Community partnerships invited to national collective impact policy conference
Cincinnati, Ohio — StriveTogether announced today the receipt of a three-year, $300,000 grant from The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (DRKF) to support nationwide collective impact work in the education sector.
The new funds will contribute to StriveTogether’s general operating expenses and help grow the organization to support to the national Cradle to Career Network’s continued work to improve education outcomes for students across the country.
“I’m grateful for the insight DRKF and its community of social entrepreneurs will provide,” StriveTogether Managing Director Jeff Edmondson said. “Their knowledge and advice will help build StriveTogether’s capability to support Cradle to Career Network communities as they work to improve education outcomes for children.”
In addition to the grant money, DRKF Managing Director Tom Fry will join StriveTogether’s national advisory board for a three-year term, providing ongoing insight to help the organization grow. Edmondson will also join the DRKF Portfolio of Social Entrepreneurs.
“DRKF reviews over 800 opportunities each year and selects only 10-15 organizations to partner with,” Tom Fry said. “We believe that StriveTogether’s National Cradle to Career Network has great potential to improve educational outcomes across the country by working with communities on effective collaboration, data-driven decision making and ultimately better allocation of resources. We are excited to have Jeff Edmondson and StriveTogether join the DRK portfolio.”
As a venture philanthropy organization, DRKF supports early-stage nonprofit organizations that have the potential to make large impact. Collective impact has emerged as an effective way to align people and resources around common goals throughout the education continuum to make great impact on outcomes. “We are seeing more social enterprises using collective impact models and focusing on systems change efforts,” Fry said. “StriveTogether’s encouraging early results set them up to be a cross-sector leader in how to do this work effectively.”
About StriveTogether
StriveTogether works with communities nationwide to help them create a civic infrastructure that unites stakeholders around shared goals, measures and results in education, supporting the success of every child, cradle to career. Communities implementing the StriveTogether framework have seen dramatic improvements in kindergarten readiness, standardized test results and college retention.
About Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation employs a venture capital model of investment to support visionary social entrepreneurs who generate sustainable impact at a large scale. The Foundation finds nonprofits led by extraordinary social entrepreneurs with high impact models, funds those early stage nonprofit organizations with $300,000 over three years and supports their growth and impact by serving as a board member and creating a learning community for the nonprofit leaders.