The Daily Tell

Budget cuts in California have left little money leftover to pay for school supplies. Public schools have made due with out-of-date technology and, in many cases, teachers have funded items such as pencils and notebooks with money from their own pockets. Some of the cost falls on students, as well, who must purchase their own binders, calculators, staplers and, in some cases, even laptops.

But now, a San Francisco-based charity has stepped up to help the state’s public education system supply its students with everything they need to succeed in school.

The Claire Giannini Fund, created in 1998 to honor the daughter of Bank of America founder A. P. Giannini, has donated $1.3 million to meet the needs of more than 1,000 schools in the Bay area and throughout the state. The projects can be as small as $100 for writing utensils or up to thousands of dollars allotted to update technology needs.

The fund also donated $100,000 to help teachers in other states.

"Use of the word ‘miracle’ is not an overstatement," Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org, said after receiving a check Monday. "I think it’s fair to say it’s the best first day of school they’ve ever had."

The donation was the brainchild of Hilda Yao, executive director of the Claire Giannini Fund, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. She called Best asking how much it would cost to purchase every item listed on California teachers’ wish lists on DonorsChoose.org.

"Something over $1 million," Best said, expecting the answer to dissuade the female caller, whose identity he did not know.

Instead, one day later, Yao mailed a check of more than $1.3 million to cover the entire California wish list, 2,233 projects in all.

Bill and Melinda Gates recently joined fellow billionaire Warren Buffet in urging the superwealthy to donate their fortunes to charity. And the Gates are practicing what they preach: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced a grant of $3 million to the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.

The grant is intended to help the institute develop College Readiness Indicator Systems that schools can use to identify students who are in danger of dropping out of high school. Research has found a number of factors, including attendance patterns, suspensions and course failures, can predict which students are on track to graduate and which are in danger of failing out or repeating a grade. The money will also be used to help develop ways to reduce the number of high school students who are graduating unprepared for postsecondary education or a job.

The Annenberg Institute has been working to address these issues since 1993, when an anonymous $5-million gift helped the program get started. A year later, Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg gave the institute $50 million as part of his $500-million Challenge to the Nation to improve public education in America. The new funds enabled the institute to considerably expand the scope of its work, and it was subsequently renamed in Annenberg’s honor.

"Ideally, high school completion and college readiness would be one and the same, but they aren’t," said Ellen Foley, clinical assistant professor of education and principal associate at the Annenberg Institute. "That’s what we’re trying to address with this grant. We want to build similar systems that are just as practical and just as useful, but put the focus on college readiness."

The institute will select six school districts to participate in its College Readiness Indicator System program.

A new trend is sparking up across the nation – Jewish philanthropists donating their time and money to Catholic schools.

According to the Boston Globe, while Jewish benefactors donate to many organizations and combined philanthropies that support Jewish day schools, they are also increasingly giving money to the Catholic education system.

"Whoever it is that wants to step up and provide a nurturing environment for at-risk youth based on Judeo-Christian values, I’m with you all the way," Boston-based real estate agent Richard J. Henken told the Globe.

Henken grew up in a conservative Jewish household, but now sits on the board of the Catholic Schools Foundation and gives more than $20,000 a year to Catholic education. While Henken admits that he got "a couple of funny looks" from his Jewish friends when he decided to join the board, he understands that his contributions provide enormous financial support to parochial institutions that are struggling in the weak economy.

"The whole notion of asking ‘What would Jesus do?’ – it seems to me whether you take him as Lord and savior or not, if you follow his guidelines, you would do okay," Henken said.

Most Jewish donors that give to Catholic organizations also donate to Jewish nonprofits, the Globe reports, but are passionate about Catholic schools in particular because they provide an excellent education to even the neediest children. And Catholic education is not just limited to Catholic children – according to the Globe, an estimated 20 percent of the 45,000 children who attend Catholic schools in the Boston area do not practice the religion.

The Globe also mentions Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, who was able to reopen Catholic schools in the Virgin Islands just a month after a deadly hurricane, thanks to generous donations from Jewish benefactor Leon Hess, founder of the Hess Corporation. The public schools in the area were closed for two years.

According to the National Survey of Religious Identification, approximately 24.5 percent of American adults are Catholic, while just 1.3 percent are Jewish.

Sales team provider Cydcor has kicked off its new Cydcor Cares program in Thousand Oaks, California.

Cydcor, which provides outsourced, face-to-face sales teams, designed the event to help kids at local Boys and Girls Clubs become more interested in reading. Cydcor team members dressed up as favorite fictional characters while reading to children in kindergarten through fourth grade. Eight Cydcor employees participated in the event, performing as readers, scene reenactors and coordinators.

