EAST GRAND RAPIDS SCHOOLS FOUNDATION

The East Grand Rapids Schools Foundation is a donor-facing 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 1983 to support East Grand Rapids Public Schools. The Foundation raises and manages gifts, an endowment, and annual grant programs to fund classroom grants, faculty awards, scholarships, co-curricular programming, and district-level initiatives that are outside the scope of regular school budgets.

The Foundation operates a mix of mini-grants and larger Foundation grants, administers student scholarships and teacher awards, and partners directly with East Grand Rapids Public Schools. It has built a multi-million dollar endowment and, since inception, has awarded millions of dollars in program support, grants, awards and scholarships. In recent years the Foundation has focused on multi-year investments in student mental health and classroom innovation (for example funding an Innovation Lab with programmable drones and supporting Junior Achievement BizTown), while maintaining ongoing grant cycles and public financial reporting.