Voya Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Voya Foundation, an offshoot of Voya Financial, supports STEM education for grades K-8 and financial literacy for grades nine to 12. It supports workforce readiness and career opportunity programs as part of its overall mission to promote financial resilience throughout the United States. The foundation also awards grants to U.S.-based disaster response and relief organizations that work within the United States and abroad.
IP TAKE: Voya is an approachable corporate funder that does not often award multi-year grants to the same groups. It conducts the majority of its grantmaking through the lens of youth development, so even grantseekers not directly related to education should highlight how their work will benefit children and young adults in the community. Educators and schools should make their projects dynamic, innovative, and student-centered to make it through the application process. Voya mainly supports major national and international nonprofits, but there is still plenty of funding for local organizations working in its giving areas, namely states where Voya has a business presence.
This is a somewhat transparent funder that publishes a brief list of recent grants on its website, but does not have a comprehensive, searchable grants database. It is not the most accessible, as it does not accept applications and conducts its grantmaking by invitation only, however it does welcome grantseekers interested in funding to reach out and discuss your proposal with the foundation’s program officers.
PROFILE: The Voya Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Voya Financial, formerly ING U.S., an investment and insurance company based in New York City. The foundation seeks to make “a meaningful difference in the community by investing in a focused and impactful way” and “support programs with well-defined metrics and measurable outcomes that all work toward the same goal – to help create financially resilient youth.” Its main program areas are currently STEM Education, Financial Literacy, and Mental Health.
Grants for Education and STEM
Voya makes STEM education grants to “help youth prepare for the changing talent and skill needs of the employment landscape” and promote “readiness for the 21st-century workforce.” It supports “high quality, experiential STEM learning opportunities for children in grades K-8,” as well as “STEM training and education opportunities to current or aspiring K-12 teachers.” The company’s Financial Literacy supports organizations that provide “financial literacy curriculum to students in high school (grades nine to 12)” that teach young people how to “navigate life’s financial milestones,” such as student debt, credit, home ownership, “investing and understanding of financial products and services,” and family financial planning.
The Voya STEM Futures program is “focused on providing students in grades K–8 with the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) knowledge vital to be competitive in the 21st century workforce.” It partners with the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) to provide grants to science museums “to develop meaningful, innovative and sustainable programming that has a direct and measurable impact on a child’s interest in pursuing STEM degrees and careers.”
The Voya Teacher Voices program’s grantmaking “reinforces the fact that teachers are leaders by elevating the teaching career, recognizes high-achieving educators, provides training opportunities to expand educator expertise, and grants funding for educators to pursue innovative curriculum design in the classroom.” It also houses the Classroom Grants program and Teacher of the Year award. Finally, the Voya Unsung Heroes award works to help “educators and their schools fund innovative classroom projects.” Voya Scholars is a higher education and career readiness program open to any student who has received a scholarship from Voya; it includes networking, mentorship, and other resources.
Grants for Mental Health
The Voya Foundation’s Mental Health grantmaking aims to “support young adults as they navigate the early and often unstable stages of financial independence.” Its three-pronged approach in this area include scholarships for students planning for careers as mental health practitioners, research grants for psychology and mental health research, and various mental health programming and resources for young adults. Grantees include Americares Free Clinics, Boys & Girls Club, and Free Arts for Abused Children of New York City.
Grants for Humanitarian and Disaster Relief
Voya does not have a grantmaking program dedicated to disaster relief, but taxes show that it makes grants in this area. Like most funders of this category, the foundation responds to acute needs wherever disasters occur and does not earmark its funds for disasters that occur in specific regions of the world. According to the foundation’s website, every year it hopes that disaster relief funding will not be necessary, but is “prepared to help our neighbors and employees when a crisis strikes.” The grantmaking focus for Voya sits squarely on natural disasters rather than those with man-made causes, such as conflict.
Though Voya has awarded disaster response and relief grants of $1 million, most tend to stay in the $50,000 to $250,000 range. The foundation largely awards large U.S.-based organizations that work abroad, such as AmeriCares, International Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, and UNICEF.
Important Grant Details:
Grants generally range from $2,5000 to $25,000. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s recent grants for more information on the types of organizations it supports.
The Voya Foundation makes its largest grants to national and international organizations.
It makes local grants to smaller organizations in states where its parent company has a business presence, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas.
Voya conducts its grantmaking by invitation only. Grantseekers interested in working with Voya may reach out to voyafoundation@voya.com to discuss potential opportunities.
Grantseekers can make general inquiries via the foundation’s contact page.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
