Equity + Education = Prosperity

Literacy Funders Network Symposium

November 3, 2011

Houston, TX

Philanthropy At Its Best

NCRP urges foundations to invest:

• 50% of grant dollars toward underserved and marginalized communities, and

• 25% of grant dollars toward advocacy, civic engagement and systems change.

$5 B in Education Grants, yet…

• Only 11% of grantmakers devoted at least half of grant funds to marginalized communities.

• Only 2% devoted a quarter of their grant dollars to systemic change and advocacy.

Education Debt

“When we think of what we are combating as an achievement gap, we implicitly place the onus for closing that gap on the students, their families and their individual teachers and schools. But the notion of education debt requires us to think about how all of us, as members of a democratic society, are implicated in creating these achievement disparities.”

--Gloria Ladson-Billings

Targeted Universalism

“When we solve problems for those who are most vulnerable, we solve problems for everyone.”

--Angela Glover Blackwell

$26.6 Billion in benefits

$231 Million in funding

ROI of $115 to $1

Advocacy and Civic Engagement: What Works?

Go to www.philanthropyspromise.org to learn more and take action.

Where do we go from here?

Equity + Education = Prosperity

Literacy Funders Network Symposium

November 3, 2011

Houston, TX