We’re only halfway through the school year — look what we have accomplished, together.
Let’s celebrate and kick off our 20th Anniversary!
Most of us just closed the books on 2022—but the Ed Fund is just beginning! We are kicking off a celebration of our 20th Anniversary. We’re looking back on the work we’ve done so far and thinking about how to make an even bigger impact on our Oakland students’ lives during the next half of the year.
Our impact has been incredible this year and we can’t do it without all of you, our community.
We have distributed $12 million dollars and counting to Oakland public schools, teachers, community-based organizations, and families in just the first half of the year.
We distributed $4.6 million in Community United for Educational Success (CUES) grant funding among 12 community partners. The CUES grants will be used by these local organizations to improve attendance at 19 middle and high schools. In addition to these grants, the Ed Fund raised $1.9 million thus far to support schools and OUSD departments and programs.
We’re managing a $6.5 million investment from Salesforce to Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), which is making a huge impact on technology education programs in middle and high schools.
We awarded $83,000 in A to Z grants to Oakland educators this past fall. The A to Z Fund provides direct support to schools and teachers, helping educators to get extra training that enhances their work. The program also distributes money directly to teachers to use for field trips, music, sports, and other underfunded educational experiences for students. This spring, an additional $160,000 will be available through the program.
The newly opened Oakland Schools Emergency Fund continues our work to raise funds and work with schools to help Oakland students and families during times of need. Additionally, we raised $47,000 to support healing and recovery for the Rudsdale community. We distributed $20,000 to 40 OUSD families impacted by recent flooding. We also purchased 750 winter coats for Newcomer students.
We know that kids who come to school with less need more and we work to make sure our youth have the materials and volunteers needed to achieve their goals.
Our Community Engagement Coordinator kicked off an in-kind donations program to help coordinate furniture and materials donations and distributions to six different OUSD schools. Items included desks, cabinets, new chairs, Chromebooks, and more. This is an ongoing project and we’re hoping to coordinate at least 10 more schools’ in-kind donations this school year.
Of course, we support literacy for everyone! Our Development team is partnering with the OUSD literacy program to raise funds for their LitKit initiative. The Programs team assists in ordering, and our volunteers will assemble the kits. LitKits will provide families with tools to support learning, reading, and literacy at home for TK through second-grade students.
Speaking of volunteers—our Oakland School Volunteers are some of the most dedicated, enthusiastic people I’ve ever met. This fall, the Ed Fund cleared more than 1,000 volunteers to join our nearly 5,000 active volunteers. What a difference they’re making for our kids! We hosted nearly 80 volunteer events across 62 schools. Additionally, 17 schools have been adopted by local businesses through our Adopt an Oakland School program. And we’ll host 50 or more mentors this spring to support high school students through our TechLink program.
We’ve done great things in the first half of the year. I’m looking forward to what we’ll do together in the coming months and celebrating throughout the year. Our Oakland students have a whole community supporting their success. We can’t do any of this work without our donors, community partners, and volunteers.
Thank you for investing in our kids and their future, and joining us in this important work to help every Oakland public school student learn, grow, and thrive!
-Ali Medina, Executive Director