Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG
The Role of Philanthropy
We believe that philanthropic capital, with its flexibility and risk tolerance, can play a critical role in funding solutions that are presently being overlooked and in de-risking solutions for future investment. Battery Powered embraces this venturesome approach: looking for creative and bold solutions, shining a spotlight on pilots from other regions that we might be able to support growing into our region, backing under-invested communities with first-hand knowledge of what works and what doesn't, and providing flexible capital to pilot or incentivize people to try something different or hard. We believe in the power of leaders and the importance of the human side of this work, and we seek to fund inspirational and entrepreneurial organizations as well as more established entities.
Given the scale of existing public funding for schools, we aim to prioritize innovative solutions and nonprofits capable of impacting multiple schools or large groups of students. While recognizing the importance of funding direct services such as hiring reading specialists or teacher training programs, we seek above all to support scalable and transformative initiatives where our limited dollars might have an outsize influence, and where we have the best chance to change the life trajectories of students.
Recall if you can the board game Chutes and Ladders from childhood. The gameboard perfectly represents a child’s journey from entering the education system in kindergarten through the cap-and-gown moment of graduation and being college and career ready. Throughout the game board there are a series of ladders and slides that either take players forwards or backwards, a perfect metaphor for the moments of opportunity or risk that students face along their educational journey that can spiral a student down a path of failure or catapult them forward towards success.
In this Education Continuum theme, we have identified three of the most important moments on this journey: 3rd grade literacy, 9th grade math success, and moments of key non-academic risks that too often derail students and families. We are excited to see the bold and innovative organizations and opportunities that our members surface in these areas.
"Education does not change the world.
Education changes people.
People change the world."
~ Paulo Freire