Spencer Foundation Grants 2026: Research Grants, Deadlines

Updated Nov 10, 20264 official sources

Quick Answer: If you're a university, school district or research nonprofit hoping to apply, no Spencer Foundation research grant was open on November 10, 2026.

Full answer and how we checked it

Spencer's Application Deadlines page listed all 5 research programs as closed, and on October 27, 2026 the foundation said it won't open new Small, Large or Racial Equity Research Grant competitions from January to June 2027 while it redesigns them, with new programs expected in June 2027. Published caps run from $50,000 (Small) to $500,000 (Large). Grants go to a university, school district, research group or other nonprofit that employs the researcher, never to the person. According to the foundation's Form 990-PF for the year ended March 31, 2025 (EIN 36-6078558), it paid $24.3 million in 214 grants.

Who this is for: This guide is for universities, colleges, school districts, research institutes and education nonprofits whose researchers want Spencer Foundation grants, and for the sponsored-research offices that submit on their behalf. It covers what's open, what's paused, who counts as an eligible applicant, who actually got paid, and where to look during the pause. Grantsights isn't affiliated with the Spencer Foundation.

Data note: Grant figures come from the foundation's own Form 990-PF for the fiscal year April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, read from the e-filed return on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer on November 10, 2026. Grantsights parsed all 214 lines of the grants-paid list, and they add up exactly to the return's line 3a total of $24,318,536. Grantsights set aside 2 lines worth $4,285,877 to the National Academy of Education for the NAEd/Spencer dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships, because that money passes through to individual scholars chosen by NAEd, and 7 membership dues lines worth $118,600 (Council on Foundations, Forefront and others), which no one applies for. The list has no employee matching gifts, no grants paid straight to individuals and no giving-platform lump sums. That leaves 205 grants worth $19,914,059, median $74,968.

Last updated: 2026-11-10.

In this guide

Spencer Foundation grants open now: 9 routes checked
The 2027 pause: what Spencer announced on October 27, 2026
Who can apply: the institution is the grantee
Who Spencer Foundation grants actually fund
How to apply to the Spencer Foundation, step by step
What Spencer's Grant Pages Don't Tell You
Where to look while Spencer's core programs pause
How Grantsights Checked This Guide
Sources

Spencer Foundation grants open now: 9 routes checked

Grantsights checked 9 Spencer routes on November 10, 2026. None of the 6 research grant routes was taking applications, 2 fellowships for individuals were between cycles, and 1 fellowship for journalists had a posted deadline.

Spencer route	Pays for	Who applies	Published amount	Status on November 10, 2026	Source page
Research Grants on Education: Small	Field-initiated education research, 1 to 5 years	PI with a doctorate, through a nonprofit or public institution	Up to $50,000, plus up to $10,000 for a course release; no indirect costs	Closed. No new competition January to June 2027	Small grants page (opens in a new tab)
Research Grants on Education: Large	Field-initiated education research, 1 to 5 years	Same; preproposal first	$125,000 to $500,000 in 3 tiers, including up to 15% indirect	Closed. No new competition January to June 2027	Large grants page (opens in a new tab)
Racial Equity Research Grants	Research on understanding and disrupting racial inequality in education	Same; intent-to-apply form first	Up to $75,000; no indirect costs	Closed. No new competition January to June 2027	Racial Equity page (opens in a new tab)
Research-Practice Partnerships	Research by existing partnerships of researchers and practitioners, up to 3 years	Researcher or practice partner as PI; preproposal, then full proposal by invitation	Up to $400,000, including up to 15% indirect	Closed. Current round's proposals were due October 28, 2026 and will be decided on schedule	RPP page (opens in a new tab)
Vision Grants	12 to 18 months of team planning for large research on transforming education systems	PI with a doctorate or relevant experience	$75,000; no indirect costs	Closed. Program continues; next date not posted	Vision Grants page (opens in a new tab)
Transformative Research Grants	Carrying out a Vision Grant's research plan	Completed Vision grantees only	Up to $3.5 million	Invitation by prior award. No open call	Vision Grants page (opens in a new tab)
NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship	One year of dissertation writing	Individual doctoral candidates at U.S. graduate schools	$30,000 on NAEd's page ($27,500 on Spencer's)	Not accepting applications. Opens August 2027 (expected)	NAEd dissertation page (opens in a new tab)
NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship	A year of research by early-career scholars	Individuals with a doctorate earned 2021 to 2025 (2027 cycle)	$80,000 on NAEd's page ($70,000 on Spencer's)	Not accepting applications. Opens August 2027 (expected)	NAEd postdoctoral page (opens in a new tab)
Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship (Columbia)	A year of long-form education reporting	Individual journalists; no academic prerequisites	Stipend up to $85,000 plus $7,500 research budget	Open. Deadline February 4, 2027 for the 2027-28 cohort	How to apply (opens in a new tab)