The event was also made possible by The Bookaneer, a local used bookstore that donated dozens of children’s fiction titles. Some of the books were read aloud by Cydcor volunteers, while others were displayed for children to browse at their leisure.

Both the Bookaneer and the Boys and Girls Clubs expressed gratitude for Cydcor’s time and dedication to the cause.

"I think it’s wonderful that a local company has made it a priority to give back to their local community and provide such a great program to children," said Tracey Benedict, who owns The Bookaneer.

"We’re thrilled that Cydcor selected the Boys and Girls Club for their event," added Boys and Girls Club of Thousand Oaks director Georgi Harden.

Gary Polson, CEO of Cydcor, emphasized the importance of service to his company’s vision, as well as his commitment to the company’s core values of integrity, collaboration, respect and communication.

"We believe that community involvement is a collaborative effort," Polson said. "The vision of this program is to create real service opportunities for individuals as well as group team member participation."

Cydcor also recently launched the Neighborhood Leader Program, which allows Cydcor employees to volunteer in their local communities. Since the program began, Cydcor workers have donated nearly 300 hours to 28 different organizations.

Cydcor, which began as a small start-up in Canada, became an independent corporation in 1994. Today, Cydcor’s network of sales offices is based all across Canada and the United States.

Venture Philanthropy Partners has announced a $5.5-million investment over four years in the Washington, D.C.-based branch of the nonprofit Knowledge is Power Program.

The money will be used to further KIPP DC’s goal of providing a high-performing public school system to the District of Colombia’s underserved urban population. The organization aims to build and sustain a network of free, open-enrollment college preparatory schools through the District, which would provide education and resources to low-income communities and give low-income students the tools to succeed in school and in employment.

KIPP DC was started in 2001, in the basement of an Anacostia church – which later became known as KEY Academy. Since then, enrollment has grown from 80 students in one program to more than 1,500 across seven KIPP-run schools. Eventually, the organization hopes to serve approximately 3,400 students through a network of 10 schools in Anacostia, Shaw/Pentworth and Marshall Heights. The majority of KIPP’s schools will be located in Wards 7 and 8; the remaining schools will be located in Ward 2.

For the last seven years, KEY Academy has been the highest-performing middle school in Washington, according to the DC-CAS. Additionally, data from Mathematica shows that KEY students consistently outperform their peers across the country.

“KIPP DC has proven that it can help students from underserved communities achieve significant academic success," said Carol Thompson Cole, president and CEO of Venture Philanthropy Partners. "VPP’s investment in KIPP DC is not just about adding more schools, but about helping to create a school network that can continue to deliver the highest academic results for all of its students."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 16.9 percent of the District’s residents are below the poverty line, compared to 13.2 percent nationally. Additionally, 77 percent of low-income, urban fourth graders are reading at a "below basic" level, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress scores.

A particularly grateful alumnus has donated $1 million to Indiana University.

Alan B. Graf, Jr., executive vice president and CEO of FedEx, along with his wife Susan, made the gift in order to endow the Graf Family Professorship at the university’s Kelley School of Business.

The Graf family includes four generations of Indiana University alumni. Alan Graf’s father, Alan B. Graf, Sr., was also a graduate of the school, and served on the Dean’s Advisory Board for many years. He passed away on Easter Sunday of this year, which prompted his son and daughter-in-law to follow up on their plans to contribute more to his alma mater.

The gift is the second major contribution from the couple, who also donated $150,000 to the Kelley School in 2002. That time, the donation money went toward the Godfrey Graduate and Executive Education Center.

"We’ve got a lot of Kelley grads that work at FedEx, which we’re proud of," said Alan Graf. "I learned a tremendous amount there and was influenced by some really terrific professors."

He added that he believes the Kelley School is "contributing greatly to improve productivity in corporate America."

"To maintain our world class presence requires three fundamental things: the best students, faculty who are productive scholars and dedicated classroom instructors, and facilities that enable us to support innovative teaching methods," said Kelley School dean Dan Smith.

The Grafs’ gift of an endowed professorship will insure that the university "will always have the type of faculty who change the lives of our students and advanced and business practice through their research," Smith continued.

Indiana University has eight campuses throughout the state, with the flagship school located in Bloomington. The institution serves nearly 100,000 students and has an annual operating budget of $2.7 billion.

Alex von Furstenberg has personally donated $1 million to the Curtis School.

