Kauffman awards $5.8M funding pipeline to research how to close wealth gaps in KC, beyond

Eight newly announced research grants from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation are expected to help catalyze research-based efforts aimed at growing equitable economic mobility in Kansas City, regionally, and nationally.

Yvonne Owens Ferguson, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

More than $5.8 million in research funding will be disbursed over the next three years through this first round of grantmaking through Kauffman’s new research pathway.

“These research grants will generate knowledge on a deeper level of how wealth gaps are built and sustained, and what is required to dismantle them,” said Dr. Yvonne Owens Ferguson, chief research, learning, and evaluation officer at the Kauffman Foundation. “We are thrilled to support projects that will deliver powerful tools and insights to drive meaningful and lasting change.”

ICYMI: Grantmaking reboot ‘just one piece of the larger puzzle’ in Kauffman Foundation reset, CEO says

During the next three years, grantees are expected to deliver high-impact research focused on increasing economic opportunity. Successful research funding requests include:

• Nonprofit Knowledge Works Inc. — Support for the research and development of a scalable wealth gap simulator.

• Reinvestment Fund — Support for research exploring small business groupings and economic wellbeing outcomes for entrepreneurs and surrounding neighborhoods across five cities.

• United WE — Support for research exploring occupational licensing barriers.

• University of Illinois — Support for research exploring the impact of clustering economies.

• University of Michigan — Support for research exploring the impact of student debt on entrepreneurship and innovation.

• Urban Institute — Support for a mixed-methods research project to examine the state-level costs of opportunity hoarding in education, including monopolization of resources and exclusionary practices.

• Washington University — (Two grants) Support for research exploring the community wealth-building model in the Kansas City area; and Support for research evaluating how the Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP), which provides professional work experience and college preparation, impacts social mobility.

Individual grant funding amounts were not immediately disclosed.

Across the portfolio of research grantees, funded institutions are expected to produce a range of high-impact deliverables, including interactive tools such as a scalable wealth gap simulation for Kansas City and a state-level visualization of the effects of opportunity hoarding, according to the Kauffman Foundation.

All projects are required to generate written products such as policy briefs and peer-reviewed articles, and will engage the public through presentations, podcasts, and convenings. Additionally, tailored workshops will bring insights directly to stakeholders.

The research pathway funding concludes the first full round of grants in the Kauffman Foundation’s new grantmaking strategy rolled out in 2024.

RELATED: Kauffman earmarks $32M in grants to boost entrepreneurship, workforce, education efforts

The research grant opportunity will reopen with a call for proposals in summer 2025.