Emerson Collective
/OVERVIEW: The Emerson Collective promotes innovative educational systems and technological solutions.
IP TAKE: This is not the most accessible funder, but it is flexible and applies broad-based approaches to its grantmaking in the United States. As much as it provides support for education, Emerson also provides media related to all the areas it supports through several partnerships. This organization prefers to give multi year for general operating support because it believes in fostering its grantees creativity rather than restricting them. That makes winning a grant here competitive; however, it still funds new organizations, small and large, as well as awards individual grants for particularly remarkable social entrepreneurship in the collective’s priority areas.
This is a highly unique funder. Its position as an LLC allows it to crowdsource opportunities and support from a variety of skill-sets that help to address social issues from a range of perspectives. The Skoll Foundation, Omidyar Network, and Chan Zuckerberg take a similar LLC framework towards their philanthropic work for similar reasons. The collective has several teams – from marketing to its media team to its philanthropic team – that inform its grantmaking strategy. Emerson requires its grantees to send it self-directed annual reports.
In particular, the Emerson Collective seeks leaders in their field who focus on catalytic change. According to Anne Marie Burgoyne, managing director of social innovation and impact at the Emerson Collective, the organization gages its grantees by asking, “How has this leader and this organization found its path? What are they doing? How is that affecting others in the field? And how are they deeply serving the people they’ve chosen to serve?”
Unfortunately, despite its vast and unique giving, the Emerson Collective prefers a low profile, and unlike other low-profile organizations, has a very strict no unsolicited submission policy. It identifies its own grantees to fund. However, this could change in light of changing current events. According to one of few public interviews, stated the day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Trump’s travel ban, the Collective’s founder said, “At this point, our preference for working diligently under the radar is less important than having people understand the human nature of hateful, demonizing rhetoric.”
PROFILE: Founded in 2004 by Laurene Powell Jobs, the Emerson Collective differs from other grantmaking organizations in that it is a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) rather than a traditional nonprofit organization or 501(c)3. Powell Jobs is also the widow of Steve Jobs. The collective is “dedicated to removing barriers of opportunity so people can live to their full potential.” Named for Ralph Waldo Emerson, who believed deeply in self-reliance, the collective views itself as a “social change organization that uses a broad range of tools including philanthropy, impact investing, and policy solutions to create the great good for the greatest number of people. Grantmaking priorities include Immigration, Education, Environment, Gun Violence Reduction in Chicago, Race & Equity in the South, Media & Journalism and Health.
Alongside its programmatic giving, Emerson also awards the Dial Fellowship, which intends to equip “remarkable social entrepreneurs with new communications tools to strengthen their voices and extend the impact of their work.” Fellows are selected by invitation-only. They come from a range of fields – from science to lawyers to entrepreneurs – with a track record of “exceptional achievement” that reflect Emerson’s changing and broad priorities.
Given its LLC framework, the Emerson Collective is able to take an in-depth approach to all of its priority issues. Because it is focused on more than funding philanthropic work, the Collective sees itself as an active player drawing upon its resources in policy, advocacy, media, and social justice.
Grants for K-12 Education
The Emerson Collective’s Education grantmaking broadly aims to “build education systems designed to serve every student.” It invests in efforts to “harness technology to challenge and excite our students and to empower our teachers, school leaders, and families” and “design curriculum and evaluations to ensure students develop the knowledge and skills to succeed.” Its efforts strategize grantmaking by working to increase access and equity, bolstering community voices, investing in teachers, new models of pedagogy and training, policy and technology to help support education.
The Emerson Collective’s K-12 education work currently funds work that aims to support remote learning and at-home learning resources during COVID-19 in order to close the homework and learning gaps. Interests include virtual field trips, messaging apps for learning, and virtual summer programs, among many others technology-centered learning solutions. Emerson’s partners and grantees in this space include Amplify, ASU for You, Code.org, Common Sense Media, Curriculum Associates, EdNavigator, EverFi, News Literacy Project, and NowThis, among many others. The Emerson Collective is an indispensable resource in the remote learning space. Powell Jobs, the collective’s founder, is a strong advocate of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In October 2016, Powell Jobs wrote the article “Immigrants Fuel Innovation. Let’s Not Waste Their Potential” for WIRED Magazine.” Much of the collective’s education-related funding aims to support immigrant and undocumented students achieve their potential.
