Rockdale Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Rockdale Foundation supports organizations that address vulnerable youth populations. It predominantly directs its grantmaking to education-related programs.
IP TAKE: While Rockdale is not a big global development grantmaker, it holistically funds both small and large organizations. As a result, grassroots organizations are likely to receive funding support.
This is a collaborative funder both with grantees and new partners. It’s approachable, but not accessible — it doesn’t accept unsolicited proposals, likely due to it’s limited size and capacity; however, you can submit a bare-bones “Basic Proposal” and, if accepted, you may be invited to send in an extended proposal.
PROFILE: Bob Pattillo and Katy Barksdale founded the Rockdale Foundation in 1994, named for their deep personal connection with Rockdale County, Georgia. During its early years, the foundation focused its international grantmaking on microfinance organizations in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2010, Rockdale decided to expand its international reach to include education, leadership, children and youth programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a major focus on the country of Sierra Leone. It seeks to "[p]artner with grassroots organizations that work at community-level to realize whole school change.” It prioritizes giving to community development, education and social enterprise.
Grants for Global Development
The Rockdale Foundation prefers to keep things local, believing that empowering communities at the grassroots level will spur the most systemic change. As a result, the foundation partners with grassroots organizations that work at community-level to realize whole school change. The foundation invests in teacher training and collaborative partnerships to achieve impact. It does not name further grantmaking focus areas or strategies beyond it’s sparse website.
Important Grant Details:
Rockdale predominantly focuses on giving to education, which receives about 60 percent of the foundation’s grant dollars. Grants are relatively modest, and between $10,000 and $40,000. A majority of the foundation’s grants support education and training programs to benefit impoverished and vulnerable children.
Although Rockdale does not name water, sanitation and hygiene, or health and healthcare priority funding areas, it occasionally awards a small number of grants to support such projects.
Rockdale emphasizes strong, ethical leadership in its grantmaking and prioritizes funding projects in their early stages. The foundation also likes to see projects with demonstrable scaling indications backed by strong data. The foundation has two funding cycles each year in the spring and fall. Rockdale does not accept unsolicited letters of inquiry or grant applications, but it will accept soft proposals proposals May 1st and October 31st.
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