The Wallace Foundation's mission is to improve learning and enrichment opportunities for children. They do this by supporting and sharing effective ideas and practices in five major initiatives:

1. School Leadership: Strengthening the leadership of principals and other key figures to improve student achievement.
2. After School: Helping cities improve access to high-quality after-school programs through coordinating the work of government agencies, private funders, nonprofits and others groups.
3. Summer and Expanded Learning: Supporting school district and other efforts to expand learning time during summer and the school day or year.
4. Arts Education: Expanding arts learning opportunities for children and teens in school and beyond.
5. Audience Development for the Arts: Supporting arts organizations to develop and test ideas for reaching new audiences so that many more people might enjoy the benefits of the arts.

In each of these areas, the approach is to fund selected organizations to test promising new ideas, to conduct independent research about their efforts and related matters, and to share what is learned. 

"In most cases, we identify prospective grantees and invite them, through requests for proposals or other careful screening, to submit applications for grants. We believe this approach strengthens the effectiveness of our funding. But it also means Wallace rarely funds unsolicited proposals. Nevertheless, you may submit an inquiry by e-mail, briefly describing your project, your organization, the estimated total cost of the project and the portion requiring funding to: The Wallace Foundation grantrequest@wallacefoundation.org.

The foundation does not award grants for religious or fraternal organizations, international programs, conferences, historical restoration, health, medical or social service programs, environmental/conservation programs, capital campaigns, emergency funds or deficit financing, private foundations or individuals.

Whether or not your organization receives our funding, we welcome your interest in our work. We provide free access to a range of publications and other materials containing ideas and practices that you may find useful. We hope you will visit our online Knowledge Center and sign up for our newsletter."