Our Mission: Supporting effective teaching and high achievement in every classroom, in every school, in DC Public Schools.
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“By providing a mechanism for private funders to invest in innovation, the Education Fund is an essential partner in our effort to ensure there are great schools in every neighborhood of our city.”

- Adrian Fenty, Mayor, District of Columbia

/Our Work

We serve as the bridge between DCPS and the philanthropic community, playing three unique roles:

 

  • We ensure that the outside support is strategic and closely aligned to DCPS’ most important priorities;
  • We allow the school system to invest in the kinds of high-impact innovations that otherwise are not financially feasible, especially in today’s economy; and
  • We hold DCPS accountable for meeting established performance benchmarks so that private donors know that their investments are getting results.

 

We do this through four main areas of work:

 

  • Due Diligence: We help DCPS set priorities for high-impact initiatives; serve as a thought partner for DCPS on program design and resource allocation; and evaluate DCPS initiatives to assess their fit for private funding, potential effectiveness, and sustainability.
  • Partnerships and Fundraising: We arrange opportunities for the philanthropic community to learn about ways to support DCPS, match potential partners’ expertise and interests to DCPS priorities, and help potential donors perform their own due diligence.
  • Implementation Support: We serve as the fiscal agent on behalf of DCPS for all grants; hold DCPS accountable for implementation; ensure grant funds are spent according to grant guidelines; and negotiate contracts, manage budgets, and pay vendors.
  • Communication and Evaluation: We work with donors to develop a reporting schedule, track progress and impacts against established benchmarks, and facilitate communications between partners/donors and DCPS staff.

 

Find out more about our investments in: