The William T. Grant Foundation invests in high-quality research focused on reducing inequality in youth outcomes and improving the use of research evidence in decisions that affect young people in the United States.
Featured Funding Opportunities
William T. Grant Scholars Program
The online application is now open. The next deadline for applications is July 5, 2023, 3:00pm ET.
Youth Service Improvement Grants
The online application is now open. The next deadline for applications is March 8, 2023, 3:00pm ET.
Research Grants on Reducing Inequality
The online application is now closed. The next deadline for applications is May 3, 2023.
Research Grants on Improving the Use of Research Evidence
The online application is now closed. The next deadline for applications is May 3, 2023.
Featured Updates

Foundation News
Announcing Finalists for the Institutional Challenge Grant
This year’s proposals include partnerships that will examine programs, policies, or practices that seek to reduce racial and economic disparities in K-12 educational outcomes; improve college enrollment, attendance, and completion among youth of color and youth from low-income families; divert youth from the juvenile justice system; and advance economic mobility for youth from low-income families and youth who are disconnected from education and employment.

Foundation News
New Research Grants on Reducing Inequality and on Improving the Use of Research Evidence
We are proud to announce four new research grants, including three to support studies on reducing inequality in youth outcomes and one to support a study on improving the use of research evidence. Approved at our fall Board meeting, these awards will help build theory and empirical evidence in our focus areas.

GRANTEE WRITING
Partnering through Disruption: Responsive Research with Communities in Crisis
In a new post, grantee Rebecca Lowenhaupt describes how partnering with educators and district leaders during the pandemic yielded new insights about the day-to-day realities of decision-making in rapidly changing environments: “In adapting our work to the new challenges facing our district partners, we learned as much about engaging in productive research-practice partnerships through disruption as we did about the research questions we initially set out to explore.”

Foundation News
Eleven Finalists Selected for the William T. Grant Scholars Class of 2028
This extraordinary group of early career researchers are committed to stretching their expertise in new directions to tackle a broad array of issues that will certainly make an impact on the lives of many young people.

Insights
The 21st Century Agenda for Research on Child Welfare and our Interest in Studies on Reducing Inequality
The result of close collaboration with Casey Family Programs and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as well as numerous national organizations, researchers, and individuals with lived experience in child welfare, the 21st century research agenda for child welfare captures the diversity of individuals involved in the child welfare system to highlight the most urgent needs.

GRANTEE WRITING
How Universities Can Support Faculty of Color to Engage with Policymakers and Practitioners
Denisa Gándara and Victoria Kim share insights from their ongoing study, which sheds light on barriers that impede faculty of color at research universities from from engaging with policymakers and practitioners around research. Having interviewed 20 faculty members of color who are either on the tenure track or tenured, Gándara and Kim detail the structural hurdles to external engagement and outline respondents’ recommendations for support from their universities.

Reducing Inequality
Proposing Research on Reducing Inequality: Is Your Study a Fit?
Since 2015, the William T. Grant Foundation has funded exciting and important research that examines programs, polices, and practices to reduce inequality among youth ages 5-25 in the United States. If you are considering applying for a major grant or Officers’ research award in our reducing inequality focus area, we encourage you to closely evaluate whether your proposed study is a fit with our funding interests.

STAFF WRITING
Proposing Research on Reducing Inequality: Studying Mechanisms and Investigating the “How and Why” Behind Intervention Outcomes
In this new post, Program Officer Melissa Wooten offers guidance for proposing research on reducing inequality, writing: “Understanding why an intervention produces statistically significant outcomes requires moving away from studies that treat participation as the main variable of interest and toward those that analyze the materials and activities within an intervention as malleable factors that influence youth outcomes.”