The Wallace Foundation is a U.S.-based private foundation supporting national initiatives in arts, school leadership, and youth development, with an emphasis on generating and sharing evidence to inform policy and practice.
To support communities in creating a more equitable and dynamic future by advancing progress in the arts, education leadership, and youth development.
The Wallace Foundation represents the philanthropic legacy of DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace, founders of Reader’s Digest in 1922. Following their deaths in the early 1980s, assets from four family foundations were reorganized. These foundations merged into two Reader’s Digest funds and later consolidated into a single national philanthropy in 2002 under The Wallace Foundation. Leadership during the late 1980s and 1990s expanded national, multi-year initiatives and integrated evaluation and communications into grantmaking. The foundation shifted from supporting smaller local projects to developing and testing initiatives with national scope in arts, education, and youth development.
The foundation designs and leads national initiatives aimed at addressing knowledge gaps in its focus areas. It supports selected nonprofit organizations, researchers, school districts, and intermediaries to test solutions and generate evidence. Grantmaking emphasizes learning, evaluation, and dissemination of findings to inform policy and practice. The foundation does not fund unsolicited proposals; most grants are awarded by invitation. Open calls are occasionally posted on its website. Grants are generally multi-year and larger than peer foundations, with an average size of approximately $400,000 and duration of 2.8 years.
Research from Wallace-funded principal pipeline initiatives found statistically significant improvements in student achievement. The foundation has supported national arts initiatives including Building Audiences for Sustainability and Advancing Well-Being in the Arts. Its District Summer Learning Network has engaged more than 100 districts and multiple state education agencies. Wallace publishes research, policy briefs, multimedia resources, and commissioned studies to inform educators, arts organizations, and policymakers nationwide.
The foundation works with nonprofit organizations, school districts, universities, researchers, intermediaries, and policymakers. It collaborates with research institutions such as the Social Sciences Research Council and commissions external research studies. It engages professional learning communities and formal evaluation processes as part of its initiatives.
The Wallace Foundation is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) and classified as a private foundation under Section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code . It is subject to a 1.39% federal excise tax on net investment income . As of December 31, 2024, total assets were $1,756,582,199 and net assets without donor restrictions were $1,726,246,694 . Grants are recognized when approved and, if applicable, when conditions are met. The foundation maintains a long-term investment portfolio diversified across public equities, fixed income, private capital, hedged equities, absolute return funds, and real assets