Written and maintained by CASRAI Editorial Board
Last updated
Verified against spencer.org on 2026-08-16. Program terms, budget caps, and cycles change year to year — confirm current figures at spencer.org or in the Foundation’s online portal before finalizing a budget.
Who this guide is for
The Spencer Foundation funds one thing: research on education, broadly conceived. That scope is the single most important fact for a research office to internalize before spending time on an application. Spencer does not run general-purpose science or social-science programs the way NIH or NSF do — it exists specifically because education research has historically been underserved by the large federal funders, most of which fund education only at the margins of health, cognitive science, or workforce-development priorities. If a project’s central research question is about teaching, learning, schooling, educational policy, or how people learn across settings — classrooms, workplaces, families, communities — it is in scope, across any discipline (psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, history, neuroscience, law, and others) and any qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, or computational approach. If education is incidental to a health, engineering, or basic-science study, Spencer is very likely the wrong funder, and a research office should say so early rather than let a PI spend weeks on a proposal to a program that will decline it on scope alone.
Spencer was established in 1962 by Lyle M. Spencer and operates as a private foundation, not a federal agency — it is not bound by 2 CFR 200 Uniform Guidance, and its cost principles, indirect-cost treatment, and review process are its own, set independently for each program. That distinction matters for budgeting, covered in detail below.
Current programme portfolio
As verified on spencer.org on 2026-08-16, Spencer organizes its funding into two research-grant programs (differentiated by budget size), a set of training/fellowship grants for individual scholars, and field-building grants for collaborative and cross-disciplinary initiatives. All of Spencer’s research-grant programs are field-initiated: proposals are not written in response to a specific request for a particular topic, discipline, design, or method — the Foundation is deliberately open to a wide range of research questions and methodologies within its education scope.
Small Research Grants on Education
Budgets up to $50,000 total, for projects running one to five years. Eligible investigators may also request additional supplemental funds for a course release (a separate, optional line item beyond the base $50,000 — see the current Request for Proposals in Spencer’s portal for the exact figure and terms). Spencer accepts Small Grant applications twice per year, as a direct full application — there is no separate letter-of-inquiry or preproposal stage for this program.
Large Research Grants on Education
Budgets range from $125,000 to $500,000, for projects running one to five years, distributed across three funding tiers: $125,000–$250,000; $250,001–$375,000; and $375,001–$500,000. Spencer evaluates proposals within their tier and explicitly discourages applicants from defaulting to the highest tier rather than the budget that actually fits the project. As of this verification, Spencer accepts Large Grant applications on a single annual cycle, beginning with a preproposal stage — only preproposals invited to move forward are asked to submit a full proposal.
NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship
A $27,500 fellowship for doctoral candidates, administered jointly with the National Academy of Education, with a fellowship tenure of roughly 9 to 24 months. This is structurally different from the Small and Large Research Grant programs: it is awarded directly to an individual doctoral candidate rather than routed through an administering institution, and it supports dissertation research and writing rather than an institutionally-hosted project.
Field Building Grants
Spencer also funds a Field Building Grants program, described on spencer.org as supporting programs that promote collaboration and cross-disciplinary learning across the education-research field. Because award size, cycle, and application route for this program were not independently confirmed at the level of detail given to the programs above during this verification pass, a research office evaluating a field-building idea should go directly to spencer.org’s current Request for Proposals rather than rely on this guide for specifics.
Programme comparison
| Programme | Award value | Duration | Career stage / eligibility | Application route | F&A / indirect cost treatment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Research Grants on Education | Up to $50,000 total | 1–5 years | PI/Co-PI must hold an earned doctorate; any career stage beyond the doctorate | Direct full application, twice yearly — no LOI stage | Indirect costs not allowed — the $50,000 budget must be entirely direct costs |
| Large Research Grants on Education | $125,000–$500,000 (three tiers) | 1–5 years | PI/Co-PI must hold an earned doctorate; any career stage beyond the doctorate | Preproposal once a year; full proposal by invitation only | Indirect costs allowed up to 15% of the total budget |
| NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship | $27,500 | Fellowship tenure ~9–24 months | Doctoral candidates (ABD), awarded to the individual | Annual competition via the National Academy of Education | Not applicable — award goes directly to the individual, not an institution |
| Field Building Grants | Not independently confirmed — consult spencer.org | Varies by initiative | Varies by initiative | Varies by initiative | Not independently confirmed — consult spencer.org |
Eligibility, in practical terms
- The PI or Co-PI must hold an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field, for both the Small and Large Research Grant programs. Graduate students may be named as research-team members but not as PI or Co-PI.
