Annie E. Casey Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Annie E. Casey Foundation supports child welfare, community change, economic opportunity and juvenile justice. The foundation works mainly with child welfare agencies, policymakers and legislators, providing empirical support for funding and legislation supporting underserved and at-risk children and families.
IP TAKE: The Annie E. Casey Foundation, part of the Casey Philanthropies, conducts the majority of its grantmaking through a racial equity and gender inclusion lens centered on children and families. With $4.2 billion in assets, the foundation is a premier grantmaker focused on the well-being of children and families. It is well known in the philanthrosphere for its extensive national grantmaking to help kids and families move out of poverty. As IP has reported, Casey has expanded its footprint with a “growing commitment” to the U.S. South and Southeast, and the foundation is involved in several substantial collaborative efforts in these regions, including public-private partnerships and public policy advocacy. Indeed, Casey has emerged as a philanthropic leader in the public policy and research space, and characterizes its grantmaking as “very selective,” with an eye toward impact, evidence, and data.
The “vast majority” of Casey’s grants are by invitation only. While the foundation is transparent, with detailed financial information available online, grantseekers should note that Casey’s website states, “there is no avenue for organizations to request an invite for future grant consideration,” and openly discourages questions about grant opportunities on its contact page.
PROFILE: The Annie E. Casey Foundation was founded in 1948 by Jim Casey, a founder of the United Parcel Service, with his siblings. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, the foundation was named for Casey’s mother and maintains its original purpose of “developing a brighter future for millions of children at risk of poor educational, economic, social and health outcomes.” The foundation’s yearly grantmaking in recent years has surpassed $100 million to organizations in the U.S. and its territories. Grantmaking programs include Child Welfare, Community Change, Economic Opportunity and Juvenile Justice.
To this end, the Annie E. Casey Foundation employs a variety of strategies toward its grantmaking, which include Evidence-Based Practice, Leadership Development, Equity and Inclusion and Research and Policy.
Grants for Education and Youth
Casey conducts extensive work in the field of education and youth through its Child Welfare program and KIDS COUNT subprogram. Research and Policy initiatives seek effective solutions for ameliorating the lives of children in the U.S.
Grants for Youth and Foster Care
The Child Welfare program prioritizes foster care children who have been abused or neglected and runs an in-house Child Welfare Strategy Group, which consults with welfare agencies at the state level to implement practices that improve outcomes for abused and neglected children.
This program area also contains the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, which seeks to “advance policies and practices to most effectively meet the needs of young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood.” It supports organizations that work to ensure that children in the foster system have access to the “pillars of positive wellbeing,” including permanent relationships, stable residence, education, economic security, family planning, and parenting support.
Casey's KIDS COUNT initiative provides "state legislators, public officials and child advocates with reliable data, policy recommendations and tools needed to advance sound policies that benefit children and families."
In this giving space, the foundation employs its Research and Policy strategy that evaluates the "ideas and approaches" that are the most effective solutions for ameliorating the lives of children in the U.S. and disseminates its findings to inform decisions about funding and policy. To further build out support for education and youth, the Annie E. Casey’s Leadership Development strategy provides capacity-building resources such as seminars, professional development, mentorship and publications to nonprofit leaders working with children and families.
Grants for K-12 Education
The Annie E. Casey Foundation also funds K-12 education through its Economic Opportunity program, which names Work, Education and Income as a subprogram. The foundation’s education work centers on research, advocacy and policy-making, and it runs multi-year collaborative partnerships that produce and disseminate research findings via its website.
Evidence2Success brings community members and public systems together to identify and solve problems relating to positive outcomes for children.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform
The Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice program seeks to “improve the outcomes of youth who become involved in the juvenile justice system by eliminating the inappropriate use of secure confinement and out-of-home placement.”
