Observatory Foundation $21,750 in 2023 and $25,000 in 2024 for its fifth-grade field trip program, and the Maurice Amado Foundation added $17,500 in 2025. A named, yearly program for one grade is easier to fund than "school outreach."

Schools paying for their own trips

School-side grants are smaller and more frequent. The Woods Foundation gave Lincoln Elementary School District #27 in Illinois $38,672 in 2023, $34,051 in 2024 and $36,126 in 2025 for a Logan County fifth-grade field trip, the clearest example in the data of a funder adopting one grade's trip every year. The Thomas & Linda Koehn Foundation gave Bravo in Des Moines $100,000 in 2023 for buses to take schools to cultural institutions.

Small schools get small, specific checks. The Foster Foundation in Virginia gave Brookneal Elementary School $1,500 in 2025 for a Jamestown trip and Rustburg Elementary School $500 in 2025 for a third-grade trip. The Lamson Howell Foundation gave Randolph Union High School in Vermont $3,500 in 2023 for a marine lab trip. One school in Hawaii, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, received $25,000 from the First Hawaiian Bank Foundation in 2024 toward buses for field trips and other activities.

Museums sometimes pay the bus. The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, a private foundation itself, gave Dysart Unified School District $4,500 and Chandler Unified School District #80 $3,200 in 2023 for transportation to the museum. If a destination near you already funds buses, ask it before you ask anyone else.

Field Trip Grants by State

California's 33 funders lead the November 5, 2026 education pull, followed by Texas with 18 and New York with 17. 37 states have 3 or more field trip funders. This table counts grants by the state where the school or program sits, for the 10 states with 10 or more funders.

Connecticut has far more grants than funders: 193 grants from 13 foundations, most of them small. California's total is lopsided too, since the Exploratorium gift is 64% of it.

State samples in the free preview

Several states open with a field trip funder in the free preview on the Grantsights education funder list. Texas's sample is The Bamberger Foundation, an open-to-requests funder with its deadlines and limits on file; it gave Artemisia Bowden Academy in San Antonio $23,590 in 2023 and The Gathering Place $19,060 in 2024, both filed as education and field trips. Michigan's sample, The Pokagon Fund, gave New Buffalo Area Schools and River Valley School District $13,500 each in 2023 for field trips.

Illinois opens with The Woods Foundation from the fifth-grade example above. Oklahoma's sample is the ONEOK Foundation, which gave the Foundation for Tulsa Schools $10,000 in 2023 for Explore Oklahoma field trips. Pennsylvania's preview opens with a weak fit: the Pittsburgh Child Guidance Foundation's 2025 gifts went to a women's shelter and a teen outreach program, and trips are one small part of broader services in both, so read past the first name there.

California's field trip funders

California's 33 foundations made 87 field trip grants worth $3,585,605, according to the November 5, 2026 pull. California's free preview starts with The Antone and Marie Raymus Foundation, which accepts requests; its returns spell out deadlines, grant limits, what to submit and who to contact. It's a strong fit for a Central Valley elementary school: it gave Weston Elementary School in Ripon $36,500 in 2023 for field trips, Commodore Stockton Skills School $29,390 in 2023 for several trips with prices included, Shackelford Elementary School in Modesto $28,700 in 2023, and Fairview Elementary School in Modesto $25,000 in 2024 for 5 field trips and backpacks.

Read the Raymus purpose lines closely. Several say "prices needed" or "prices listed," which suggests the foundation wants a priced list of trips, not a round number. Other California funders lean toward destinations: The Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation gave the Gibbon Conservation Center $25,000 in 2025 for free field trips for under-resourced Santa Clarita schools, and The Mark Hughes Foundation gave the Skirball Cultural Center $50,000 in 2023 for school field trips.

Why the Education List for Field Trips

Education is where field trip money sits. Of the 1,052 all-cause field trip grants pulled November 5, 2026, 788 carried the education tag, and the hand check found 39 of 40 of those recipients named field trips. Youth and arts funders pay for some trips too, often under the same education tag.

Field trip gifts are a thin slice of these rows: each covers all education giving on 990-PF returns in that state, according to Grantsights analysis of filings pulled October 29, 2026. The share of funders that say they take requests runs from 23% in California to 33% in Texas, and those are the first funders to approach. The education funder list covers every state in one purchase, and you can get your money back within 30 days if it doesn't help you find a trip funder.

Federal Money for Field Trips: 3 Routes Inside Existing Grants

There's no federal grant program named for field trips. Grantsights checked 3 routes on November 6, 2026; all of them run through a district or a program that already has the money.

1. Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment). Under 20 U.S.C. 7117 (opens in a new tab), districts spend part of their Title IV-A money on well-rounded education, and the statute's examples include "supporting the use of field-based or service learning" to deepen students' grasp of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The same list names environmental education, music and the arts, and American history and civics, all common trip subjects. Under 20 U.S.C. 7116 (opens in a new tab), a district with an allocation of $30,000 or more must spend at least 20% on well-rounded activities; a smaller district gives only 1 of 3 spending assurances. The Title IV-A guide explains allocations.

2. 21st Century Community Learning Centers. According to 20 U.S.C. 7175 (opens in a new tab), the 14 kinds of allowed after-school activities include well-rounded education, environmental literacy, cultural programs and STEM programs. Field trips aren't named, so a trip has to serve one of those listed activities. Programs win these awards in competitions their state runs; an after-school program that already has one should check its approved budget before planning trips. See grants for after-school programs.

