Schott Convenes Funders to Help Grow the Grassroots Education Justice Movement
This week the Schott Foundation held a funder's briefing and reception at the Ford Foundation in New York City. More than 30 funders attended a panel discussion and group conversations with our partners about the importance of grassroots organizing for education justice. Kicked off with framing remarks by Schott President & CEO Dr. John H. Jackson and Vice President Edgar Villanueva, panelists included Step Up Louisiana's co-founder Maria Harmon, Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools Director Keron Blair, and Schott Board member & Youth on Board Director of Special Projects Carlos Rojas Álvarez, moderated by Schott's Director of Programs & Advocacy Marianna Islam. Sanjiv Rao, Director of Civic Engagement and Government at the Ford Foundation, closed the session by emphasizing Ford’s partnership with Schott to build increased support for grassroots groups.
"For 400 years, Black people have been tethered to a traumatic ecosystem... The chains may have been removed, but the tethers remain." - @DrJohnHJackson #FundEdJustice
CONTINUE READING: Schott Convenes Funders to Help Grow the Grassroots Education Justice Movement | Schott Foundation for Public Education
Grantee Partners Meet to Fundraise for the Front Lines
This week we were proud to host dozens of grantee partners from across the country to strengthen our collective fundraising skills and strategies. "Fundraising for the Front Lines" was a two-day training led by Marjorie Fine and Sheena Brown, hosted at the Ford Foundation offices in New York City. Fine brought her hard-won experience over a career of fundraising for grassroots organizing, especially during her tenure leading the North Star Fund. Brown's development work at the Center for Popular Democracy and Color of Change has helped transform those organizations and built the expertise she shared with us.
"Money gives you power." We're thrilled at the conversations already being had at our Fundraising for the Front Lines convening! #philanthropy
"People do not give because they're not asked, and people do not give again because they're not thanked." #fundraising
Against a backdrop of urgent tasks for the movement and a shifting funder landscape, smart fundraising skills and practices are more important than ever. Fine and Brown provided us with everything from high-level strategic considerations to the nuts and bolts of making calls and doing direct donor outreach. But just as important was their insistence that grassroots CONTINUE READING:Grantee Partners Meet to Fundraise for the Front Lines