2025 Aim High Grant Program

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

Supporting Out-of-School Time

Programs Serving Middle School Youth

RFP Due: Friday, February 6th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. ET

The 2026 Aim High Grant Program

On behalf of the New York Life Foundation, the Afterschool Alliance invites out-of-school time programs to apply for a competitive grant opportunity to support and bolster the ability of afterschool and summer learning programs to help prepare middle school students for success in high school, college, and life.

Forty general operating grants of $20,000 will be awarded. Applicants must be 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations providing afterschool and summer programming for middle school youth, with at least 80% of those served from families with low incomes. Programs must demonstrate outcomes for middle-school youth that support the transition to high school. Grants will be made in mid-July 2026 and end on September 1, 2027.

Why Middle School?

A large body of evidence indicates the critical role of middle school in determining a young person’s long-term academic trajectory. Enriching out-of-school time (OST) programs—such as afterschool and summer learning programs—are an effective means of helping middle school students successfully transition from 8th to 9th grade. In addition, these programs provide benefits to students that extend beyond academics, helping develop the whole young person—cognitively, socially, and emotionally. The New York Life Foundation’s educational enhancement grantmaking strategy aims to help students in middle school thrive and become better prepared to complete high school and go on to college, providing them a brighter future.

Why was the Aim High Program created?

The New York Life Foundation created the Aim High grant program to support the ability of local community-based afterschool and summer learning programs to provide the foundational skills and guidance that middle school students need to be prepared for the critical transition into high school.

Eligibility requirements:

501(c)(3) status: Organizations must be 501(c)(3) organizations and will be required to submit their Employer Identification Number (EIN) to verify their status.

Middle school youth (6th, 7th, 8th graders) served: Programs must serve participants in middle school. For the purposes of this grant program, middle school youth are defined as students in grades 6, 7, and 8. Applicants for this grant program may serve students outside of this grade range, but grant funds, if awarded, are for supporting middle school youth.

80% or more of population served is low income: Applicants for this grant program must serve a high percentage—at least 80%—of low-income youth. For the purposes of this grant program, “low-income” is defined as students who qualify for the Federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch Program (FRPL). Serving a high-need population is a priority. This requirement applies to the aggregate population served by the program(s) that would receive Aim High grant funds.

Organizational budget: Applicants must have an annual budget – as defined by total operating expenses in the most recently-completed fiscal year - of $200,000 or more.

Afterschool and summer programming: Applicants must currently provide afterschool and summer programming for middle school-aged youth.

Program dosage: Applicants must offer at least 9 hours of programming per week for a minimum of 20 weeks during the school year.

Geographic scope: Applicants will be accepted from anywhere within the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Applicants from US Territories, such as Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, are ineligible to apply. Join our webinar on January 15 to learn more about this opportunity! Applications are due February 6, 2026 at 5 p.m. ET; view the full RFP and submit your application here.

Join us for the Introductory Webinar on January 15th.

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:

Click on the “Log In” button in the top right corner of the screen.
Enter your email and password to log into the platform.
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.
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.”
This will take you to the Eligibility Checklist page. Click on the large green button labeled “Update your eligibility profile.”
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."
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.

2025 Aim High Grant Recipients:

In July 2025, 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:

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