Overview

Like a venture capital fund, we invest dollars and ideas in ventures promising excellent returns through innovation and solid implementation. In our case, those returns on investment areimproved school leadership and student achievement in Chicago’s public schools. Over time, we will organize a series of funds based on specific opportunities where investment of private-sector expertise and capital can improve Chicago Public Schools.

Guided by an actively engaged group of some of Chicago's most prominent business and civic leaders, The Fund brings private-sector dollars and expertise to effective programs aligned with Chicago Public Schools priorities. We provide a unique combination of strategic management assistance and program grants to the programs we support. By doing so, we serve as a catalyst to fundamentally change the way our urban schools recruit, develop and support school leaders (primarily teachers and principals).

The Fund helps the programs we support create strategic plans, hire management teams, recruit board members, and develop additional sources of financial support. We agree to specific goals and benchmarks for every program in our portfolio, with funding linked to performance. We join the boards of our programs, and we connect them to our Board of Directors and Leadership Council members, who provide expertise and new ideas.

We believe that the future of Chicago—the health of our economy, the strength of our businesses, the skills of our workforce, the vitality of our neighborhoods—depends on the quality of our public schools. And the future of our public schools depends on the people who lead them. This is why we say “better schools are everybody’s business.”