A Review of Funding for Informal STEM Education
Man and woman shaking hands across a table
This month, we will continue our series by examining Dr. Sarah Dunifon’s research on funding priorities and evaluation policies of informal STEM learning funding organizations (check out our introductory piece here). The following content is based on or excerpted from Dr. Dunifon’s dissertation, An Examination of Evaluation Policies and Funding Priorities in Informal STEM Education. The research cited in this piece was conducted between April 2022 and March 2023. You can access the full dissertation here.
Today, we will continue by discussing who supports informal STEM education.
Funding Support for Informal STEM Education
In the United States, informal STEM education funders typically are encompassed by three broad categories: corporate philanthropies (e.g., Broadcom Foundation, Intel Foundation); government agencies (e.g., National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration); and private foundations (e.g., Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation). It should be noted that there are other organizations outside of these categories, such as community foundations, that also support informal STEM education organizations.
Funding organizations range vastly in size and focus. Some may support local or regional programs, while others serve all of the U.S. or STEM initiatives globally. Many organizations operate around the world to serve local and national opportunities abroad as well. In this piece, we’ll focus only on U.S. funders.
Funders also range drastically in size and support. Many organizations fund less than $1M annually, while others support tens of millions of dollars (or more) each year. Some funders focus primarily on informal STEM education, while others have a vast portfolio of interests.
Landscape Analysis of Informal STEM Education Funders
A landscape analysis of funders supporting informal STEM education was conducted between April and November 2022. Because informal STEM education is a niche field, the group of funders who specifically support our initiatives was significantly smaller than those who support more general education initiatives (such as STEM education more broadly). In identifying funders to include in the study, the criteria were that organizations must be currently active and support informal STEM education nonprofits in the U.S.
In total, 42 organizations were identified that fit these criteria. These organizations are certainly not all-encompassing of the informal STEM education funding in the U.S., but they give us a general snapshot of this funding area.
These organizations were next sorted by type into five categories: (1) community foundations, (2) corporate philanthropies, (3) government agencies, (4) private foundations, and (5) other organizations. Of the initial batch of organizations vetted for inclusion in the study, most were determined to be corporate philanthropies (15, 36%) and private foundations (14, 33%). Government agencies accounted for almost a fifth of organizations (8, 19%). Community foundations and other organizations were sparsely included, collectively accounting for only 12% of total organizations, and were collapsed into the category “other.”
Next, the annual grantmaking spend of each organization was used to determine organization size. The annual spend encompassed both programs funding informal STEM learning as well as other funding programs. Initially, organizations were broken down into three categories by size based on their annual spend: large, medium, and small. Most (69%) were categorized as large organizations with annual grantmaking greater than or equal to $10M. Medium organizations were also somewhat common (28%), constituting organizations with between $1M and $10M of grantmaking annually. Small organizations were uncommon, with only one organization (3%) included in this category, defined as organizations with less than $1M annual grantmaking.
As only one organization was categorized as small, we decided to reconstruct the categories to collapse the small organizations with medium organizations. This created two categories: larger (i.e., organizations spending greater than or equal to $10M annually) and smaller (i.e., those spending less than $10M annually). Roughly two-thirds of organizations (68%) were considered “larger” organizations, while roughly one-third (32%) were considered “smaller.”
Key Takeaways
This landscape analysis presents several key takeaways that are useful for informal STEM education practitioners and supporters:
Informal STEM Education is a visible part of the STEM education funding landscape. It is clear that informal STEM education is a key focus of STEM education funding structure and there are substantial investments being made in informal STEM education.
Funders supporting informal STEM education tend to be large organizations. We found that informal STEM education funding organizations ranged in size, though most tended to be categorized as “large,” indicating an annual grantmaking spend of more than $10M.
Private foundations and corporate philanthropies make up the majority of funding organizations in this space. Two-thirds of the organizations included in the study were either private foundations or corporate philanthropies.
References:
Dunifon, S. M. (2024). An examination of evaluation policies and funding priorities in informal STEM education funding organizations (Doctoral dissertation). University of Pittsburgh.
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