Photo courtesy of Oakland in the Middle.
The Ed Fund is Celebrating 20 Years of Impact!
Since 2003, the Ed Fund has been committed to advancing educational equity in Oakland. Thanks to a dedicated community of donors, community partners, and educational leaders we’ve been able to drive critical resources to ensure all students can learn, grow, and thrive.
Ed Fund Milestones
2003
Founded as Oakland Small Schools Foundation by founding Executive Director Jonathan Klein, we supported five OUSD schools within the “Small Schools” movement.
2010
Relaunching as the Oakland Schools Foundation, we expanded our mission to support Oakland public schools of all sizes.
2012
New leadership - including Executive Director Brian Stanley, Deputy Director Rebecca Hopkins, and Director of Finance David Korsak - implemented organization-wide updates in structure, brought on new external partnerships, increased fiscal sponsorship services, and improved brand visibility.
2014
Relaunching again as the Oakland Public Education Fund (the “Ed Fund” for short), we added key new staffing departments in Human Resources, Communications, Development, and Data & Systems.
Our Fiscal Sponsorship services achieved a key milestone by bringing on Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) as a fiscally sponsored project and becoming its official education fund.
2015
In partnership with Intel, we launched what would later be called TechLink, a mentorship and a paid summer fellowship for high school juniors and seniors in the computer science and engineering pathways at Oakland high schools. This program aims to expand career opportunities for Oakland students and increase the diversity of the tech industry by outreaching to students of color and girls, who are underrepresented in tech.
2016
We took on management of OUSD’s volunteer program, now named Oakland School Volunteers (OSV), and launched our corporate partnership branch. In the time since, OSV has grown to provide volunteer support at every OUSD school, including both regular classroom volunteer support and volunteer support for special events such as Read-Ins, career days, back-to-school weeks, and more.
The first year of partnership with Salesforce launched in the 2016-17 school year, with a $2.5M investment from Salesforce for middle school computer science and math achievement. Future years of the partnership will see the investment expand to over $46M for a wide array of initiatives including whole child support, educator professional learning, and more.
2017
The A to Z Fund was launched to help address funding disparities across OUSD schools. This mini-grant program provides funds directly to public school educators to implement classroom projects and take part in professional development opportunities that would otherwise go unfunded.
Oakland School Volunteers reached significant milestones in its second year matching 3,674 volunteers with classrooms across Oakland and placing at least one volunteer in every OUSD school. Similarly, the corporate partnership component of OSV, Adopt an Oakland School, grew more than twice in program size, going from 9 schools in its first year to 24 schools in its second year.
In the 2017-18 school year, Salesforce expanded its partnership with the Ed Fund by launching the Newcomer Wellness Initiative. While Salesforce’s initial 2016 investment focused on middle school STEM achievement, this new initiative would serve Oakland’s many refugee and asylee students. The Newcomer Wellness Initiative provided schools with Newcomer Social Workers who support newcomer students to adjust to life in a new country (often while also navigating unstable housing & caregiver circumstances).
2018
The Equity Fund was launched in partnership with a parent group called the Equity Allies. As a result of this program, OUSD parents and PTAs from well-resourced school communities raise funds for Oakland’s most under-resourced schools. $100,000 was raised this first year, which was distributed in increments of $10,000 to 10 schools. This program has continued in the years since, with parent groups raising money for the Equity Fund each year.
Salesforce increased its investment in Oakland schools, expanding on its Newcomer Wellness Initiative to include mental health support more broadly. This Whole Child Support program focuses on prevention, early intervention, and ongoing support for students with trauma and other mental health needs, targeting five of the highest need middle schools.
2019
Salesforce’s 2019-2020 investment focused on launching new programs to support recruitment, retention, and professional learning for Oakland educators. These funds support professional development for school staff at all levels: support staff have become teachers after obtaining teaching credentials, and teachers have advanced to leadership positions as a result of additional training.
2020
In response to the pandemic, the Ed Fund raised over $2.5M for COVID relief efforts, which went to directly support students, families, and schools in a number of areas. These funds supported efforts such as distance learning, food security, school site safety measures, and direct cash assistance to families. Over $400K in cash assistance was disbursed to OUSD families and remaining funds went to other critical areas including charter schools and OUSD departments such as the district’s Newcomer Program and Homeless Student Services.
The Ed Fund became the fiscal sponsor and founding partner of the
#OaklandUndivided program with Ed Fund Board of Directors donating $400K in
seed funding to launch this ambitious project in March 2020. Together with our partner organizations, we raised $13M to close the digital divide for Oakland public school students. Over 25,000 laptops and 10,000 hotspots were purchased and distributed, ensuring 97% of low-income students, 96% of African-American students, and 97% of all OUSD students had access to a computer, internet connection, and culturally-competent tech support.
All programming was adapted to a virtual setting, including TechLink and Oakland School Volunteers. TechLink’s virtual programming involved zoom mentoring and a virtual summer fellowship experience, as well as annual events like Computer Science Education Week and the Women in Tech Dinner. As part of OSV’s virtual efforts, we launched a new one-on-one tutoring program that helped students stay on track academically during distance learning. This program connected 94 student-tutors pairs, with 82 teachers helping facilitate these volunteer efforts.
Salesforce made its largest annual contribution to date in 2020, contributing $9M to address school communities’ increased needs as a result of the pandemic.
2022
In Fall and Winter 2022, we worked with community partners to facilitate a number of donated items for OUSD students and schools. Madrone contributed furniture such as desks, chairs, whiteboards, and shelves to five OUSD elementary, middle, and high schools, which were used to replace out-of-date items. The Oakland A’s also sponsored a coat drive for Newcomer students, resulting in the purchase of more than 700 winter coats and jackets. Items like these are critical for Newcomer students, many of whom arrive in the U.S. with limited possessions, unprepared for colder winters.
As school communities’ pandemic needs had diminished toward the end of 2022, we closed the COVID-19 Relief Fund and opened a new Oakland Schools Emergency Fund in its place. This fund is in place to create flexible and responsive funding for crises as they arise.
2023
In the spring, we awarded our $1 millionth in A to Z mini-grants to educators. Thanks to generous donors, we awarded twice the average funding amount and number of grants this cycle alone. This cycles's grants included field trips, visiting artists, outdoor education, STEM classroom projects, dance clubs, theater performances, and more.
On September 29, 2023, we celebrated our 20th Anniversary Gala at the Chabot Space and Science Center. Oakland’s school, community, and corporate leaders came together to celebrate 20 years helping students learn, grow, and thrive with dinner, silent and live auctions, and dancing. We exceeded our goal and raised $426,000 to support the Ed Fund's programs that serve students, teachers, and school communities.
“The Oakland Ed Fund has their ongoing work, and then there's also a responsive element where they ask, ‘How can we come together and do things to meet a need that wasn't here yesterday, but it's front and center today?’”
Want to learn more about the milestones and achievements of the Ed Fund? Check out our annual reports.