Annie E Casey Foundation

The Annie E. Casey Foundation operates one of the most selective grant programs among major U.S. private foundations — a model built entirely on staff-initiated relationships, not open competition. With $2.29 billion in assets and $93 million in grants paid in fiscal 2024, Casey funds organizations that can demonstrate systemic impact at scale, not episodic service delivery.

The foundation's giving philosophy centers on building durable infrastructure: think tanks, intermediary organizations, policy advocacy networks, and civic anchor institutions capable of moving systems across multiple states simultaneously. An analysis of its top grantees reveals a clear and consistent preference for national research organizations (Child Trends: $9.4M across 65 grants; Urban Institute: $8.7M across 65 grants), backbone conveners (New Venture Fund: $5.1M across 38 grants), and policy shops (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: $5.0M across 20 grants). Organizations that translate evidence into policy — not just produce it — are the most consistently funded.

Casey strongly favors multi-year, multi-site partnerships. Among its top 50 grantees, the typical relationship runs 7–15+ years, with average individual grants of $65,000–$75,000 and cumulative relationships often exceeding $5–9 million. This depth-over-breadth posture means the foundation makes fewer, longer bets — new entrants face significant lead time before grant conversations mature.

Geographic concentration also shapes access. Maryland organizations captured 2,271 grant transactions in the historical dataset — the largest single-state allocation by a wide margin. Washington, DC (1,629) and Georgia/Atlanta (1,099) follow, reflecting Casey's two primary Civic Sites. Organizations rooted in Baltimore, Washington DC, or Atlanta have a structural advantage in building staff relationships through convenings, site visits, and coalition work.

First-time applicants should understand that there is no application portal or open submission window. Staff program officers identify potential partners through publications, conferences, and the KIDS COUNT state partner network. The strategic path to an invitation runs through thought leadership: publishing rigorous research, presenting at relevant convenings, and contributing to the policy conversations Casey staff are already monitoring.

Casey's grantmaking has distributed $81–94 million annually in grants over the past five fiscal years — a relatively stable range that masks some volatility. Fiscal 2024 produced $93 million in grants paid (from $2.287B in assets), up from $83.4 million in fiscal 2023 and $81.7 million in fiscal 2022. Earlier years show higher totals: $94.2 million in fiscal 2020 and $89.6 million in fiscal 2019, suggesting recent years reflect deliberate discipline rather than contraction.

Across 10,444 recorded grant transactions totaling $681.9 million in the foundation's historical dataset, the average grant size is $65,294. The foundation's own 2025 reporting pegs the average at $74,857 — reflecting more recent, larger grants as the portfolio has matured. Grant ranges are extreme: from sub-$1,000 employee matching-gift contributions to single-year grants of $1–2 million for major intermediary organizations, with cumulative multi-year relationships exceeding $9 million for top partners.

By program area, child welfare commands the largest share of grant transactions — child welfare system reform, kinship care policy, foster care financing, family well-being strategy, and CWSG site support represent thousands of individual grants. Economic opportunity (workforce training, youth apprenticeships, student parent supports, financial well-being) and policy research/data (KIDS COUNT state network, tax policy, federal budget advocacy) are the second- and third-largest categories. Juvenile justice reform — particularly JDAI alternatives-to-detention and probation transformation — constitutes a fourth significant stream.

Geography profoundly shapes funding access. Maryland (21.7% of all grant transactions), Washington DC (15.6%), and Georgia (10.5%) together account for nearly half of all grants. California (6.9%), New York (6.4%), and Massachusetts (3.8%) round out the top six. Organizations outside these markets tend to receive more episodic, project-specific grants rather than the deep, multi-year partnerships that define top grantee relationships.

On grant type, Casey strongly favors program-specific support tied to defined strategies over unrestricted general operating support. The few GOS grants in the dataset go to long-standing, deeply trusted partners. New grantees should expect project funding with explicit deliverables, timelines, and evaluation components built in from the first grant.

The Casey Foundation occupies a distinctive position among $2.2–2.5 billion private foundations — large enough to sustain multi-state systems-change work, but differentiated by its exclusive focus on children and family policy at the national level.