- Spencer does not award Small or Large Research Grants directly to individuals. The PI must be affiliated with a non-profit organization or public/governmental institution willing to serve as the administering organization if the grant is awarded — universities, school districts, non-profit research organizations, and equivalent public institutions all qualify. This is the opposite structure from the Dissertation Fellowship, which does go directly to an individual.
- Applications are accepted from the U.S. and internationally, but all proposals must be submitted in English with budgets in U.S. dollars.
- A PI or Co-PI may hold only one active Spencer research grant at a time — this restriction applies to individuals, not to the administering organization, which may submit multiple proposals for different projects with different research teams.
- Proposals for research studies focused on areas other than education are explicitly not eligible, regardless of methodological quality.
The application route: LOI/preproposal vs. direct application
Research offices should note that Spencer’s two flagship research-grant programs use different entry points, which affects how far in advance a proposal team needs to start:
- Small Grants go straight to a full application — there is no separate screening stage, but the tighter $50,000 ceiling and lack of indirect-cost recovery mean the budget itself does most of the gatekeeping.
- Large Grants require a preproposal first; only preproposals Spencer invites to advance are asked for a full proposal. A research office should treat the preproposal with the same rigor as a full proposal — it is the actual competitive gate for this program, not a formality.
For exact current deadlines, applicants should use Spencer’s online application portal (referenced on each program’s page at spencer.org) rather than a fixed date carried in this guide, since Spencer’s own site states deadlines and open/closed status change through the year.
The critical budgeting point: indirect costs on Small Grants
This is worth stating plainly because it is easy to get wrong and expensive to catch late: the Small Research Grants on Education program does not allow indirect cost (F&A) charges at all. Spencer’s own program statement is explicit that the $50,000 budget ceiling may not include indirect cost charges under Spencer’s policy. For a research office used to negotiating a federally-approved F&A rate onto every award, this means the entire $50,000 has to be modeled as direct costs, and any institutional overhead has to be absorbed elsewhere or waived — it cannot be built into the Spencer budget line. The Large Research Grants program is different: it allows indirect costs, but capped at up to 15% of the total budget — well below a typical federally negotiated rate, so the same absorb-the-difference planning applies, just with more room than the Small program gives.
Because this differs so sharply from federal cost principles under 2 CFR 200, it is one of the first things a sponsored-programs or grants office should flag to a PI drafting a Spencer budget — a proposal built on the assumption that a full negotiated F&A rate will apply will need to be reworked before submission, not after an award is already in hand.
Review criteria
Spencer states that its goal across the field-initiated research programs is to support scholarship that is rigorous, intellectually ambitious, and technically sound, and relevant to pressing questions and opportunities in education. The Foundation explicitly welcomes methodological diversity — quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, ethnographic, computational, design-based, participatory, and historical approaches are all named as being in scope — and multiple disciplinary perspectives, both domestic and international, from scholars at various career stages. Applicants should also review Spencer’s Statement on Research Integrity and Professional Ethics, which the Foundation references directly from its funding-opportunities pages.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Spencer Foundation fund indirect costs?
Not on Small Research Grants — indirect cost charges are explicitly disallowed within the $50,000 budget cap. Large Research Grants do allow indirect costs, but capped at up to 15% of the total budget, well below most institutions’ federally negotiated rates.
Can an individual researcher apply for a Spencer Foundation grant directly?
Not for the Small or Large Research Grant programs — Spencer requires a non-profit or public/governmental administering institution for those awards. The NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship is the exception: it is awarded directly to the individual doctoral candidate.
What is the difference between Spencer’s Small and Large Research Grants?
Budget size, application route, and cost treatment. Small Grants cap at $50,000, apply as a direct full application twice a year, and disallow indirect costs. Large Grants run $125,000–$500,000 across three tiers, require a preproposal before an invited full proposal on an annual cycle, and allow indirect costs up to 15%.
Does the Spencer Foundation fund research outside education?
No. Spencer’s scope is education research, broadly conceived, across disciplines and methods — but a study whose central question sits outside education (even if education is a peripheral setting) is explicitly not eligible.
Who is eligible to be PI on a Spencer Research Grant?
Someone holding an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field. Graduate students can be on the research team but cannot be named PI or Co-PI.
Related CASRAI guides
- Private Foundation Research Funding: How It Differs from Federal Grants — the concept-level hub on how foundation cost principles, indirect-cost ceilings, and eligibility gates differ from federal Uniform Guidance across funders generally.
- Private foundation funders for institutional research — a broader look at programme-scale private foundation funding for institutions.
- Education research funding — the wider landscape of funders supporting education research beyond Spencer.
- Spencer Foundation (dictionary entry) — a short definitional reference; this guide covers the operational detail (programmes, eligibility, budgeting) that the dictionary entry does not.
