William G. McGowan Charitable Fund
/OVERVIEW: The McGowan Charitable Fund supports job training, homelessness, health and education programs in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, New York, and Pennsylvania.
IP TAKE: This is a very accessible funder for organizations based in the specific cities and counties it serves. The fund places a strong focus on quantifiable outcomes, measurement and tracking. Education is the fund’s largest giving area, with a majority of grants supporting early childhood and K-12 schools and programs. Public health funding focuses on quality services for low-income individuals and families and health programs that involve nutrition and fitness components. In human services, the fund supports career education, job training, affordable housing and mental health for the homeless. About one fourth of McGowan’s grants go to faith-based organizations.
McGowan accepts letters of inquiry via an online portal and meets three times a year to review and invite applicants to submit full proposals. Grantees tend to be organizations and schools that maintain strong connections and reputations in the communities they serve.
PROFILE: Established in 1993, the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund is a family foundation based in Chicago. It seeks to “impact lives today, create sustainable change, and empower future generations to achieve their greatest potential.” William McGowan, who passed away in 1992, was the founder and chairman of MCI Communications and expanded the company from a local radio service to a $9.5 billion telecommunications giant. The McGowan Fund makes grants in five geographic regions, including Denver and Eagle Counties in Colorado, the neighborhoods of Austin and North Lawndale in Chicago, the Kansas City metropolitan area, the Rochester metropolitan area and Yates County in New York and Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties in Pennsylvania. Its three grantmaking programs are Education, Human Services and Healthcare.
Grants for Early Childhood, K-12 and STEM Education
McGowan views education as a powerful advantage for children experiencing poverty, community disruption, family stress and other issues. Its Education grantmaking, therefore, focuses on young children and students from low-income and disadvantaged communities and prioritizes minimizing achievement gaps and boosting graduation rates. Recently, the foundation has focused on “early childhood education programs that provide education, academic enrichment, healthy nutrition, and physical fitness for children 0–5,” and K-12 “programs offering out-of-school academic support, particularly STEM or STEAM—evidence-based programs leading to improvements in literacy, math, and science.”
McGowan’s Education program also supports “charter, faith-based, and alternative schools with demonstrated academic achievement and graduation outcomes,” and “teacher and leadership training and development programs that directly improve the academic achievement of students,” though not leadership programs in public schools. In higher education, the fund runs the McGowan Fellows Program, which supports 10 students from 10 top-tier MBA programs with a year’s tuition. The fellowship program also includes “values-based leadership training, a symposium focused on pressing ethical questions in business and society, alumni coaching, and a problem-solving social impact project.” Recent education grantees include Chicago’s Carole Robertson Center for Learning, Kansas City’s Bishop Miege High School and Vertus High School, a charter school for young men in Rochester, New York.
Grants for Public Health and Mental Health
Healthcare grantmaking works to mitigate the lack of quality care in Primary Care, Dental/Vision, Mental Health Services, and Pharmacy. It prioritizes funding for programs and initiatives that focus on increasing access to work, education, and a family’s mobility out of poverty. Past grantees include Kansas City’s Vibrant Health, a clinic that offers services on a sliding scale, and Chicago’s Lawndale Christian Health Center, which expands its medical services to include fitness and nutrition programs.
Grants for Work and Economic Opportunity
McGowan’s Human Services program area supports “projects that promise sustainable self-sufficiency—stabilized lives anchored by living-wage jobs” and names career education and job training as specific funding priorities. Past work and opportunity grantees include Kansas City’s Center for Work Education and Employment and Chicago’s Connections to Success, a sister organization of Dress for Success that helps families set goals and plan for financial stability.
Grants for Housing and Community Development
The McGowan Fund makes grants for housing and homelessness via its Human Services program. Recent grantmaking has gone to organizations involved in creating and maintaining rent-stabilized housing programs and to mental health resources for homeless individuals and families. Past grantees include Colorado Homeless Families, Chicago’s Facing Forward to End Homelessness and Keuka Housing Council, which helps vulnerable individuals and families find stable housing in Yates County, New York.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, this funder made about $7 million in grants ranging in size from $5,000 to $500,000. The fund’s average grant size is about $50,000. The McGowan Charitable Fund tends to support schools, hospitals and human service programs that maintain a strong presence and quantifiable outcomes in the communities they serve. Faith-based organizations number significantly among the fund’s grantees. For further information about recent grantmaking, see the fund’s recent grants page.
McGowan accepts unsolicited Letters of Inquiry through its online portal. Letters must be received by the 15th of March, July and November to be considered at the fund’s three annual board meetings. Following these meetings, selected applicants are invited to submit full proposals, which are due on the first of May, September and January of each year. Funding is limited to organizations and schools operating in Denver and Eagle Counties in Colorado, the neighborhoods of Austin and North Lawndale in Chicago, the Kansas City metropolitan area, the Rochester metropolitan area and Yates County in New York and Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties in Pennsylvania. Inquiries about the grantmaking process may be submitted to the fund’s staff via email or telephone at (312) 544-4412.
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