In this Funder-to-Funder Conversation, funders from the Mott Foundation, the Wallace Foundation and United Way of Central Iowa share how their foundations have been supporting summer and out-of-school time (OST) learning for decades, the research base they have amassed and how they have adapted their investments in response to the pandemic.
“My longtime mentor, Dr. Ruby Takanishi, the founder of the PreK–3 movement said, ‘We have to do a better job of reducing the chaos at the schoolhouse door.’ By this she meant that we need to build a more aligned system, a system that requires a ‘sturdy bridge’ between the early years and the early […]
“Not only do we invest in collaboratives to get books in front of children, but we’re also thinking about funding streams that can support access. We’re thinking about library systems. We’re thinking about publishers. We’re thinking about the ways in which we can break down and dismantle the barriers that do not allow for families […]
Swati really called out two key transitions — the transition into kindergarten and then transition from kindergarten into first grade. When those transitions and those systems are so misaligned or disjointed, it puts an extra burden on families because they’re not just trying to align to one system. They’re trying to align to different systems […]
Funder-to-Funder Conversation
“People know that they need to engage families, that relationships are key, but they don’t always connect that to the incredibly important performance indicators we want for kids. That feels like a true opportunity moving forward, to really capitalize on the demand that exists for family engagement….If you care about tutoring, you de facto have […]
“I think of philanthropy’s unique role as the ‘shifter’ — how we shift the conversation, the policy and research conversations from ‘here’s how the system is broken’ to actually defining what we want in the ideal future in a very tangible way….I think philanthropy can also shift the power dynamics by treating early childhood educators […]
Catalytic Leadership in Philanthropy is designed to empower more lean funders to get involved in this kind of outsized impact work. The core of it really gets to this idea of funders using 'more than money' — using your convening ability, leveraging relationships, being able to raise public awareness of issues, using your foundation platform, […]