NewSchools Venture Fund

NewSchools Venture Fund supports teams of educators and entrepreneurs who are reimagining learning so that all children have the opportunity to succeed.

Average award: $100,000–$500,000
Total awarded: $5,600,000 was awarded through a recent NewSchools Invent competition

Application Timeframe:

Deadline: Typically, in February and November annually
Award Project Period: 1–3 years

Address: 1616 Franklin Street, Second Floor
Oakland, CA 94612

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 415-615-6860

NewSchools Venture Fund’s Innovative Public Schools portfolio supports schools that are using new approaches to ensure students’ learning experiences are more personalized and tailored to individual needs, skill levels, and interests. Innovative Schools invests in 1) Teams planning to open new, innovative public schools, district, or charter; and 2) Organizations that partner with existing schools to support their redesign efforts.

NewSchools Invent is a funding opportunity within the Innovative Public Schools portfolio that invests in teams of educators who want to launch new, innovative public schools that prepare young people to finish high school prepared and inspired to create and live the lives they want—good lives, full of opportunity, choices, connection, and meaning. NewSchools Invent seeks to accelerate a team’s progress toward a successful launch by providing assistance in three key areas:

• Financial Support: Planning grants of $200,000 during the critical planning period of up to 14 months before school launch. At the end of the planning phase, teams may apply for an investment that would support their first 2–3 years of operation.
• Community of Practice: Participation in an active community of practice to build relationships with and learn from peer organizations from across the country.
• Management Assistance: Direct support from the NewSchools team, participation in research efforts to inform practice, and connections to external experts.

In addition to helping launch new schools, NewSchools Invent will also support the replication of a single, high-performing school to a second campus. This presents an opportunity for a successful district or charter school to begin the process of expanding their impact beyond a single campus.

Eligibility Details: 

 

Applicants must:

• Plan to launch their first or second public school (charter or district) by a specified date (refer to current solicitation, as this changes).
• Enroll students in pre-K–12 on a full-time basis.
  Be eligible to receive public funding.
• Meet all six investment criteria: 1) Passionate, capable, and diverse teams; 2) Engage the communities they aim to serve; 3) Reimagine the student experience; 4) Demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; 5) Plan appropriately and execute effectively; and 6) Aspire to expand their impact beyond a single school.

In addition:

• Charter applicants must: 1) Have or be working toward 501(c)(3) nonprofit status; and 2) Have an approved charter or be on track to securing one.
• District applicants must: 1) Have a formal letter of endorsement from the school board and superintendent; 2) Have or be working toward an agreement that ensures the school will have necessary academic and operational autonomies, as well as facilities and funding support; and 3) Have identified key members of the school leadership team.

• $200,000 to American Indian Academy of Denver (Denver, CO) to support educators working to collaborate with students, educators, families, and community members in creating a school where Indigenous principles and knowledge are placed in a student-driven Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) curriculum.
• $200,000 to Urban Ventures (Minneapolis, MN) to support the opening of a school focused on rigorous personalized learning, intensive literacy interventions, and embedded social emotional supports.
• $200,000 to Social Justice School (Washington, D.C.) to support the opening of a school that aims to catalyze an integrated community of middle-school learners to be scholar-activists who are designers of a more just world.

Complete the online application during the open application period. Application details are only available during the open cycle. NewSchools Venture Fund applications generally require a high-level of detail, and require applicants to detail the organization’s background, the proposed program, expected outcomes, geography impacted, evaluation measures, key personnel, demographic data of the organization, project sustainability, budget narrative, references, proposal budget, and an organization budget.