The New York Life Foundation's Aim High Grant Program:

Supporting Out-of-School Time 

Programs Serving Middle School Youth 

The Request for Proposals is currently closed.

Click here or bookmark this page to check for 2026 competition updates, opening in late 2025.

About the Aim High Grant Program:

The New York Life Foundation created the Aim High grant program to equip afterschool, summer and expanded learning programs with the resources needed to help midde school students make a strong transition to high school.

In 2025, the Aim High Grant competition awarded 30 grants totaling $1.8 million: 15 one-year grants of $20,000 each, and 15 two-year grants of $100,000 each. Fifteen two-year grants of $100,000 are supporting OST programs in implementing strategies to improve educational attainment by reducing school absences and chronic absenteeism – a widespread issue across the country. The other 15 one-year grants of $20,000 are providing general operating support to OST programs that help young people transition successfully from 8th to 9th grade.

The following 15 organizations were awarded one-year grants of $20,000 to help support young people in the transition from 8th to 9th grade:

• Breakthrough Silicon Valley, San Jose, California
• Girl Power Rocks, Inc., Miami, Florida
• Close Ties Leadership Program, Atlanta, Georgia
• Jared’s Heart of Success, Atlanta, Georgia
• High Jump, Chicago, Illinois
• Project: VISION, Inc., Chicago, Illinois
• Waukegan to College, Waukegan, Illinois
• Wisdom Projects, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland
• So What Else, Inc., Rockville, Maryland
• Project Dream, Inc., Detroit, Michigan
• Centro De Cultura Arte Trabajo Y Educacion, Norristown, Pennsylvania
• Girls Inc. of Greater Philadelphia & Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Girls Inc. of TN Valley, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
• Camp Fire First Texas, Fort Worth, Texas
• PAIR: Partnership for the Advancement and Immersion of Refugees, Houston, Texas

The following 15 organizations were awarded two-year grants of $100,000 to improve educational attainment among middle schoolers by reducing school absences and chronic absenteeism:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Colorado River, Bullhead City, Arizona
• Life Skills for Youth, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Improve Your Tomorrow, Sacramento, California
• GOODProjects, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia
• Life Pieces To Masterpieces, Washington, District of Columbia
• Artist ReEnvisioning Tomorrow Inc (ART Inc), Peoria, Illinois
• LEAP for Education, Salem, Massachusetts
• Bronx Lacrosse, Bronx, New York
• Children Of Promise, NYC, Brooklyn, New York
• Maspeth Town Hall, Inc., Maspeth, New York
• OpenDoors Asheville, Asheville, North Carolina
• Community Connect Center, Fargo, North Dakota
• African Youth & Community Organization, Portland, Oregon
• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Lakelands Region, Greenwood, South Carolina
• West River Foundation, Sturgis, South Dakota

Read about previous award recipients: 

• Culturally responsive STEM programming: Aim High awardee Geeking Out Kids of Color
• Songwriting & social justice: Youth voices for change
• Building peer-to-peer relationships and taking "safe risks": Project Morry
• "I want every girl to know that her voice can change the world": An interview with Girls Empowerment Network
• An interview with The Wooden Floor, a New York Life Foundation Aim High grantee
• Expanding possibilities for students with The Wooden Floor, a New York Life Foundation Aim High grantee
• Prioritizing youth voice in COVID-19 recovery strategies: An interview with Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation

To learn more about last year's winners, read the blog and the news release.

Instructions for New Registrants: 

If you have not already done so, you should begin by clicking on the "Register" button in the upper right hand corner of your screen. After successfully registering, you will be required to fill out a brief set of eligibility questions which will determine the grant tiers for which you are eligible. After finishing the registration process, you will be able to select and begin the application process for any of the grants for which you are eligible.

Instructions for Returning Users: 

Please note that for this year's RFP, the questions in the eligibility questionnaire have changed. You may need to retake the eligibility questionnaire before you can select and apply for any of this year's Aim High grants. Once you retake the new eligibility questionnaire, you will be able to select and apply to any of the grant tiers for which you are eligible.

The application platform should automatically invite you to retake the eligibility questionnaire. If it does not do so, you may change your eligibility questionnaire responses by taking the following steps:

1. Click on the “Log In” button in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Enter your email and password to log into the platform.
3. Once logged into the platform, click on your name in the upper right hand corner of the screen, then click on “My Account” in the drop-down menu.
4. On the left hand side of the screen you will see a set of three boxes labeled “My Profile,” “Notifications,” and “Eligibility.” Click on “Eligibility.”
5. This will take you to the Eligibility Checklist page. Click on the large green button labeled “Update your eligibility profile.”
6. Review your responses in the Eligibility Checklist to ensure that they are still accurate, and answer the two new eligibility questions (questions 5 and 6). Then scroll to the bottom of the page and click the green button labeled “Save my profile."
7. Once you have saved your responses, click on the button labeled “Programs” in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This will show you all of the grant tiers for which you are eligible to apply. If it says “Sorry, there are no programs” that means that at least one of your responses in the eligibility questionnaire has rendered you ineligible.

To learn more about the past award recipients, please visit the Afterschool Alliance's Award page.