Grants for Preschools & Head Start Programs
If you run a preschool or early learning program, this page is your starting point. Bespoke Grants tracks 8,541 foundations that fund preschools & head start programs — together $109.69B in recent grants. Below are the most active funders. Every one links to a full giving profile, and Bespoke Grants will rank all 8,541 against your organization's specific mission and location, free.
Foundations that fund preschools & head start programs
Ranked by total recent giving. Click any funder for its full profile — giving history, grant recipients, focus areas, and how to apply.
| # | Foundation | Based in | Annual giving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund | Boston, MA | $7.32B |
| 2 | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Seattle, WA | $5.37B |
| 3 | Gavi Alliance | — | $2.01B |
| 4 | Bristol-myers Squibb Patient Assistance | Lawrenceville, NJ | $1.46B |
| 5 | Rural India Supporting Trust | Farmington Hills, MI | $1.38B |
| 6 | Mayo Clinic Group Return | Rochester, MN | $1.31B |
| 7 | Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc | Alpharetta, GA | $1.30B |
| 8 | Novo Nordisk Fonden | — | $1.17B |
| 9 | Conference on Jewish Material Claims | New York, NY | $1.07B |
| 10 | World Vision Inc | Federal Way, WA | $984.7M |
| 11 | American Online Giving Foundation Inc | Newark, DE | $979.0M |
| 12 | American Lebanese Syrian Associated | Memphis, TN | $974.7M |
| 13 | Sanofi Cares North America | Bridgewater, NJ | $928.1M |
| 14 | Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | $905.3M |
| 15 | Baptist Health South Florida Inc | Coral Gables, FL | $885.6M |
| 16 | President and Fellows of Harvard College | Cambridge, MA | $817.0M |
| 17 | Lilly Endowment Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $789.6M |
| 18 | The Trustees of Columbia University | New York, NY | $773.3M |
| 19 | The Ford Foundation | New York, NY | $760.8M |
| 20 | Network for Good | Washington, DC | $667.3M |
| 21 | Navigate Affordable Housing | Birmingham, AL | $639.4M |
| 22 | Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding | Indianapolis, IN | $635.6M |
| 23 | Northwestern University | Evanston, IL | $608.0M |
| 24 | Foundation to Promote Open Society | New York, NY | $593.3M |
| 25 | The Chicago Community Trust | Chicago, IL | $576.9M |
| 26 | University of Chicago | Chicago, IL | $572.2M |
| 27 | Save the Children Federation Inc | Fairfield, CT | $551.3M |
| 28 | Yale University | New Haven, CT | $550.9M |
| 29 | The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | Princeton, NJ | $532.0M |
| 30 | American Endowment Foundation | Hudson, OH | $512.5M |
This list is ranked by size. Yours should be ranked by fit.
The funders above are the biggest — not necessarily the right ones for your preschools & head start programs. Bespoke Grants ranks all 8,541 against your actual mission, service area, and budget, and shows you why each matches. Free, no credit card.
Match my organization to funders →How preschools & head start programs should approach these funders
A long list of funders is only useful if you approach them well. Three things matter more than the size of your preschools & head start programs: fit, evidence, and the first contact. Fit means the funder's stated priorities, the population they serve, and the geography they fund genuinely overlap with your work — funders reject far more proposals for poor fit than for weak programs. Evidence means a specific, concrete description of the need you address and what your funding will change. And the first contact is rarely a full proposal: most private foundations prefer a brief letter of inquiry, and many fund only organizations they already know — so a warm introduction or a short, well-targeted note is the realistic way in.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I find grants for preschools & head start programs?
- Start with foundations that already fund preschools & head start programs — our index lists 8,541. Match them to your specific mission, location, and budget, then approach the best fits with a brief letter of inquiry rather than a cold full proposal.
- How many foundations fund preschools & head start programs?
- Bespoke Grants tracks 8,541 foundations that fund preschools & head start programs, representing $109.69B in recent grants.
- Do these foundations accept unsolicited applications?
- Some do; many do not. Each foundation's profile shows what is known about its application process. Where a funder does not accept unsolicited proposals, relationship-building is still the path in — it is rarely a dead end.