Recently closed: the Research-Practice Partnership full proposals (due October 28, 2026, by invitation). Spencer's Field Building Grants page and its AI and Education Initiative page describe the work but list no application; the AI page says AI-focused work is welcome across the regular research programs.

The biggest grants are the hardest to reach. Spencer's Transformative Research Program page says those grants are open only to teams that have completed a Vision Grant, and that it intends to fund one to two of them a year.

The honest read: an institution can't start a Spencer research application until mid-2027 at the earliest, and the programs that come back may look different.

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The 2027 pause: what Spencer announced on October 27, 2026

On October 27, 2026, Spencer's president and director of programs posted a letter saying the foundation will pause 3 core programs in the first half of 2027: Research Grants on Education: Small, Research Grants on Education: Large, and Racial Equity Research Grants. The Small, Large and Racial Equity program pages each now say Spencer is "not currently accepting new applications."

The reason is volume. According to the letter, the number of proposals Spencer receives has "more than quadrupled" across its programs over 4 years, and funding rates fell from 9% a decade ago to 2% last year. In plain numbers, 2% means about 1 funded proposal for every 50 submitted.

What the letter and FAQ say won't change:

Spencer says it isn't reducing the money it gives for research and plans to spend its full 2027 grant budget.
Transformative Research programs, including Vision Grants, continue without interruption.
The dissertation, postdoctoral and journalism fellowships keep their schedules.
Competitions already underway, including the Research-Practice Partnership round due October 28, 2026, proceed as announced, and existing grants aren't affected.

What may change: the FAQ says programs may come back with different priorities, eligibility rules, funding amounts or review processes, or be combined or replaced, and that "no decisions" had been made as of fall 2026. It expects to announce refreshed programs in June 2027 and open them on a staggered schedule. Spencer is collecting input through a public questionnaire linked from the letter.

This guide doesn't guess what the new programs will pay. Treat the caps in the table above as the last published terms, not a promise.

Who can apply: the institution is the grantee

Spencer pays organizations, not people, in 6 of its 9 routes. The Applicant Information and Policies page says Spencer "does not award grants directly to individuals," so every proposal must come through an administering organization with a nonprofit determination from the IRS: a university, college, research organization, school district, 501(c)(3) nonprofit or non-governmental organization.

What that means in practice:

The PI applies, the institution signs. A researcher registers on Spencer's SmartSimple portal and builds the proposal, but an authorized representative of the institution (usually the grants and contracts office) must sign off and accept responsibility for the money. Intent-to-apply forms and preproposals don't need the sign-off.
A doctorate is required for most programs. PIs and Co-PIs need an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field. Research-Practice Partnerships and Vision Grants also accept relevant professional experience or a terminal professional degree, which lets a district leader serve as a PI.
Graduate students can't lead. They may be on the team but can't be PI or Co-PI. Their route is the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship.
Independent researchers need a home. Someone without an institution needs a nonprofit willing to administer the grant before applying. Spencer's own page lists school districts and 501(c)(3) nonprofits as acceptable, so a research nonprofit or fiscal partner can fill that role if it meets the policy.
International applicants are welcome. Proposals come in English with U.S. dollar budgets. An organization outside the U.S. without IRS status will need an equivalency determination through NGOSource if it's funded.
One at a time. A PI or Co-PI can hold only one active Spencer research grant and have only one proposal under review across the Small, Large, Racial Equity and RPP programs. Vision Grants are the exception.

Indirect costs follow one rule across programs: none on grants of $75,000 or less, and up to 15% of total direct costs above that. Spencer says it doesn't pay government-negotiated overhead rates.

Who Spencer Foundation grants actually fund

According to Grantsights analysis of the return for the year ended March 31, 2025, 205 grants worth $19.9 million went to 144 differently named recipients in 37 states, Washington, D.C., and 10 other countries. The median was $74,968, and the middle half ran from about $50,000 to $119,268. Colleges, universities and their research foundations took 174 of the grants and 81.4% of the dollars.

