Youth Development Grants is a grant from The Heckscher Foundation for Children that funds programs and organizations serving low-income and underserved youth in New York City. The foundation focuses on leveling the playing field for underprivileged children, with priorities including college preparation, higher education access, academic success, and workforce development and job readiness.

Eligible applicants include nonprofits of all sizes that can demonstrate measurable outcomes in the foundation's areas of interest. The foundation offers four distinct grant types, so applicants should identify the appropriate funding category before applying. Grant amounts vary based on program scope and organizational need.

Heckscher Foundation for Children | Inside Philanthropy OVERVIEW: Primarily serving the New York Metro area, the Heckscher Foundation seeks to “level the playing field” for low-income and underserved youths.

It invests in schools and organizations that make or have the potential to make measurable differences in the lives of underprivileged children, especially those that prepare students for college, increase access to higher education and ensure academic success. It also funds workforce development and job readiness efforts as part of its overall education mission. IP TAKE: This funder offers four distinct types of grants.

Educational grantseekers should be clear about what type of funding they require before applying. Although Heckscher is a major funder of NYC schools, it is willing to consider any academic initiative designed to close the achievement gap or otherwise assist underserved youth.

This funder works with organizations of all sizes and prioritizes programs and organizations that deliver measurable results in the foundation’s areas of interest. This is not an accessible funder, but prospective grantseekers may reach out via the organization’s contact page. PROFILE: The Heckscher Foundation for Children was established in 1921 by German-born American businessman and philanthropist August Heckscher.

In addition to the Heckscher Scholars Program for New York City high school students, the foundation supports “programs, partnerships, and targeted solutions in college access and success, workforce training and jobs access, and arts or physical education. ” It takes a “venture philanthropy” approach to giving with catalytic giving, strategic partnerships and target problem solving.

The Heckscher Foundation’s “inflection point” based venture philanthropy approach consists of identifying “key junctures, or inflection points, where our grants might change the course of their lives” and then seeking out “innovative programs, partnerships, and solutions that address those junctures, and are grounded in positive, long-term outcomes.

” Catalytic Giving grants support “approaches that have the potential for wide application but have not reached a scale broad enough to attract investment by larger private foundations or government. ” Strategic Partnerships promote “collaborations between foundations, not-for-profits, for-profits, and the public sector” that work in the fields of “education, job skills, and innovative revenue models.

” Targeted Problem Solving grants propose “specific challenges that have attainable solutions and then encourage creative problem solvers to test those solutions. ” Additionally, Proven Models grants “reflect those organizations and institutions whose work we are proud to have supported over multiple years.

” Grants for K-12 Education Heckscher broadly supports “programs in superior public, private, parochial and alternative schools, as well as those that prepare students for success as they transition from one school or academic level to another.

” When assessing applicants, it gives “substantial weight to those that critically assess their own performance using objective criteria,” such as improved grades, standardized test scores, literacy gains, college admissions rates and high school and college graduation rates.

Hecksher’s giving reflects an extra emphasis on literacy, of late, as the Foundation recently became the first major funder of the Literacy Academy Collective; it also supports The Reading Institute’s free Science of Reading initiative across schools in New York City.

Elsewhere, the Foundation targets the development of practical and life-saving skills, recently supporting a partnership between the YMCA of Greater New York, the JCC of Staten Island, and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation to teach second-graders in Staten Island to swim.

Past grantees include the Writing Revolution, a teacher development program in the area of expository writing, and NYC SALT, a photography and college preparedness program in New York. Grants for Higher Education and Workforce Development Heckscher also runs the Heckscher Scholars Program , which offers New York City’s public school students “college access and career readiness programming.

” Awardees take part in a two-year program that provides them with “academic support, college access, career readiness, and life skills. ” Services include college application counseling, SAT and ACT tutoring, and summer programs and internships. The application process is not clear, but the foundation invites interested parties to reach out via email.

The Heckscher Foundation has also supported education and early childhood education programs at several public and private colleges and universities in recent years. Recipients include Brooklyn’s Kingsborough Community College, New York University, the University of Virginia and Yale University.

While it is not the foundation’s primary focus, the Heckscher Foundation also supports workforce development, job readiness and career training programs for students who are not pursuing traditional forms of higher education. Past grantees for workforce development include Genesys Works, Getting Out and Staying Out, the Opportunity Network and the Door.

One of Hecksher’s recent Targeted Problem Solving initiatives, Combating Antisemitism , addresses “pervasive antisemitism rampant in New York. ” Grantees include The Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Center for Jewish History’s “Anne Frank the Exhibition” and Brooklyn College. Grants generally range from $25,000 to $500,000.

The Heckscher Foundation makes about $8-15 million in grants annually. This funder supports organizations of all sizes, basing its selection of grantees on the success and effectiveness of the programs they run. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s past annual reports for more information on the types of organizations it supports.

Note that the foundation shows a strong preference for New York City schools and organizations, but it may support work that aligns with its mission throughout the United States. The Heckscher Foundation for Children accepts applications for funding by invitation only and will not respond to unsolicited requests. General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation’s staff via Hecksher’s contact page.