School Readiness
Create strong foundations for early learning.
Funding guidelines: criteria and policies.
Our funding incorporates both direct impact and ecosystem investments, with the goal of identifying and fueling the scale of cost-effective programs and solutions that accelerate children’s school readiness, school success, or future readiness outcomes.
With an emphasis on unlocking innovation, evidence, and growth, our grantmaking and aligned capacity building support both bold new ideas and proven approaches, ensuring grantees receive the support they need to positively impact student outcomes.
What We Fund
Courtesy of Challenger Center
Direct Impact
Organizations whose programs directly improve children’s school readiness, school success, or future readiness outcomes
Validation
Evaluations that strengthen the evidence base of new or existing programs or models
Knowledge Generation
Resources that build new insights, advance field understanding, or support the adoption of evidence-based practices
Policy & Field Building
Efforts that strengthen the broader ecosystem so cost-effective, evidence-informed programs and practices can scale
Funding Criteria
Mission Alignment & Unmet Need
The organization’s work aligns with Overdeck Family Foundation’s mission and focus on outcomes that improve school readiness, school success, and future readiness. It addresses a meaningful need, market gap, or inefficiency and is able to clearly articulate how its solution uniquely responds to current conditions.
Testable Theory of Impact
The organization has a program model grounded in evidence-based practices. It is committed to conducting well-designed research in line with Overdeck Family Foundation’s evidence continuum to validate and improve its effect on student outcomes, or has already demonstrated the ability to scale with impact.
Potential to Scale
The organization is experiencing measurable and growing demand for its services and is operating within a broader landscape that makes growth feasible. It shows potential to meet market demand in a sustainable and cost-effective way.
Leadership Strength
The organization’s leadership team has a track record of programmatic and operational success leading organizations that positively impact student outcomes. Its Board represents a range of perspectives and expertise, and provides strong governance and accountability.
Financial Health & Sustainability
The organization has sound financials and is positioned to build a diverse and reliable funding base and a clear path toward long-term sustainability. Financial expertise is present at the leadership or Board level.
Funding Policies
Overhead Policy
Overdeck Family Foundation limits indirect costs to 10% of the annual direct costs. For research grants, indirect costs are limited to 15% for independent research organizations and 10% for universities.
Research Grant Policy
Grantees receiving funds for research studies commit to complying with the following requirements to the extent applicable:
- Data & Other Materials: Subject to privacy and other legal exceptions, all data and data-related materials (such as survey instruments) created in whole or in part with Overdeck Family Foundation funding should be made publicly and permanently available to the maximum extent that is legally permitted and logistically possible.
- Pre-registration: Any empirical study that involves statistical inference should be pre-registered before the start of intervention or data collection. Pre-registration should occur via the study’s Open Science Framework (OSF) page. Studies can be registered elsewhere if another registry is preferred (e.g., SocialScienceRegistry.org, REES).
- Pre-Analysis Plan: Grantees should submit to the Foundation a pre-analysis plan within the first two months of the grant period for approval. After publicly posting, any changes to the pre-analysis plan will need to be reviewed and approved by the Foundation. The pre-registration should publicly reflect all changes and edits to the original pre-analysis plan.
- Open Publication of Results: All research results from Foundation-funded research (including articles, reports, etc.) must be openly and publicly available for free. In the event of a published article, this requirement may be satisfied by posting the final published version, the accepted author manuscript, or a near-final working paper or preprint. It is the responsibility of the grantee to retain sufficient rights to post articles as required by this policy. In the event of a research finding that is not formally published, the grantee should nonetheless write up the finding and post it on OSF as a working paper or preprint.
Unsolicited Grant Policy
Please note that Overdeck Family Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant proposals. To be alerted to open calls or requests for proposals, please sign up for our newsletter.
Learn More About Our Grantmaking
With an emphasis on unlocking innovation, evidence, and growth, our grantmaking and aligned capacity building unlock bold new ideas and proven approaches. Learn more about our grantee supports and committed grants.
