NEWSCHOOLS VENTURE FUND

Contact information:

Headquarters
1970 Broadway, Suite 350

Oakland, CA 94612

Phone: 415-615-6860

Fax: 415-615-6861

Boston
211 Congress Street, 10th Floor

Boston, MA 02110

Phone: 617-589-9447

Fax: 617-589-9448

Washington, DC
600 New Hampshire Ave, NW, Suite 400

Washington, DC 20037

Email: info@newschools.org
Website: www.newschools.org

Type of foundation: Nonprofit venture philanthropy

Types of grants: Project and organizational investment. The Fund also makes in-kind investments.

Description: The NewSchools Venture Fund was created in 1998 by social entrepreneur Kim Smith and venture capitalists John Doerr (early Google funder) and Brook Byers, each of whom had witnessed the power visionary entrepreneurs held to create dramatic change in other sectors, such as technology.

The NewSchools Venture Fund raises philanthropic capital from individual and institutional investors, and uses those funds to support education entrepreneurs who are transforming public education. NewSchools invests in both nonprofit and for-profit ventures. The Fund invests exclusively in early-stage entrepreneurial organizations with the potential to produce significant, measurable outcomes for underserved students in the United States K-12 public education system.

NewSchools’ current investment strategy includes three active funds:

• Innovation Fund: The Innovation Fund seeks to build entrepreneurial organizations that address the achievement gap by preparing underserved students for success in college and life. The Fund invests in People (new teacher preparation organizations), Tools (organizations that harness the power of technology to tailor instruction to individual students’ needs and interests) and Schools (entrepreneurs/organizations that accelerate improvement in the nation’s 12,000 most underperforming schools).
• City Funds: The goal of NewSchools’ City Funds is to support the growth of entrepreneurial organizations that improve education in specific low-income communities, particularly via high-performing public charter schools. NewSchools is currently operating City Funds in Washington, DC and Boston, MA.
• Seed Fund: The newly launched Seed Fund invests in entrepreneurs developing education technology tools, applications, content and services that will significantly improve education opportunities for children from low-income communities. The Seed Fund focuses on making investments in early-stage, pre-Series A education technology companies. The Seed Fund will make up to ten investments in 2012.

Foundation investors in the NewSchools Venture Fund include, among others: The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Broad Foundations, Carnegie Corporation, The James Irvine Foundation, The Wallace Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Sample grants:

• $3,500,000 to the nonprofit Teaching Channel, a video showcase (online and on television) of inspiring and effective teaching practices in America’s schools.
• $1,000,000 to the for-profit Better Lesson. Through its file sharing and social networking application, BetterLesson helps teachers connect and share lessons, best practices and ideas within communities of practice. BetterLesson differentiates itself through a unique content management system that allows educators to organize and share lessons, units and courses in an intuitive, sequenced structure.
• $600,000 to the for-profit MasteryConnect. MasteryConnect is leading the roll-out and transition to the Common Core Standards by providing teachers both free and premium tools to track student mastery, share and discover formative assessments, and collaborate in a meaningful way around the new core.
• $490,000 to the nonprofit Great Schools, an online resource with information on 215,000 public and private schools in 15,700 districts, giving parents the tools they need to make informed decisions about their children’s education (NewSchools was the first investor in Great Schools in 1998).
• $250,000 to the for-profit Junyo, for its tools to help schools, publishers, and online learning providers use data to guide decision-making.
• $250,000 to the for-profit Goalbook, the first social and mobile solution for districts to manage Individual Education Plans (IEP) for special education students (Seed Fund investment).
• $150,000 to the for-profit LearnZillion, a web-based platform that delivers high quality video lessons – produced by teachers around the country – to students and teachers.
• $100,000 to the for-profit Engrade, a free set of web-based tools for educators allowing them to manage their classes online while providing parents and students with 24/7 real-time online access (Seed Fund investment).

Fit for public media: This Fund may be a fit for development and implementation of public media learning technologies. It could be a fit for media organizations looking to develop and use digital/mobile/social media to advance literacy or STEM learning, for example. It could be a fit for media initiatives that utilize media technologies to address the achievement gap and prevent dropout.

Eligibility: Both nonprofit and for-profit organizations are eligible to apply for investment. To be eligible for consideration, prospective ventures must:

• Present an opportunity to produce significant, measurable outcomes for K-12 public education in the United States.
• Be scalable, with the potential to impact thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of students.
• Be sustainable, as demonstrated through a sound revenue model and/or clear and credible funding plans.
• Be led by passionate entrepreneurs who have expertise in education and business management and the wherewithal to execute the venture’s vision.
• Clearly benefit from NewSchools’ participation.
• Fit with NewSchools’ current investment strategy.

Deadline: Applications are accepted year-round.

How to apply: NewSchools accepts idea submissions year-round. Ideas should be submitted online. The Fund responds within approximately two weeks.

Giving range: Investments range from $100,000 – $3,500,000. Most investments seem to be $200,000 – $1,500,000.

Assets: NewSchools is currently in its fourth round of funding ($75 million in this round).

Total giving: Since its founding in 1998, NewSchools has invested $145+ million.