Grant size (year ended March 2025)	Grants	Total paid	Share of analyzed dollars
Under $25,000	11	$187,217	0.9%
$25,000 to $49,999	43	$1,930,484	9.7%
$50,000 to $75,000	85	$5,540,281	27.8%
$75,001 to $149,999	29	$3,291,213	16.5%
$150,000 to $249,999	29	$5,287,295	26.6%
$250,000 or more	8	$3,677,569	18.5%
Analyzed grants	205	$19,914,059	100%

Two numbers show the program caps at work: 30 grants were exactly $50,000 (the Small Grants cap) and 31 were exactly $75,000 (the Racial Equity and Vision cap). Payments on larger multi-year grants also arrive in pieces, so a $400,000 award can show up as a smaller line in one year.

For comparison, the return for the year ended March 31, 2024 lists 254 grants and $20,033,782 paid. After setting aside the same kinds of lines (2 NAEd fellowship lines worth $2,142,939 and 5 dues lines worth $70,700), 247 grants worth $17.8 million had a median of exactly $50,000. According to the Spencer Foundation annual financial report for the year ended March 31, 2026 (audited statements posted on its Financial Reports page), grants authorized rose from $22,832,054 in the year ended March 2025 to $24,566,140 in the year ended March 2026.

Where the money went

New York led with 19 grants and $3,174,202 (15.9% of analyzed dollars), followed by California with 26 grants and $2,339,329, Illinois ($1,230,466), Michigan ($1,157,304), Pennsylvania ($1,022,009), Virginia ($990,985), Massachusetts ($989,900) and Texas ($932,407). Fifteen grants worth $1,057,447 went outside the U.S., to universities and research groups in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Uganda, New Zealand, Israel, Hong Kong, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Top recipient institutions

Recipient (year ended March 2025)	Grants	Total paid
William T. Grant Foundation, New York	2	$1,300,000
Michigan State University	6	$815,191
University of Virginia	6	$791,120
University of California, Berkeley	5	$755,504
University of Texas at Austin	6	$632,415
Columbia University (journalism fellowship)	1	$593,600
Stanford University	4	$464,296
New York University	3	$433,332
University of Kansas Center for Research	1	$382,906
Brown University	3	$379,506

The William T. Grant Foundation lines co-fund that foundation's Institutional Challenge Grant program for 2024 and 2025, and the Columbia line pays for the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship for 2024 to 2028. Neither is a route an outside applicant can use.

What it pays for, with named examples

Nearly every line is a research project title. For example, the University of California, Berkeley received $392,629 in fiscal 2025 for a study of linguistic variation and disciplinary action on African American children in schools. The University of Kansas Center for Research received $382,906 for a tribal education department capacity project, and FLACSO Argentina received $274,540 for research on history teaching.

Smaller grants spread widely. For example, North Carolina State University received $212,830 to study rural dual language programs, the University of Montana received $125,855 for work on Indigenous children in rural Montana, and Rhodes College in Memphis received $48,422 to study bilingual book clubs.

About 31 grants worth roughly $3.7 million went to organizations that aren't colleges. They include education nonprofits running research, such as the Philadelphia Student Union ($165,324), Amplify Girls in Tennessee ($109,878, testing whether mentoring improves girls' education outcomes) and Beloved Community in Louisiana ($40,000 for community-based research), plus newsrooms and think tanks. For example, Chalkbeat received $50,000 in fiscal 2025 for coverage of education research, as did the Education Writers Association, and the Brookings Institution received $107,607 for research on U.S. school boards. No school district appears as a grantee on this return, even though districts are eligible administering organizations.

Fellowships paid through NAEd

According to the Spencer return data, the 2 NAEd lines set aside above total $4,285,877 for fiscal 2025: $2,532,835 for postdoctoral fellowships and $1,753,042 for dissertation fellowships, each covering the 2024-25 to 2026-27 cohorts. That's 17.6% of the return's total. Those dollars reach individual scholars, so they're left out of the organization figures.

How to apply to the Spencer Foundation, step by step

Spencer's research programs share one portal and one set of policies, so preparation done now carries over to whatever reopens in 2027. These 7 steps come from Spencer's program and policy pages as checked November 10, 2026.