Casey is the only foundation in this peer group with an exclusively national mandate for children and youth policy, making it the default anchor funder for organizations operating child welfare, juvenile justice, and economic opportunity systems across multiple states. Its annual giving-to-assets ratio of approximately 4.1% is consistent with peer practice under the 5% minimum distribution standard.

Unlike Houston Endowment and Heinz — which operate within single metro geographies — Casey's national footprint theoretically creates funding opportunity in all 50 states and territories. However, that national scope is counterbalanced by a strictly invitation-only access model that Houston and Heinz also use. Cummings Foundation is the only peer running a truly open competitive process, but its $25 million giving volume and Massachusetts focus make it relevant only to a narrow set of geographically co-located organizations. For national child-focused nonprofits and research organizations, Casey stands apart as the dominant private foundation funder in the field.

The foundation's most consequential 2025 publication was its child poverty analysis, released October 20, 2025, documenting that U.S. child poverty nearly tripled to 13% in 2024. The report was framed around policy solutions — specifically, that targeted interventions could cut the rate in half — positioning Casey as an advocacy actor, not just a research funder, on federal income support policy.

The 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book (June 9, 2025) documented a mixed national picture: improvements in youth justice involvement and high school graduation, but declines in early childhood enrollment and fourth-grade reading. This annual report is Casey's primary policy influence tool, distributed through a network of 51 state-level KIDS COUNT partner organizations that receive dedicated foundation funding to disseminate findings to state legislators and budget officials.

Leadership changes signal portfolio evolution. The appointment of Allison Gerber as VP of the Center for Economic Opportunity (December 2024) and Stephen Plank as VP of Research, Evaluation, Evidence and Data reflect continued institutional investment in both economic mobility and evidence infrastructure. The 2025–2027 Children and Family Fellowship cohort — 15 senior leaders selected from a competitive national process — launched in May 2025, with applications accepted through a formal online portal in fall 2024. In January 2026, UConn researchers received a Casey grant to study youth and parent experiences through a community-based participatory research design in New Hampshire, illustrating the foundation's continued engagement with academic partners outside its traditional think-tank grantee roster.

The most important principle for Casey grantmaking: the application is the last step, not the first. By the time a program officer invites an organization to apply, the relationship and fit assessment are largely complete. Everything thereafter is execution.

For organizations in child welfare, juvenile justice, or economic opportunity, the path begins with thought leadership. Casey program staff actively monitor publications, datasets, and conference presentations in their focus areas — researchers contributing to KIDS COUNT indicator development, practitioners publishing in child welfare journals, policy analysts testifying before state legislatures. Publishing rigorous, outcomes-oriented work in these channels is the most reliable way to appear on program officers' radar.

Attend Casey-sponsored convenings actively. The foundation regularly hosts learning community meetings and strategy group gatherings through the JDAI network, Family Well-Being Strategy Group, Generation Work initiative, and Results Count leadership programs. These events are structured opportunities for program staff to assess organizations' capabilities and begin informal conversations. If your organization is eligible for the Children and Family Fellowship, applications open in late summer for a competitive, invitation-welcome process — the 2025–2027 cohort was selected through an open application cycle.

Align your language with Casey's specific conceptual frameworks. The foundation uses precise vocabulary: 'Results Count,' 'Thrive by 25,' '2Gen approach,' 'racial and ethnic equity and inclusion,' 'evidence-based practice,' 'opportunity youth,' 'probation transformation,' and 'JDAI.' Using these terms organically — because your organization actually deploys these frameworks — signals genuine readiness for partnership rather than surface-level positioning.

The foundation does occasionally release targeted RFPs. The October 2023 state policy grants ($2.1M across 21 organizations) represented the first open competitive process in recent memory. Monitoring the AECF newsroom (aecf.org/newsroom) and subscribing to Casey communications ensures you catch these rare windows. These RFPs have historically favored organizations with multi-state policy capacity, existing data infrastructure, and ability to form peer learning networks.

When a program officer contacts you proactively, treat it as a high-priority engagement. Prepare in advance: a 2–3 page organizational profile, your most recent audited financials, outcomes data for your core programs, and a clear narrative connecting your work to Casey's current strategic framework. Casey expects rigorous self-evaluation — proposals should specify measurement frameworks from the outset.