Our Grants
While primarily a scholarship provider, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation identifies and invests a portion of its funding in strategic grant initiatives to expand educational opportunities throughout the United States. The Foundation partners with educational leaders that share our commitment to advance the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. Together, the Foundation and its grant partners work to create high-quality learning experiences for thousands of remarkable students whose families, schools, and communities need additional resources to help these students reach their fullest potential.
Academic Achievement
Selective public high schools provide a uniquely stimulating learning environment for students. Increased exposure to rigorous content, deep engagement, and academically-oriented peer support benefit high achieving students and lead to strong preparation for top colleges and universities. The Foundation recognizes that high performing youth from low to moderate-income families often must overcome challenges regarding access to information and adequate preparation necessary to gain admission to highly selective high schools; those admitted benefit from sustained, attuned support to graduate successfully.
College Access and Excellence
The Foundation supports talented musicians from limited financial backgrounds through its scholarship programs and sponsorship of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award.
The Foundation recognizes that musically talented youth from low-income families often lack the funding for private lessons, master classes, quality instruments, summer programs, and performance experiences. These musicians miss out on the creativity and stimulation that comes from being surrounded by an ensemble of talented peers sharing high music aspirations and being led by inspiring faculty.
Local Support
With Jack Kent Cooke Foundation funding, Northern Virginia Community College provides college counseling to more than 500 students in Loudoun County per year and awards 60 Pathways scholarships to high-ability, low-income students attending NVCC and George Mason University.
Pathways to Baccalaureate program supports students as they make the transition from high school, through NVCC to George Mason or another university. Pathway has emerged as an award-winning program model that has demonstrated remarkable outcomes in the areas of college access, success and completion.
Young Artist Award
The Good Neighbor Grants program was established in 2012 to identify and strengthen ties with youth-serving nonprofit organizations in the Northern Virginia, metropolitan Washington, D.C., and Maryland areas that are helping students with significant financial need reach their full potential through education.
Selected grantees will receive a one-time grant of between $10,000 – $35,000 that may be used over a one-year period. Funding is intended for application towards specific project or program based costs. Note that this grant does not fund general operating support, capital improvements, endowments, lobbying, or activities that exclusively benefit the members of sectarian or religious organizations.
Foundation Support of HBCUs and Mental Health in Young People
In recent years, the Cooke Foundation has invested over $5 million at five public Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) — Alabama A&M University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Florida A&M University, and Morgan State University. These HBCUs have had an outsized impact, state-wide and nationally, on the numbers of Black students pursuing and persisting in STEM fields at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
This year, we also announced $1,745,000 in new grant funding dedicated to supporting the mental health of young people. In response to the staggering mental health crisis facing students nationwide, this funding will accelerate the work of three nonprofit organizations – Active Minds, The Steve Fund, and The Jed Foundation – with a strong record in helping high school and postsecondary institutions support students experiencing mental health difficulties.
Contact Us
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation typically awards only a limited number of grants to nonprofit organizations whose efforts complement our mission of advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. We rarely, if ever, fund unsolicited proposals.
However, if you would like to receive updates on our grants, scholarship programs, and other education news from the Foundation, you may subscribe to our bimonthly newsletter. For specific inquiries, you may contact our grants department directly by emailing grants@jkcf.org.