Sign up for Spencer's newsletter and watch the June 2027 announcement. The FAQ says updates will be posted on spencer.org and shared through its regular channels, with advance notice before competitions open.
Confirm your administering organization. Talk to your sponsored-research office now. If your organization isn't in Spencer's database, Spencer says a request to add it must arrive at least 3 business days before a deadline.
Register the PI on the portal. Applications run through Spencer's online portal at spencer.smartsimple.us (opens in a new tab). The PI registers, fills in a profile and uploads a CV of up to 10 pages. Co-PIs register before they can be added.
Pick the program by budget and stage. Under the last published terms, a study under $50,000 fit Small Grants; a racial equity study up to $75,000 fit the Racial Equity program; $125,000 to $500,000 meant a Large Grant preproposal; an established research-practice partnership fit RPP; and a team planning a systems-level project fit Vision Grants.
Draft to the word limits. The last Small Grants call capped the narrative at 1,800 words, the Racial Equity call at 2,500 words, and the Large Grants preproposal at 1,250 words. Each also asks for a 1-page timeline and a 250-word project team statement.
Build the budget the Spencer way. Use Spencer's budget categories and leave out institutional infrastructure costs. Add indirect costs only on budgets above $75,000, and only up to 15%.
Get institutional sign-off before the deadline. Full proposals need the authorized representative's signature. Spencer's program pages set deadlines at 12:00 p.m. Central time, not midnight.

Common mistake: naming a graduate student as PI or Co-PI. Every research program page says students can join the team but can't hold either role, and a proposal built around a student's dissertation belongs in the NAEd fellowship instead.

What Spencer's Grant Pages Don't Tell You

Grantsights checked Spencer's program pages, letter and FAQ against its 2 most recent returns and its audited financial statements, and 5 things stood out.

The odds were already 2%. The letter's own figure means about 49 of every 50 proposals went unfunded last year. Don't underestimate how much a researcher's time costs here: a Large Grant preproposal or a 2,500-word Racial Equity proposal is real work for a long shot. The pause is partly Spencer's answer to that, but the competition won't shrink when programs reopen.

Elite research universities dominate. Colleges and universities took 81.4% of fiscal 2025 dollars, and big research schools such as Michigan State, Virginia, Berkeley, UT Austin and Stanford took several grants each. Smaller colleges did win (Rhodes, Davidson, Drew and Salve Regina all appear), but a teaching-heavy campus should use the course-release supplement Spencer offers PIs who teach 6 or more courses a year.

The money is already committed for years. The fiscal 2025 return lists $32,448,408 in grants approved for future payment, more than the $24.3 million paid that year. Multi-year awards mean a share of each year's budget is spoken for before new proposals arrive.

Spencer's own pages disagree on fellowship amounts. Spencer's fellowship pages still list $27,500 for dissertation fellows and $70,000 for postdocs, while NAEd's pages list $30,000 and $80,000. NAEd runs the competitions, so its pages are the ones to trust for current terms.

Nonprofits outside academia are a small slice. About 31 of 205 grants went to non-college organizations, and several of those were partnerships Spencer started itself, such as co-funding with the William T. Grant and Russell Sage foundations. A community nonprofit's realistic path is as the practice partner in a Research-Practice Partnership, with a university researcher as Co-PI.

Where to look while Spencer's core programs pause

Spencer's pause runs at least 6 months, so researchers need other routes for 2027.

Federal education research: the Institute of Education Sciences listed 5 fiscal 2027 requests for applications on its funding opportunities page (opens in a new tab) on November 10, 2026, including From Seedlings to Scale, Transformative Research in Special Education, and research training programs. According to IES, its From Seedlings to Scale competition (84.305J) (opens in a new tab) takes applications through December 11, 2026, with letters of intent that were due October 29, 2026. The same page says IES "is not currently considering unsolicited prospectus submissions," and its fiscal 2027 list didn't include a general education research competition. For STEM education, NSF's July 2, 2026 ECR: Core update (opens in a new tab) limited its October 1, 2026 round to undergraduate, graduate, higher education and STEM workforce research. See the Education Innovation and Research grants guide and federal grants for universities for other federal routes.

Private funders: the Gates Foundation grants guide covers a funder that, like Spencer, backs K-12 and postsecondary research but mostly picks its own partners. The Mellon Foundation grants guide suits humanities and higher education scholars, and the Lilly Endowment grants guide helps Indiana colleges and education groups. For broader lists, see grants for education nonprofits, best grants for education nonprofits and best grants for universities.

