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I hope this email finds you all healthy and happy.
To start, I want to share my gratitude for both Ellen Wang and Delia Arellano-Weddleton for their years of dedicated service to the Nellie Mae community. As they each transition to their next chapter, and I reflect on their legacies here, I am eager to see how their commitment to bringing forth our collective vision for education justice will manifest in new and meaningful ways throughout the region. Please join me in honoring and celebrating Delia’s seventeen and Ellen’s nine years of service by sharing a memory, well wishes, or note of gratitude in their kudos boards here (Ellen) and here (Delia).
Secondarily, I’ve recently shared reflections on what we across Nellie Mae have collectively learned through all of the change and tumult of the past four years, the impact those learnings have had on our strategy, and the stakes of the current moment. Today, I am eager to share more about the work underway to be an even more impactful and strategic philanthropic partner to you all in service of our shared vision.
Before I get to the announcements, it is worth reiterating a deeply held belief at Nellie Mae. We believe our power to enact change lies in our communities and in supporting the powerful work you all are doing. The compounding crises of the past four years pushed us to make quick pivots, offering time-bound, smaller grants to address immediate needs–and that approach was right for that moment. But what we’ve learned from you and our own evaluation is that this current moment requires that we demand more of ourselves as Nellie Mae and more of philanthropy as a whole.
We are steadfast in our commitment to supporting community-rooted solutions to ensure each and every student in New England has what they need to succeed as their authentic selves. A critical first step in that work is being more in community with all of you. As those who are closest to the work and the challenges facing your communities, I’m committing to deeper engagement and more two-way conversations to understand the shifting dynamics and where Nellie Mae is most needed to invest in sustainable change. In deepening our direct partnership with you all, our hope is that we can be a more dynamic partner in moving forward our collective vision for New England, starting with:
- Partnering with the NYU Metro Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools to engage you and other partners to better understand this work, how it’s evolving, and what leaders on the ground need more of from education philanthropy;
- Launching our Capacity Building Accelerator, which will support grassroots youth, educators, and community organizations across New England, to strengthen their organizations and expand their reach;
- Prioritizing $10 million in grants to support community-rooted solutions—youth and community organizing, advocacy, direct action partnerships, and coalitions of grassroot/tops focused on advancing education justice and equity—starting in July; and
- An additional $5 million in grants for resources, infrastructure, and capacity, in response to what we’ve heard from you about a desire for more targeted support.
We all find ourselves on the precipice of a key milestone in our nation’s history, as we’re swiftly approaching 250 years of this American democracy and 70 years after the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Public education is the cornerstone of our democracy–it’s the most powerful tool we have to nurture generations of engaged leaders and citizens, and has ripple effects that impact the futures of families and entire communities. But as leaders and advocates committed to a multiracial democracy, we can’t assume its existence and power as a foregone conclusion. Redesigning our public education system into one where every child has the resources, dedicated support, and opportunities necessary to succeed and thrive, both inside the classroom and outside of it, has the power to make that promise from 250 years ago a reality.
What we are up against can feel like swimming upstream, but there are powerful proof points that show what can work: deepening community trust, strengthening relationships across lines of difference, and meaningfully investments in systems change through community-rooted solutions and innovation anchored in community genius. Prior to 2020, we were making serious gains–those successes are why we continue to face renewed pushback. But we know that when we lean in and focus on community levers that can affect change, it works and we win.
Together, we can be the people to transform our education and youth-serving systems to make real the promise of our democracy.
In partnership,
Dr. Gisele C. Shorter
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