Education Commons^™

Has The Elite Foundation Agenda Spread Beyond The Gates? An Organizational Network Analysis Of Nonmajor Philanthropic Giving In K-12 Education, Joseph J. Ferrare, Katherine Reynolds

Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Faculty Publications

Previous research focusing on major philanthropic foundations suggests that these actors have collectively converged around a set of jurisdictional challengers promoting market-based education reforms. Using correspondence analysis, network analysis, and geographic information science, this article empirically tests whether this convergence has permeated to less prominent foundations and their grantees, or if these foundations are pursuing alternative organizational strategies to shape K–12 outcomes. The analysis draws from a sample of 15 nonmajor foundations and their 1,069 grantees serving some aspect of K–12 education in 2010. We find that nonmajor foundations have adopted some elements of major foundations’ organizational strategies to influence …