Responsive Grant - Education | Cullen Foundation

Responsive Grant - Education

Cullen Foundation’s support for Supplemental Academic Programs (“SAPs”) focuses on academic programs serving underserved PreK-grade 12 students in Erie County NY. The goal of our SAP investments is to increase access and opportunities for improved student academic outcomes. Details on our SAP strategy can be found here.

We invest in “seats” in existing SAP programs that offer high dosage, evidence-based academic programming. All programs must have direct academic outcomes, primarily serve economically disadvantaged students, and support students from multiple schools.

In our Education responsive grant process we utilize the ESSA tiers of evidence to evaluate a SAP applicant’s fit and alignment with our criteria and goals. The stronger the evidence supporting a program’s effectiveness, the larger the funding pool available to that program. To evaluate this, we use a "stages" system. Click here for more information on these stages and their corresponding funding request/award levels. To apply for SAP funds, an applicant MUST be at “Stage 1”, “Stage 2” or “Stage 3” at the time of making the application.

NOTICE: No SAP for Capacity-Building Grants Offered in Summer 2025

We’re not running a Summer 2025 cycle for Supplemental Academic Programs (SAP) for Capacity Building. Please check back in early October 2025 for updates on when our next SAP Education Responsive Grant cycle will open.

Eligibility

Cullen Foundation has the following eligibility criteria for all applicants:

The organization is a 501(c)(3).
The organization MUST submit audited or reviewed financials prepared by a CPA for its most recently completed fiscal year. This is Cullen's requirement and is not related to NYS requirements. (Click here for more information on types/levels of financial reviews)
Erie County is our primary geographic service area. Education applicants not located in Erie County must serve at least 80% Erie County residents.
No funding received will be used for partisan political activity.
No funding received will be used for expenses already incurred.
No funding will overlap with an existing grant from the Cullen Foundation.
The request must fit within Cullen Foundation’s education focus area (evidence-based programs with direct academic outcomes, serving economically disadvantaged students in grades pre-K through 12); and requests for the following will not be considered:
- Recreational camps or recreation-based programs
- Internship programs
- Education resource rooms and drop-in centers
- Museum exhibits
- Professional development programs and services
- Field trip funds and programs
- Skills and job training programs
- Transportation requests
- Arts education programs
- Requests from Individual schools
- Request for programs that serve students from only one school
- Individual scholarships will not be awarded other than those provided by the Cullen Scholars program. (For more information on the Cullen Scholars program, click here)

Types of Support

Cullen Foundation has established the following types of support for responsive grants in the education focus area:

Program/project support
Capital/physical infrastructure*
Capacity building

*If/when a Cullen grant funds less than the total cost of a capital item or project, Cullen’s funds will not be released until the Grantee has in-hand all funds needed to purchase the equipment or complete the capital project.

Funding Range

An organization may apply for 1, 2 or 3 years of funding, ranging from $5,000 to $100,000 per year (for a $300,000 total maximum). Receiving the maximum $100,000/year request amount is rare and occurs only when the Foundation deems unique strategic alignment between Cullen Foundation's mission and the program's outcomes. Multi-year grants are made only when the Foundation believes the multi-year nature of the request is essential to the project's success.