Philanthropy Front and Center-San Francisco

Grants That Make a Difference: World Savvy

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center, and to celebrate we'll be offering a full slate of special events and programs designed to help grantseekers find education-related funding resources. In the following story, Dana Curran Mortenson at World Savvy describes how a grant and a collaborative relationship with the funder that made the grant have advanced the organization’s mission to educate students about global issues. (For stories about other grants that made a difference, click here and here.)

Grant Recipient
World Savvy
San Francisco, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and New York

World Savvy’s mission is to educate and engage youth in community and world affairs to prepare them to learn, work, and live as responsible citizens in the global community.

Grantmaker
Walter & Elise Haas Fund
San Francisco, California

About the Grant
Two-year, $80,000 grant to support Global Educators Program.

The grant provides comprehensive professional development for middle and high school teachers (grades 6-12) in the Bay Area, building educators' content knowledge, skills, and capacity to consistently integrate contemporary world affairs into their teaching in all subject areas. School partners of the program are provided access to the following services:

1. Professional Development, including one-on-one consulting; provision of relevant global issues curricula resources and materials for classroom use; one-day Global Education Institutes in August 2008 and 2009 and two on-site workshops annually.

2. Online Global Educators Network: A range of online services that provide timely and high-quality global education resources to teachers.

3. Community Connections: Partnerships with individuals, organizations, and associations in the local community and beyond.

Impact of the Grant
The program integrates relevant, current, age-appropriate global issues curricula into the classroom. By leveraging this work to reach more teachers and schools across California and the entire country, World Savvy seeks to promote systemic change in education so as to prepare youth for success and engagement in the global community in the 21st century. An example is World Savvy's Global Youth Media and Arts Festival at Zeum, which featured an exhibition of student’s original artwork on "immigration and identity," including that of students from Phillip & Sala Burton Academic High School (pictured). Through support from the grant by the Haas Fund, teachers from Burton High School received comprehensive professional development and resource support from World Savvy on integrating global issues in their teaching.

How did the funder and grantee work together effectively during the course of the grant project?

The program officer at the Walter & Elise Haas Fund shared knowledge and best practices observed from the field with World Savvy and took a genuine interest in learning about World Savvy's model and approach. The conversations did not revolve exclusively around grant guidelines or geographic areas of service and evaluation tools, but rather the larger issues that the mission and vision of World Savvy sought to remedy. Since our program officer has extensive knowledge and experience in education and reform efforts and is deeply committed to those efforts, the partnership was mutually beneficial in that it offered opportunities for World Savvy to share challenges openly and explore solutions with the Haas Fund during the course of the program's implementation.

What makes this particular grant a good example of the effective use of philanthropic funds?

So often in funder-grantee relationships, the candor in approaching the challenges of difficult work is compromised by a need to demonstrate that the grantee has met strictly defined reporting guidelines and/or to showcase only those aspects of the work that exceeded expectations. It is a missed opportunity for the grantee to learn from the breadth of knowledge of the funder and for the funder to understand the challenges in the field from the grantee’s perspective. The best relationships grow from deep faith in the work and a commitment to institutional learning for both funder and grantee. World Savvy is fortunate to have benefited from such a relationship in this work. Our program officer is in every way an advocate, for us and for the work we do.

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Do you have a story about a grant that made a difference? Submit your story, and we'll continue to feature them on a regular basis here on PhilanTopic, at one or more of our regional Philanthropy Front and Center blogs, and at other areas of our Web site. We also encourage you to submit stories of grants that are addressing needs associated with the economic crisis.

Grants That Make a Difference: Community Alliance for Learning

Several grantees have come forward to share their stories through our new Grants That Make a Difference series. This week's post, from Kathleen Kahn, board chair of the Community Alliance for Learning in Albany, California, north of Berkeley, illustrates the critical role that basic operating support plays in program development and expansion.

Grant Recipient
Community Alliance for Learning
Albany, California

Clear writing and critical thinking are essential to students' success in school and in life. WriterCoach Connection™, a project of the Community Alliance for Learning, brings trained volunteers into the classroom to give students at all levels of ability the one-on-one help they need to master these skills.

Grantmaker
Y & H. Soda Foundation
Moraga, California

About the Grant
$40,000 over one year (2007-08)

The community Alliance for Learning had been working on a shoestring budget in Berkeley and Albany schools since 2001. The grant from the Soda Foundation allowed us to expand our staff from two to three people (1.8 to 2.5 positions) and research and plan a long-desired expansion that could not have been attempted with a smaller staff.

