With funding shifts and reductions to education taking place at the federal and state levels, philanthropy will be playing an outsized role in filling the gaps. So, on Wednesday, May 14, the CICF Collaborative took about a dozen fundholders and financial advisers to two Indianapolis schools to better understand the role of philanthropy in education and how they might get involved.
“We asked our fundholders what they wanted to see from us in their services, and one thing they talked about was more educational opportunities to understand the community needs – more experiential opportunities like this,” CICF Senior Director of Effective Philanthropy Robin Elmerick said. “I hope they saw a sampling of ways they can support education that they might not have thought about previously.”
The day began with a panel discussion about education and philanthropy featuring Roderick Wheeler (Wheeler Social Impact) as moderator and panelists Stephannie Bailey (Indianapolis Public Schools Foundation), Patrick Jones (MelenatED Leaders) and Justin Ohlemiller (Stand for Children Indiana) talking about the importance of academic achievement, creating meaningful pathways for students and tending to students’ well-being.
Bailey noted that Indiana is one of the states in the bottom third of the country when it comes to investing in public education. There also is a shrinking pool of resources.
“The problem we’re trying to solve is that there just isn’t enough to do what we need to do” to give students in lower-income school districts the same opportunities that students in well-financed districts have, she said. “The role that philanthropy has to come in and play is to understand where some of those needs are, match that with your values or your personal areas of interest and talk about how we can put those two things together.”
After an hour, it was on the bus to Providence Cristo Rey High School, a private Catholic school on the southside of Indianapolis, where students go to school four days a week and hold down a corporate work-study job one day a week at a local business. IU Health (38) and Eli Lilly & Co. (35) are the two largest employers of the students.
Providence Cristo Rey is one of 40 high schools in the Cristo Rey Network, which began in Chicago in 1996. Tyler Mayer, the school’s president and CEO, attributes the network’s growth to two factors. First, “it’s solving an issue that all cities have, which is this void of opportunity for students. Talent is equally distributed, but opportunities are not.” Second, “it’s an innovative model of education” that combines college preparatory academics with four years of professional work experience.
Mayer said that for 17 consecutive years, 100 percent of Providence Cristo Rey students have been accepted to college. Among students attending, about 45 percent of the students are Black, 45 percent are Hispanic/Latino and 9 percent White and come from households where the median annual income is around $29,000.
From there, the group went to Brookside Elementary (IPS School 54) on the east side to hear about Brightlane Learning, an organization that supports students impacted by homelessness and housing instability by providing personalized tutoring and academic support. Brightlane staff and volunteers support approximately 800 K-12 students across more than 30 shelters, housing facilities, community centers and schools, including Brookside.
Kelly Coker, Brightlane Learning’s Chief Operating and Program Officer, told the group that getting involved with education can take different forms, from giving time – “You can walk into any school, probably, and be like, ‘Where do you need help?’ And they will take it” – to donating money.
“I think all of us, what everyone’s probably hinting at but is afraid to say, is philanthropy will be the stability,” she said. “Because so many of the other funding sources that we all rely on will ebb and flow greatly and not just right now, but always.”
Afterward, Coker said she found great value in speaking to the fundholders and advisers.
“Not only does it spread awareness of what different organizations are doing in the city, but it also helps educate on the issues,” she said. “There’s a lot that goes into providing programming for students experiencing homelessness. It’s both understanding what the frameworks are in the community that impact that and what organizations are addressing those needs. It’s an opportunity to share our story and have more people be aware – and hopefully come alongside in what we’re doing.”
Andra Liepa, one of the fundholders who took the bus tour, said the day trip gave her a lot to think about.
“I’m a person who is always looking for opportunities to support systemic change to some of the problems that we have, like our underperforming education system,” she said. “But one of the things that I learned today, which I think I have to balance in my philanthropic decisions, is that there are some critical needs in the community right now because of the rapidly changing funding environment for many of our non-profits, many of our support organizations, but especially schools. So, I think that one of the things I took away is to find a balance between those things.”
Wednesday’s bus tour was the first of three scheduled for this year.
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