Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation supports music education programs, focusing on jazz education with broad impact. It also provided relief to musicians during the COVID-19 crisis.
IP TAKE: The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation is relatively accessible and accepts letters of inquiry for its music education grantmaking program from November 5 to January 17 each year. Applicants will be notified if selected to submit full proposals. While grantmaking prioritizes jazz education in the New York City area, programs in other parts of the U.S. with broad impact, as well as those that celebrate Armstrong’s musical legacy, are likely to get this funders attention. This is an approachable, transparent and supportive funder.
PROFILE: Established in 1969, the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation is a private foundation based in New York City. The legendary jazz trumpeter and singer, Louis Armstrong, created the foundation with his wife, Lucille Armstrong, to “give back to the world some of the goodness he received.” The foundation makes grants for musician’s relief and music education. It also awards the annual Louis Armstrong SATCHMO Award for lifetime achievement in jazz and collaborates with Columbia University’s Center for Jazz studies to produce the Armstrong Continuum, an annual conference and concert series. New York appears to be a geographic priority for this funder.
Grants for Arts Education
The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation supports music education programs that “perpetuate(…) the legacies of Louis and Lucille Armstrong through (Jazz) music education programs such as performance training master classes, workshops and lectures.” Grantmaking priorities include “programs that showcase Louis Armstrong‘s music, life and legacy” as well as music education programs with “defined objectives, timetables and broad public benefits.” Grants also fund scholarships music programs at colleges, universities and specialized music schools and academies. Recent grantees include Jazz and Lincoln Center, Jazzmobile and the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center. The foundation also provides ongoing support to Columbia University’s annual Armstrong Continuum conference and concert series.
Grants for Music
The Armstrong Foundation’s musician’s relief program was established in response to the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and provided about $1 million of relief to freelance jazz musicians whose performances were cancelled on account of the pandemic. It is unclear if the foundation will continue to provide relief to musicians beyond 2022.
Important Grant Details:
The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation made about $500,000 in grants in a recent year. Grants to music education programs mainly ranged from $5,000 to $60,000. Funding supports higher education, K-12 and community music education, with more than half of grantees operating in the New York City area. For additional information about past grants, see the foundation’s grantees page or its recent tax filings.
The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation accepts letters of inquiry from November 5 to January 17 each year via its online application portal. Selected applicants will be notified and invited to submit full proposals. Inquiries about the application process may be submitted to the foundation’s staff via email.
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