Make a Grant

The Department of Institutional Grants and Sponsored Programs focuses on meeting college-wide funding needs.  These needs include: faculty research and academic programs; scholarship and financial assistance; facilities improvements; community outreach; and special school projects.  The department solicits private philanthropic foundations and corporations as well as federal, state and city agencies.  Combining in one office the responsibility of prospecting for both private and public grant resources provides the college with the flexibility to match its institutional needs against the broadest array of institutional donors. 

The department staff includes:

Dirrane Cove
Assistant Director, Institutional Grants
cove@cooper.edu
(212) 353-4138

Rachel Sommer
Grants Development Associate
rsommer@cooper.edu
(212) 353-4173

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.