The Powell Foundation is a private family foundation based in Houston, Texas, focused on improving public education and supporting thriving communities. It provides grants to nonprofits working in education, the arts, conservation, and human services, specifically in Harris, Travis, and Walker Counties.

The Foundation’s areas of interest:

• Education

The Powell Foundation seeks to ensure that children and youth, especially those furthest from opportunity, receive an excellent cradle-to-career education that prepares them for meaningful employment and lifelong success.

Early Childhood Development & Education

Our Early Childhood investments are focused in the following areas:

• High-Quality Providers & Educator

• Supportive Caregivers

• High-Capacity Sector

We invest in organizations who champion efforts to:

• Develop, sustain, and scale the availability of high-quality early childhood programs for infants, toddlers, and young children.

• Train and build the capacity of early childhood educators and providers.

• Strengthen the knowledge and capability of parents and other caregivers to nurture and guide their children’s early development and learning.

• Improve the coordination and reach of the intersecting systems impacting early childhood.

Quality Public K-12 Schools

The Powell Foundation believes that all students should receive a high-quality public K-12 education through access to effective schools, curriculum, programming, and support services that ensure they graduate from high school prepared for post-secondary success.

Our Quality Public K-12 Schools investments are focused in the following areas:

• Excellent Educators

• Student Supports

• Quality Schools & School Models

We invest in organizations who champion efforts to:

• Strengthen preparation, pathways, training, and development for teachers, school leaders, and district leaders.

• Ensure students receive high-quality, evidence-based academic instruction, programming, and supports.

• Promote the positive development of non-cognitive skills, social-emotional learning, and positive school climate and culture.

• Scale and expand access to high-quality district and public charter school models that strengthen educational outcomes for all students.

Post-Secondery Pathways to Success

Our Post-Secondary Pathways to Success investments are focused in the following areas:

• Post-Secondery Access and Success

• Post-Secondery Readiness

• Policies and Systems

We invest in organizations who champion efforts to:

• Increase access to and participation in advanced coursework, career awareness programming, and college and career entrance exams.

• Strengthen post-secondary advising and counseling and provide replicable and scalable tools to improve access.

• Bolster the academic preparedness of students to pursue post-secondary pathways; increase student proficiency in non-cognitive and affective skills critical to post-secondary success.

• Strengthen post-secondary persistence, certificate/degree completion, and career attainment.

• Support policies that increase post-secondary access, persistence, and success.

Aligned Cradle-to-Career Education System

The Powell Foundation supports efforts to coordinate and connect people, programs, systems, and policies and collective efforts to create a seamless and integrated educational pathway for children and youth.

Our Aligned Cradle-to-Career Education System investments are focused in the following area:

• Effective Tools, Policies, and Systems

We invest in organizations who champion efforts to:

• Promote continuity across the education system, supporting students at pivotal transition points and accelerating high-impact practices.

• Convene and build a coalition of advocates in support of a sustained and scaled cradle-to-career continuum.

• Invest stakeholders in an aligned vision for strengthening and better connecting early childhood, K-12, and post-secondary.

• Democratize access to user-friendly data and the creation of tools to track and monitor outcomes for students across the full continuum.

• Supportive Communities

The Arts

We invest in organizations who champion efforts to:

• Provide arts education and cultural experiences to K-12 students, particularly those attending schools in “arts deserts”.

• Provide training on teaching and learning techniques that integrate the arts.

• Expand the community’s access to and engagement in the arts.

• Increase diversity and representation in the arts, with a lens towards historically marginalized groups.

The Powell Foundations invests in the arts, conservation, and human services to build robust communities that allow residents, particularly children and youth, to thrive.

Conservation

We invest in organizations who champion efforts to:

• Create high-quality conservation and environmental science learning experiences for children and youth.

• Foster an appreciation and understanding of nature, the natural environment, and environmental stewardship, particularly among children and youth.

• Increase equitable access to public parks and urban greenspaces to support community wellbeing.

• Address critical environmental issues and efforts focused on protecting, preserving, and improving natural resources impacting our geographies through the support of programs, initiatives, and advocacy efforts.

Human Services

We invest in organizations who champion efforts to:

• Address food security and hunger alleviation at scale for children, youth, families, and other vulnerable populations.

• Provide housing, wrap-around services, and skill-building programs for homeless and housing insecure individuals, including transition-age youth.

• Promote emotional wellbeing of children and youth in crisis by providing mental/behavioral health interventions and supports.

• Coordinate and build the capacity of school systems to use evidence-based practices to promote students’ mental and behavioral health, including prevention, identification, and treatment efforts.

Types of Request

The Powell Foundation will consider funding requests for operating costs, agency programs, or specific projects within the Foundation’s areas of interest. Requests for capital projects are considered on a case-by-case basis. On average, capital projects represent less than 2% of the Foundation’s annual grant awards.

New organizations may submit a pre-application at any time. Pre-application requests for new organizations will remain in review through the delineated pre-application deadlines. Pre-applications received by the November 30th deadline will be considered for the Spring cycle. Pre-applications received by the May 31st deadline will be considered for the Fall cycle.