Complete Coverage

Funders Giving 'i3' Runners-Up Second Look

Promising Applicants May Find Favor as the Push to Fund Innovation Continues

Though nearly 1,700 nonprofit organizations and school districts spent hours filling out applications for the $650 million Investing in Innovation grant program, part of the economic-stimulus program, all but 49 applicants walked away empty-handed.

Now some foundations—with an assist from the U.S. Department of Education—are beginning to turn their attention to those that didn’t make the cut for federal funding this year.

Before the “i3” winners were officially announced in August, a group of foundations, including the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation, of New York City, established a registry for programs vying for i3 grants. More than 700 applicants —the vast majority of which did not end up winning—submitted their applications to the registry, said Bibb Hubbard, a program officer at the Bill...