grassroots organizing

Schott is very proud of our partnership with the Nellie Mae Education Foundation (NMEF) and our joint support for grassroots organizing as a critical strategy for ensuring all children have a fair and just opportunity to learn. NMEF’s recent report, Building Power: One Foundation’s Story of Funding Grassroots Organizing and Engagement, provides valuable insight into their theory of change and grantmaking designed to increase support for systems change within school districts and key state and local stakeholders—and build demand to realize that change. This rigorous examination and the lessons learned are an important catalyst to the dialogue within philanthropy about what it takes to foster authentic participation, and to effectively and equitably support grassroots organizing and advocacy. We urge you to read it—and join the dialogue!

More than a hundred people attended the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance’s (MEJA) first statewide convening in late June. Held in central Massachusetts, organizers and representatives from community, parent, youth, and educator groups from across the commonwealth gathered for a day of strategizing, network-building and inspiration to help build a stronger network to fight for public education.