“It Isn't Intractable; There Are Solutions.” How Raikes Backs Equitable School Funding and More

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The Raikes Foundation works to improve the lives of young people by reducing youth homelessness and improving educational outcomes. The foundation was created in 2002 by Jeff and Tricia Raikes, who met when they both worked at Microsoft. (Fun fact: They were the first couple to meet at the company and marry during their time there.) Jeff Raikes later became CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he headed from 2008 to 2014. 

The Raikeses decided to make young people the focus of their philanthropy because of their experience as parents of three children, all of whom faced challenges as they matured. The couple realized that if their own children, who had so much privilege, were struggling, “millions of young people without the Raikeses’ resources were relying on outmoded institutions that didn’t truly support their development,” according to the foundation’s website. Those outmoded institutions include our education system, which was designed for a past era and a far less diverse population. 

The result is a foundation that takes on some fights that not every K-12 funder is willing to. For one, it’s tackling the stubborn issue of dysfunctional and inequitable public school funding, even recruiting peers to do the same. It’s also one of a small list of funders standing up to conservatives stoking panic over what they refer to as critical race theory. And in 2020, Raikes created the Black Leadership & Power Fund “to support the dismantling of anti-Black racism.”

The prioritization of racial equity comes from the top — Jeff Raikes writes regularly about diversity, equity and inclusion for Forbes. His opinion pieces feature headlines like, “Dear White CEOs: It’s Time To Lead On Racial Justice”; and “It’s On Us to Stop the Assault on Our Democracy and Carry on the Remarkable Legacy of John Lewis.” In 2019, IP designated him “Most Woke Rich White Guy” in our annual Philanthropy Awards. 

With Raikes popping up in all kinds of interesting ed funding lately, we thought it was time to catch up with its leadership and learn more about what’s making the foundation tick these days. Here are a few things to know about the foundation and what it’s been up to lately.

An ed strategy with three primary pillars

The three pillars of the foundation’s education strategy include: Centering Equity in Everything We Do, Leveraging the Science of Learning and Development, and Building Systems Equipped to Evolve. “We are centered on these three anchors but I would say we do it all,” said Zoë Stemm-Calderon, Raikes’ director of education. “We fund research, we fund program, we fund policy.”

Raikes pursues its ed strategy by supporting a range of education networks and projects. It supports the Building Equitable Learning Environments Network (BELE), which works to narrow the achievement gap by ensuring that underserved students have access to high-quality learning opportunities, and the Student Experience Project (SEP), which helps diverse students adapt to and succeed in college. Raikes also supports the Student Experience Research Network (formerly the Mindset Scholars Network), a group of scholars who conduct research on learning approaches and mindsets, and the impact on student outcomes. 

The foundation emphasizes collaboration and data-driven research, and a glance at its grants database shows that these priorities are reflected in its ed funding. In 2020, the Raikes Foundation had assets of close to $131 million, and it gave away more than $25 million in grants. Education is its largest funding area by far, accounting for almost 47% of its grantmaking in 2020, according to its annual report. It is, however, not easily accessible to grantseekers: The foundation accepts proposals by invitation only. As IP’s profile of the foundation puts it, “It’s a tough nut to crack.”

Raikes zeros in on equity in education funding

When we reached out to Raikes recently about their ed funding, the Resource Equity Funders Collaborative (REFC) was what they really wanted to talk about. REFC is a coalition of funders that focuses specifically on inequities in school funding and supports national and state organizations working to remedy those inequities.

“In our work with education leaders and school system leaders, what we kept hearing is, ‘yes, we can improve teacher quality, we can improve the learning experiences we’re providing inside schools. But at a certain point, if we really want that to be accessible to every student, regardless of their neighborhood and their zip code, we have to look at these bigger structural issues around the policies that shape how we fund our schools.’” Stemm-Calderon explained. 

School districts receive their funding from local, state and federal sources, and research demonstrates that the size of that support varies sharply across districts. Nonwhite school districts come up alarmingly short, as analysis by EdBuild makes clear: “For every student enrolled, the average nonwhite school district receives $2,226 less than a white school district.” Overall, nonwhite school districts get a total of $23 billion less funding than white school districts, despite having the same number of students. 

When Raikes began looking closely at the issue of school funding and how education resources are allocated, they realized that the issue was too big to tackle alone — they would need partners. School funding is a complicated and mind-numbing topic, and Stemm-Calderon says it’s an area that many education funders have traditionally steered away from because they didn’t think they could have an impact. 

“When REFC started, there were many funders talking about advancing educational equity; there weren’t as many funders addressing some of these root causes, like school funding, which has often been perceived as intractable, difficult to move and just too hard to work on,” she said.

But REFC has grown as more funders have come to understand that funding is key to education equity. Raikes was a founding member of the collaborative, along with the W.K. Kellogg and Yellow Chair Foundations. Other partners include Annie E. Casey Foundation, Stuart Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the William Penn Foundation. 

“One thing we think about a lot at REFC: How do we get more funders to recognize that this is a root cause, that it is one of the places where our education doesn’t serve everyone?” Stemm-Calderon said. “And that you can fund in ways that make progress on this issue. It isn’t intractable; there are solutions.” 

REFC works with coalitions of diverse grassroots groups and organizations that deploy a range of strategies to push for reforms in school funding. “The idea is that student need should be the driver,” Stemm-Calderon said. “These are broad coalitions across the country that are driving for education funding that is grounded in what kids need versus where kids live.”

Raikes avoids the ongoing debate over charter vs. traditional schools

One potentially intractable debate that Raikes’ leadership decided to stay out of during our interview is the merits of charters versus traditional public schools. Here, they are not alone, as a number of ed funders we’ve spoken to recently seem to take a similarly neutral stance.

Over the years, debates over charters versus traditional public schools have grown heated as some education leaders and funders have championed the flexibility and competition charter schools offer as the solution to any number of our education system’s problems. Opponents, meanwhile, charge charter schools with draining funding from traditional public schools and undermining teachers’ unions. Some funders that were early boosters appear to be backing off as charter schools have failed to scale: while they have been part of the education landscape for 30 years, only 7% of students attended such schools in 2019, according to government statistics. And while some charter schools have shown impressive student outcomes, the overall results are mixed. 

The Raikes foundation’s goal, Stemm-Calderon emphasizes, is to create an education system that works for everyone. Beyond that, she elected not to discuss the issue of charters versus traditional public schools. While the foundation supports coalitions that take varied positions on charter schools and charter policy, and it has supported charter school development in the past, its grants database doesn’t include funding for major charter organizations or networks from 2019 to 2022. 

Raikes pushes back against attacks on so-called critical race theory 

As debates over critical race theory have flared up around the country, Raikes has joined a small group of ed funders and nonprofits in defending anti-racism and racial justice education in public schools, a development we’ve covered at IP. Raikes supports the Schott Foundation for Public Education’s Invest Together Fund, which provides grants to organizations resisting such attacks, for example. And last year, it provided $50,000 to the National Public Education Support Fund for “narrative and policy work” on the issue.

Jeff Raikes himself has taken a strong stand. In a column for Forbes titled, “Bad for Business: How ‘Critical Race Theory’ Bans Are Limiting American Progress,” Raikes argued that if students are shielded from the truth about history, they will be ill-prepared for the workforce and for leadership roles in the future. “Banning tough conversations — and leading with fear — is contrary to what has made our nation and its businesses successful,” Raikes wrote, urging business leaders to speak out against these attacks.