Our Grant

The Morris Family Foundation is a small family foundation whose mission is education-related causes. We interpret "education" in the broadest sense, so cases can be made for a wide variety of projects.

Furthermore, we consider our framework to be "venture philanthropy." We try to fund pilot or start-up projects that need some seed capital to get off the ground. In other words, we begin with the vision of funding something in the early stages which then goes on to secure additional funding and/or become self-sufficient. Proposals for diffuse funding (i.e., an $x donation to go into a substantially larger pot) are not generally accepted. Funding will be non-recurring. Other than that, it's pretty open -- research, development, a more tangible effort, etc.

A list of past projects funded include:

• Partnering with a private girls' institution in the Southern US to provide laptops for all students (funding kicked off the first year of the program; the school went on to secure other funding for sustainability)
• Funding the web-based component of Sesame Workshop's Israel/Palestine co-production to provide multimedia, multilingual materials specifically targeted toward promoting a character, Abigail, meant to inspire young girls and raise their esteem in society's eyes
• Funding the hiring of a sustainability coordinator at a Northeast boarding school taking steps to "go green."
• Providing support for inservice elementary teachers to attend a mini-institute aimed at improving practice