The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative began in 1990 in order to promote “collaboration between juvenile court officials, probation agencies, prosecutors, defense attorneys, schools, community organizations and advocates.” It uses “rigorous data collection and analysis to guide decision making” and combat “racial and ethnic disparities by examining data to identify policies and practices that may disadvantage youth of color at various stages of the process.”
It advocates for alternatives to incarceration, such as “juvenile probation, day and evening reporting centers, home confinement and shelter care.”
The foundation currently funds four JDAI model sites — Bernalillo County, New Mexico; Cook County, Illionois; Multnomah County, Oregon; and Santa Cruz County, California, as well as New Jersey.
The foundation applies what it has learned through JDAI to its Reducing Youth Incarceration initiative, which works with other jurisdictions to “analyze their juvenile systems and identify causes of unnecessary overreliance on incarceration,” “implement reforms to safely and cost-effectively reduce confined populations and improve youth outcomes,” and “establish rigorous data collection and analysis systems.”
Grants for Economic Development
The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Economic Opportunity program seeks to develop “pathways for parents to become financially stable and support their children’s healthy development and academic success.” This funder views education as a way to provide economic opportunity, so it has collapsed overlapping work here together.
Work, Education and Income grants serve to connect “individuals disconnected from the workforce or school to opportunities for jobs, education and achieving the American dream.”
Financial Well-Being grants support “strategies to help individuals and families build financial assets and become adept at managing their money responsibly.”
The Center for Working Families provides “a coordinated set of services to help low-income individuals and families get jobs, strengthen their finances and move up the economic ladder.” Key partners in this area include National Fund for Workforce Solutions, Achieving the Dream and The Working Poor Families Project.
Grants for Housing and Community Development
The Casey Foundation’s Community Change focus area is dedicated to “promoting access to good schools, affordable homes and jobs.” Its strategy in this area centers on two Civic Sites: Atlanta, home of UPS headquarters, and Baltimore, the family’s hometown since 1994. In both these cities, Casey works to “improve outcomes for kids and families in high-poverty neighborhoods” and “identify effective tools and strategies for working with low-income families and communities nationwide.” It prioritizes efforts to improve early childhood and elementary education, raise reading levels across the board, improve the financial security and job prospects of parents, and increase the capacity and impact of area nonprofits working toward the same goals.
Grants for Public Health and Community Development
Casey does not have a dedicated public health grantmaking program; however, it channels support in this field through several program initiatives, specifically Child Welfare, focused on foster care, and Community Change, which focuses on community development.
Additionally, Family Centered Community Change, an initiative housed in its broader community change program, seeks to provide critical resources needed for the healthy development of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods.
Foundation-wide, Casey looks to support public health organizations and programs that can demonstrate long-term strategies and solutions. To those ends, the foundation invests in groups that offer direct services to vulnerable children and their families, as well as those that advocate for nationwide policy changes pertinent to its areas of grantmaking interest.
The KIDS COUNT Data Book provides detailed information related to children’s health and overall wellbeing, broken down by state.
Important Grant Details:
The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s grants fall generally in the $50,000 to $250,000 range, with an average grant amount of around $80,000. Casey has partnered with Foundation Center to share more information about the types of organizations receiving grant support. Visit Foundation Maps to obtain detailed information on Casey Foundation grantees.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications or requests for funding.
The foundation primarily conducts its grantmaking by invitation only, but will occasionally solicit applications through a call for proposals.
The foundation only funds programs and organizations based in the United States and its territories.
In addition to funding, the Annie E. Casey Foundation shares its expertise “directly with nonprofit leaders, advocates, policymakers and government officials to support improved practices and policies for children and families.”
The foundation funds:
Community and resident engagement
Data collection and analysis
Demonstration projects for new approaches and practices
Evidence-based programs and practices
Policy advocacy and analysis
Research and evaluation
Technical assistance
Youth engagement and leadership
The foundation does not provide grants to individuals, political campaigns or lobbying activities.
This foundation updates grant seekers about changes and recent news through its subscription newsletter. Grant seekers can make general inquiries via the contact form.
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