Wonder

Economic Inequality: Grants

Delivered October 9, 2019. Contributor: ChristineD

Goals

Determine the grant and funding possibilities for a technology-focused think tank that is tackling economic inequality. The information will be used to apply for a grant and build the business model for the think tank.

Early Findings

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: GRANTS LANDSCAPE
In recent years, many foundations turn their focus on initiatives that promote equality.
However, the economic divide seems to be getting wider in the US due to several factors.
There is also a new tax law that was recently enacted that economists predicted will only lead to worsening inequality.
The tax law is also expected to result in the reduction of "government safety net programs" over the years.
Around the country, politicians are also pursuing regulations that are more likely to move wealth upwards and reduce social programs.
Also, mainstream and liberal philanthropists are not concentrating on critical areas such as economics, regulation, and entitlements, as well as the conservatives' investments in media, legal networks and movement building.
They concentrated instead on small community-based initiatives to "build wealth, create jobs and housing, and improve human services."
As a result, philanthropic efforts are not as effective in eradicating economic inequalities.
Because of these scenarios, analysts are also saying that the efforts of these foundations are ineffective as they are more concentrated on "nurturing saplings while the forest is being clear-cut."

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: GRANT PROGRAMS
The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice is focused on addressing economic inequality through its grant programs.
The McNulty Foundation is involved in allocating grants to various ventures such as those that are involved in eradicating economic inequalities in various sectors.
The William T. Grant Foundation offers grant programs to initiatives, research, and institutions that are involved in reducing inequality.
The Arca Foundation provides grants to initiatives and organizations that are involved in addressing social concerns such as inequality.

Proposed next steps:

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Our initial research provided some of the foundations that are providing grant programs to address economic inequality. Given that there are available resources on this, we propose continuing the research to provide the requested information in two research blocks. (1) We will provide 5-7 insights about the grant landscape, with a focus around the work involved. (2) We will also provide a list of 8-10 additional links to organizations or grants that are focusing on economic inequality. For each organization or grant, we will provide a 1-2 sentence overview and a link to its website. We will focus more on grants and not donors. We will also look at the organizations that fund existing think tanks in a similar space such as IPPR, New Economics Foundation, Economic Policy Institute, and Demos to look for grant providers. This will be a global-focused research.