While other funders indicated they would fund an expanded program, we didn't have the resources to start one. The Soda Foundation understood that we needed a planning grant a year before we could actually expand the program to other sites. The grant freed up enough of our executive director's time to allow him to meet with staff of nearby school districts and to determine where we had the greatest chance to launch a successful expansion of the program. The expanded program went into operation toward the end of the grant year.

Impact of the Grant
When we received the grant, we were contemplating an expansion into the Oakland, West Contra Costa, or Emeryville school districts. The grant gave us the time to select a district, a school, and funding sources that offered the best promise of a successful expansion of the program.

WriterCoach Connection™ began working at Media Academy in Oakland in the fall of 2008. With the enthusiastic support of the principal, the tenth-grade English teacher, and school district officials, we recruited enough volunteers (and secured enough additional funding) to coach the entire tenth grade and have begun working with students.

A professional assessment of our work with Media Academy will be done at the end of the school year. Meanwhile, the program has been well received by students and the teacher, and we hope to expand to the ninth grade in the near future. Other schools in the district have also indicated an interest in the program, and we have received additional funding from the Dreyer's Foundation, the Fleishhacker Foundation, and the Thomas J. Long Foundation.

What makes this grant a good example of effective use of philanthropic funds?
The grant gave a tiny organization whose staff was working full time on current operations breathing space to plan for an expansion. Other funders had indicated they would fund a program in Oakland if we could start one; the Soda Foundation was willing to take a chance on an idea that had great promise.

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Do you have a story about a grant that made a difference? We encourage you to share them with our readers by submitting them through the handy form we've provided for that purpose. We'll feature a selection of grants regularly here on PhilanTopic, at one or more of our regional Philanthropy Front and Center blogs, and at other areas of our web site. During these tough economic times, we also encourage you to submit stories of grants that are addressing basic needs such as food, shelter, and foreclosure assistance.

Grants That Make a Difference: Reach for Excellence, Inc.

Right before the holidays, we asked you to share stories of grants that have had a positive impact for a new blog feature called Grants That Make a Difference. Since then, several of you have contributed stories that clearly illustrate the direct, transformative effect a grant can have. One such story, featured below, comes from Gigi Meyers, director of development at Reach for Excellence, an Atlanta-based nonprofit dedicated to providing educational opportunity for promising, underserved students.

Grant Recipient

Reach for Excellence, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia

Reach for Excellence is a three-year, classroom-based academic and leadership enrichment program. Through its mix of academic, cultural, and community-based experiences, this tuition-free program prepares talented, limited-income middle school students to meet the challenges of college preparatory programs and high schools.

Grantmaker

Sara Giles Moore Foundation
Atlanta, Georgia

About the Grant

$50,000 grant awarded for fiscal year 2006-07

Grant monies were used to fund scholarships for middle school students who had been accepted into the program. It costs approximately $4,000 per year, per student, to attend Reach for Excellence. The grant covered the salaries of certified teachers, supplies, subject-related field trips, a hot breakfast and lunch, and transportation to and from the program when necessary.

What makes this particular grant a good example of the effective use of philanthropic funds?

The difference that this grant made in the life of a student can be found in the example of Reach graduate Amanda Glover. Amanda came to Reach in the summer of 2005 when she was a middle school student at Turner Middle School. Upon graduation, Amanda applied and was accepted to Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is currently a sophomore. Amanda's mother passed away at the beginning of her freshman year, and she and her four siblings live with their grandmother. In her short time at Marist, Amanda has been able to maintain a straight A average, is a member of the debate team and the French Club, is a color guard and a junior varsity basketball cheerleader, and was chosen as part of the Homecoming Court of 2008. Amanda admits she probably would not have considered attending Marist had it not been for her participation in Reach for Excellence. She is a shining example of how a donor's generosity can change a child's future.

Due to the kindness of supporters like the Sara Giles Moore Foundation, we are able to have 90-100 students participate in the program. After three years, our graduates are going on to attend some of the best public and private schools in and around Atlanta, as well as boarding schools throughout the United States. Many of our graduates are now of college age and are continuing their education at such fine institutions of higher learning as Georgia Tech, Emory, Brown, Yale, Georgia Southern, and Kennesaw State.

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Again, we encourage you to share your stories of grants that made a difference by submitting them through the handy online form we've provided for that purpose. And if you have any thoughts about how a grant can make a difference, or what goes into an "effective" grant, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Use the comments below.