Grantsights tools: the Spencer Foundation funder page summarizes its last 2 filings: 468 grants worth $44.4 million across the fiscal years ending March 2024 and March 2025. Grantsights' education funder lists group private foundations that gave for education by state, drawn from the grants on their own 990-PF returns, with a free look at your state first.

How Grantsights Checked This Guide

Grantsights checked 20 Spencer, partner and federal pages and 2 Spencer returns on November 10, 2026. ProPublica's record and the return header both show EIN 36-6078558 for The Spencer Foundation, 625 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

Source checked	What it shows	What to do with it
Application Deadlines page and PDF	All 5 research programs "Now closed"	Don't plan on a 2026 submission
October 27, 2026 letter and FAQ	Small, Large and Racial Equity paused January to June 2027; 2% funding rate; refreshed programs due June 2027	Watch for the June 2027 announcement
Small, Large, Racial Equity, RPP and Vision pages	Caps, eligibility, word limits, portal	Prepare your institution and budget now
Applicant Information and Policies page	No grants to individuals; 15% indirect above $75,000; 3-business-day organization rule	Brief your grants office
NAEd fellowship pages and Columbia's how-to-apply page	Fellowship amounts and status	Use for individual routes
Form 990-PF, year ended March 31, 2025	214 grants, $24,318,536 paid; $32,448,408 approved for future payment	Find peers and realistic amounts
Form 990-PF, year ended March 31, 2024	254 grants, $20,033,782 paid	Compare years
Audited financial statements (Financial Reports page)	Grants authorized $24,566,140 in the year ended March 2026; net assets $694.6 million	Size the foundation

Spencer's grant list is public because federal law requires it. According to IRS rules on the private foundation annual return (opens in a new tab), every private foundation files Form 990-PF by the 15th day of the 5th month after its year ends, which for Spencer's March 31 year means mid-August. To find peers on its list yourself, see how to read a 990-PF.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Spencer Foundation accepting grant applications right now?

Not for research grants, as checked November 10, 2026. Spencer's Application Deadlines page listed every research program as closed. On October 27, 2026 the foundation said it won't open new Small, Large or Racial Equity Research Grant competitions between January and June 2027 and expects to announce refreshed programs in June 2027. The one Spencer-funded route with a posted deadline was the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship at Columbia, due February 4, 2027, which is for individual journalists.

How much is a Spencer Foundation research grant?

As published on November 10, 2026: Small Research Grants up to $50,000 (plus up to $10,000 for a course release), Racial Equity Research Grants up to $75,000, Vision Grants $75,000, Research-Practice Partnership grants up to $400,000, Large Research Grants $125,000 to $500,000, and Transformative Research Grants up to $3.5 million for Vision grantees only. Grantsights analysis of the foundation's return for the year ended March 31, 2025 found a median grant of $74,968.

Can an individual researcher apply for a Spencer grant?

A researcher applies as the principal investigator, but the grant goes to an organization. Spencer's program pages say it doesn't award grants directly to individuals, and the PI must be affiliated with a nonprofit or public institution willing to administer the money, such as a university, school district, research organization or 501(c)(3). Most research programs require the PI to hold an earned doctorate. Graduate students can join a team but can't be PI or Co-PI.

When are the Spencer Foundation deadlines?

No research grant deadline was posted on November 10, 2026. Spencer said all competitions already underway, including the Research-Practice Partnership round with proposals due October 28, 2026, will finish on schedule, and that new programs will open on a staggered schedule after a June 2027 announcement. The NAEd/Spencer dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships expected to reopen in August 2027, per the National Academy of Education's pages.

Does the Spencer Foundation fund dissertations?

Yes, through the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, which Spencer funds and the National Academy of Education runs. It's an individual award for doctoral candidates at U.S. graduate schools. NAEd's page listed $30,000 for one academic year and about 35 fellows a year; Spencer's own page still said $27,500. NAEd showed it wasn't accepting applications on November 10, 2026, with the next opening expected in August 2027.

Is the Spencer Foundation the same as other Spencer foundations?

No. This guide covers The Spencer Foundation in Chicago, EIN 36-6078558, which funds education research and was set up by Lyle M. Spencer in 1962. Other foundations with Spencer in the name, such as family foundations in other states, are separate funders with their own rules.

Last updated November 10, 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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