The Emerson Collective also supports the XQ: The Super School Project, which started with an “open invitation to communities to reimagine their own high schools.” Thousands responded and, in turn, Emerson chose 10 visions for the “future of high school—redesigns of current schools or new institutions dreamed up from scratch.” Emerson has also engaged several communities with additional support to accelerate promising ideas. Its XQ Institute is essentially focused on asking how does education and work readiness look like in the 21st in the age of climate change. So, grantseekers that focus on innovative, future-facing ways to rethink education have an edge here. Past education grantees include EducationSuperHighway, among many other.s
Grants for Diseases
Emerson’s Health grantmaking primarily works to “accelerate solutions that will improve cancer detection, treatment, and the patient experience.” The foundation partners with “leading, cutting-edge researchers and innovative entrepreneurs” to “transform groundbreaking scientific discoveries into potentially groundbreaking treatments.” Emerson promotes “collaboration and innovation across the entire cancer research ecosystem.” The Emerson Collective funds research into cancer detection and treatment methods, among other evolving health interests.
Grants for Climate Change and Conservation
Emerson’s Environment program supports organizations that “envision a world where humanity and nature live in healthy harmony” and applies “differentiated solutions to the high value problems that confront both humanity and nature.”
Grants for Violence Prevention, and Democracy and Civic Engagement
Emerson conducts violence prevention and civic engagement funding through its Gun Violence Reduction in Chicago program, which has a violence prevention focus area that works directly with individuals most likely to carry a gun or be shot. Funding through this program stays in Chicago.
Emerson’s Media & Journalism program also supports programs that are dedicated to “provoking thought and strengthening democracy.”
Grants for Journalism
Emerson’s Media & Journalism program “[i]nvests in storytelling and journalism that pushes boundaries, sparks creativity and action and contributes to a more just society.” Supported projects include the Marshall Project’s We Are Witnesses, a collection of short videos that explore the impact of America’s punishment policies and the state of crime and punishment in the United States; and Solutions Journalism Network, which received support for its work providing “[r]igorous reporting on responses to social problems.”
The Emerson Collective paid over $100 million for a reported 70% stake in The Atlantic Monthly. The Collective has also funded many left-of-center media outlets, such as ProPublica and Mother Jones.
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
Through its Immigration program, the Emerson Collective seeks to address “aspiring Americans and new immigrants” to succeed. It uses technology, media, advocacy, and impact investing in its strategies to address immigration. The collective is particularly interested in DACA holders; increasing legal counsel and due process to “increase the system’s legitimacy”; detention centers and their civil violations; refugees and asylees; and related community advocacy. Overall, Emerson’s immigration program utilizes a variety of strategies to help expand immigrant rights. It boasts a grant funding arm that houses a Silcon Valley-style incubator that deploys technology to help immigrants. Consisting of 13 branches, the immigration team works in multiple spaces adjacent to immigration, including the arts and communication, to create a variety of partnerships in the immigration space.
Past immigration grantees include support for the artist JR, as well as support for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award-winning, virtual reality experience Carne Y Arena to Washington, D.C.
Grants for Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights
Emerson’s Race & Equity in the South program works to confront racism head on through its work with the Unum Fund, an organization founded by former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu.
Important Grant Details:
Since the Emerson Collective is an LLC rather than a 501(c)3, it is not required to publicly disclose its financial activities, including grant award amounts. Past grantees include College Track and Ellevation. However, past grantees range from hundreds of thousands to $100 million, and counting. Keep abreast of the foundation’s latest giving through its social media outlets and email listserve at the bottom of its front landing page.
Emerson does not accept unsolicited submission requests for funding or submissions of any related materials such as proposals or literary compositions.
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