From the beginning, NewSchools has pioneered new ways of funding innovation in public education. Today, I’m as convinced as ever that venture philanthropy still has a powerful role to play in advancing education and that we must lead with equity, collaboration, and courage as our guiding principles.
EdWeek Market Brief Managing Editor Sean Cavanagh spoke recently with Messano about how her organization is trying to foster diversity within the industry through its investments, and what it will take to make progress across the broader K-12 market.
Participatory grantmaking: It isn’t a term that rolls off the tongue, and yet many people in the philanthropy world are talking about it these days. It describes the process of including community members in grantmaking decisions. As GrantCraft put it in a 2018 report, “participatory grantmaking cedes decision-making power about funding—including the strategy and criteria behind those decisions—to the very communities that funders aim to serve.”
If there was ever a time to imagine a more equitable future for our young people, it’s now. We know that an excellent education is central to this vision and that we can’t get there without rethinking the educational approaches of the past.