3. Every Kid Outdoors (the fourth-grade pass). According to the Every Kid Outdoors program page at nps.gov (opens in a new tab), U.S. fourth graders and their families get free access to more than 2,000 federal lands and waters, and the pass year runs September 1 to August 31. The Every Kid Outdoors educator page (opens in a new tab) lets fourth-grade teachers and youth leaders, including after-school, camp and religious group leaders, print up to 300 paper passes at a time, good through August 31, 2027. The pass covers entry, not the bus, which makes it a good pairing with a small foundation request for transportation.

Title I. The Title I schoolwide and targeted assistance sections, 20 U.S.C. 6314 (opens in a new tab) and 6315, don't mention field trips. Whether a trip fits is up to the district's Title I plan and the federal cost rules, so ask the federal programs office before promising Title I money; Title I grants explained covers the basics.

What Title IV-A Doesn't Tell You About Field Trips

According to 2 CFR, entertainment costs are a trap for federal trip money. 2 CFR 200.438 (opens in a new tab) says costs of amusement, diversion and social activities are unallowable unless they have a specific and direct programmatic purpose and are included in the federal award. Set beside the trip filings, that rule teaches 4 things.

1. An end-of-year fun trip is a foundation request, not a federal one. Amusement parks, senior class trips and reward outings fail the programmatic-purpose test. Some private funders pay for them (The Summersault Foundation gave Haddon Township High School in New Jersey $10,000 in 2025 for a senior class trip), but don't build them into a federal budget.
2. Write the lesson first. A trip with a pre-visit lesson, a worksheet and a follow-up project has the "direct programmatic purpose" the rule asks for. The same paperwork reads well to a foundation.
3. Put it in the budget before you book. The rule wants the cost included in the award. A district that adds a trip mid-year may need its state's approval, and many foundations also won't repay costs you've already paid.
4. Federal money moves slowly; buses don't. Field trip dates are set months ahead, while Title IV-A and after-school budgets depend on yearly allocations. A small local foundation grant is often faster for a spring trip.

What a Field Trip Request Should Price

Funders in the November 5, 2026 filings paid for the parts of a trip one at a time. Grantsights analysis of the 788 grants pulled November 5, 2026 turned up these 6 trip costs paid on their own:

Most first-time requests underestimate everything that isn't the ticket. This table is illustrative, not data: costs depend on distance, group size and local bus rates.

Common Mistakes in Field Trip Grant Requests

These 6 mistakes show up in requests of every size, from a $500 third-grade trip to a $250,000 museum program.

• Asking for "field trips" with no list. A common mistake is a round number with no trips named. The Raymus Foundation's filings note prices for each trip; give the destination, the grade, the date and the cost per student.
• Skipping the school foundation or PTA. Many funders give only to 501(c)(3) groups. A district can route the request through its foundation, as Tulsa's Explore Oklahoma trips came through the Foundation for Tulsa Schools. See grants for school foundations and grants for PTAs and PTOs.
• Hiding who can't pay. A red flag for a funder is a request that doesn't say how many students would miss the trip without help. Title I status, free-lunch share or a named group of students is what most destination grants were built on.
• Asking once. The Woods Foundation paid for the same fifth-grade trip 3 years running, and Curtis Finlay paid for Escambia trips in 2023 and 2024. Report back and ask again.
• Mixing a trip into a long wish list. Mixed requests got funded, but 9 of the 40 hand-checked grants bundled trips with supplies, assemblies or other items, and those are harder to judge. Keep the trip as its own line.
• Reading a funder's size, not its habits. Use how to read a 990-PF first. A bank foundation whose trip gifts ran $500 isn't the place for a week-long trip.

Related Guides for School Trips

Schools and parent groups planning the whole year can start with grants for teachers and schools, and outdoor and science trips have more funders in grants for environmental education programs. Summer outings by day camps fit grants for summer camps better than this guide. Parish and diocesan schools can pair trip money with the funders in grants for Catholic schools, and Protestant and nondenominational day schools can do the same with grants for Christian schools.

Destinations that host school groups should compare notes with their own sector's guide: grants for museums, grants for science centers, grants for nature centers and grants for zoos and aquariums each list funders that pay for school visits. Districts hunting for state and federal trip or enrichment money can search the Grantsights grant database, which lists open notices state by state.

FAQ: Common Questions

Are there grants for field trips? Yes. 297 foundations made 788 education grants for field trips in the pull dated November 5, 2026.

Does Target still offer field trip grants? Not on Target's own pages as of November 6, 2026. Stores still take gift card donation requests.

How much is a typical field trip grant? The median was $3,000, and 483 of 788 grants were $5,000 or less.

Can Title I or Title IV-A money pay for field trips? Sometimes, inside the district's plan, when the trip has a direct teaching purpose and is in the budget.

Can a teacher apply for a field trip grant? Usually through the school, its PTA or its foundation, which receives the check.

Can a museum or nature center get grants to bring schools in? Yes. Destinations received the largest gifts in the filings, often for Title I school visits.

Sources

• 20 U.S.C. 7116, Title IV-A local applications and spending assurances (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 20 U.S.C. 7117, activities to support well-rounded educational opportunities (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 20 U.S.C. 7175, 21st Century Community Learning Centers local activities (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 20 U.S.C. 6314, Title I schoolwide programs (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 20 U.S.C. 6315, Title I targeted assistance schools (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 2 CFR 200.438, entertainment and prizes (eCFR) (opens in a new tab)
• National Park Service: Every Kid Outdoors (opens in a new tab)
• Every Kid Outdoors: passes for educators (opens in a new tab)
• Target: Corporate Giving (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: About Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)