Back to school: Expanding support for education
It’s time for back-to-school planning! If education is on your mind, you’re in good company. Charitable giving to education rose in 2024 to more than $58 billion! If education and related causes are important to you, the team at the CICF Collaborative (which includes Central Indiana Community Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation, IMPACT Central Indiana, the Indianapolis Foundation, and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana) can help you explore a variety of meaningful ways to make an impact. Here are three ideas to inspire a deeper discussion:
Explore options for expanding student support
In many cases, donors set up a scholarship or other type of fund to support a particular educational institution, and then set it on autopilot. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but you might be missing an opportunity to make a deeper impact. Our team is happy to facilitate a dialogue with you and the school to structure your funding–whether through a scholarship or other types of support–to fill gaps in student need. For example, if you’d like to support students pursuing a college degree beyond simply scholarship dollars, we can help identify needs for dollars to increase faculty salaries, purchase lab equipment, or pay an on-campus counselor to help students acclimate to college life.
Investigate opportunities to improve the quality of education itself
Many donors are concerned that high school graduates are ill-prepared for post-secondary education, whether that’s a traditional four-year college, community college, or trade school. We can help you address this gap with your charitable dollars. For example, you could establish a fund to support teachers, which in turn helps improve student success. Indeed, teachers are often considered the single most important in-school factor for student success. Charitable funding that enhances teacher training, mentorship, and ongoing professional development creates ripple effects across classrooms and generations of students.
Find your education “niche”
By establishing a field-of-interest fund at an entity within the CICF Collaborative (Central Indiana Community Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation, the Indianapolis Foundation, and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana), you can work with us to identify specific parameters within education that you’d like to fund. For example, you may be interested in supporting local grassroots programs offering tutoring and mentorship. Or, you may decide to direct your charitable dollars to quality early childhood programs, which have been shown to yield high returns on investments in education. We can help you identify an area of focus. Going forward, our team leverages the CICF Collaborative’s deep knowledge and research to identify high-impact opportunities, helping to ensure your generosity makes the greatest difference within your area of interest.
Please reach out to our team anytime! As students head back to school and education is top of mind, we are here to make sure your giving is impactful, focused, and in line with your philanthropic goals.
About the CICF Collaborative
CICF Collaborative is a partnership of philanthropic organizations working together to strengthen communities across the region. Each entity within the CICF Collaborative (including the cornerstone entities, Central Indiana Community Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation, IMPACT Central Indiana, the Indianapolis Foundation, and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana) brings deep knowledge, strong relationships, and its own individual, focused mission. The CICF Collaborative unites the entities by providing shared services, allowing the entities to operate more efficiently and effectively. By leveraging what we each do best, we’re able to better serve our communities and create more lasting impact, together. Learn more »
About the Author
Robin Elmerick, senior director of effective philanthropy, has been with CICF since 2019. A certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor, she works closely with fundholders across all entities of the CICF Collaborative to help them define their philanthropic strategies and maximize their impact. With a background in nonprofit leadership and consulting, she is passionate about bridging the needs of the community with the missions of nonprofits and the passions of our fundholders, aligning all three to create meaningful change in Central Indiana and beyond.