At least $250,000 of the donation will be used to fund scholarships for deserving students. The Los Angeles-based Curtis School will use the remainder of the money for financing special projects.

Alex von Furstenberg, whose own children attend the Curtis School, said that his kids are "fortunate to be receiving a first-rate education."

"It is important to me that regardless of circumstance, deserving children get a shot at the same opportunity," he added.

The Curtis School, founded in 1925, “seeks to inspire a love of learning, to promote appreciation of and participation in athletics and the arts, and to instill a strong sense of moral behavior," according to its official website. The institution houses programs for approximately 500 students in kindergarten through sixth grade on its 27-acre campus located in the Santa Monica mountains. Without scholarships, yearly tuition is $21,800.

Mr. von Furstenberg’s dedication to education is shared by his family’s nonprofit organization, the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation. Since 1999, the foundation has donated more than $6 million to charter schools, universities and educational programs. The foundation is also involved in various other charitable pursuits, including community reform, environmental advocacy, medical research and human rights.

The Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice has announced the creation of a five-year project designed to improve schoolchildren’s understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The STEM program, as it has been nicknamed, will invest between $500,000 and $2.5 million annually in three high schools and five middle schools in the Sarasota and Charlotte counties of Florida. The program is designed not just to improve children’s test scores, but also to spark a lifelong interest in science and mathematics. Additionally, the foundation hopes that, if successful, the program will be implemented in more counties across Florida.

"Research indicates that 15 of the 20 fastest-growing jobs through 2014 will require substantial math and science preparation, and that Florida, as well as the United States, is failing to develop an adequate supply of STEM-capable workers," said foundation president and CEO Teri Hansen.

"While our economy demands a larger and more proficient STEM workforce, enrollment and success in those courses is rapidly declining," Hansen continued. The foundation’s project is designed to address and reverse this decline.

The STEM program incorporates two strategies for helping Florida students master mathematics and science.

First, the program aims to improve teacher readiness and preparation to meet Florida’s Next Generation Math and Science standards. A significant part of the funding will go toward training teachers to meet the higher standards and new models of the program.

The second strategy is to collaborate with employers and internship providers to enhance student opportunities that increase achievement and promote readiness for postsecondary programs and careers in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"The time for action is now, and the foundation is creating a community-based coalition to tackle this issue," said Hansen.

Since its formation in 1995, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation has donated $104 million in grants to the community. The foundation aims to maintain, support and improve Florida’s programs in the arts, health, human services, civic affairs and the environment.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York has announced $10 million in grants to be used in the development and implementation of new elementary, secondary and post-secondary school designs and systems.

The grants are part of the corporation’s larger effort to support designs that address the weaknesses in the U.S. education system – such as poorly designed curricula, isolation from external resources, understaffed schools, incoherent management systems and entrenched school models that stifle innovation.

"If we as a nation are serious about offering all students the education they need to compete in a global economy – and deserve as citizens – we must seriously raise our expectations about student achievement and take whatever steps are necessary to replace dogma with solutions that will provide America’s students with the highest level of educational excellence," said Carnegie Corporation of New York president Vartan Gregorian.

The grant is to be divided among three institutions working to improve the United States educational system.

The recently-formed U.S. Education Delivery Institute will receive $2.5 million, intended to help the nonprofit work with state and governmental education programs in cultivating the skills and technical capacity to implement education reform on a grand scale.

Another $2.5 million will be awarded to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The funds will help the foundation develop a one-year mathematics program designed to help community college students segue into four-year educational programs in the humanities and social sciences.

The final $5 million will go to the NewSchools Venture Fund. The group will invest the money in nonprofit entrepreneurial organizations that are dedicated to closing the achievement gap for underprivileged, underserved and immigrant children. Including this gift, the Carnegie Corporation has awarded the NewSchools Venture Fund with more than $7 million in the past 18 months.

The Carnegie Corporation was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. In the words of its founder, the corporation is dedicated to promoting "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding."

The John Templeton Foundation has awarded Wake Forest University $3.67 million to study the nature of human character – the largest grant ever awarded to the North Carolina-based institution for humanities research.

The foundation is providing funding for The Character Project, an exploration of the basis of human nature to be carried out by Wake Forest professors William F. Fleeson and Michael R. Furr, both from the department of psychology, as well as philosophy professor Christian Miller.

"When we think about how to understand human behavior, one of the first things we tend to mention is someone’s character and character traits such as honesty, courage or laziness," Miller said. "We are very excited about using the complementary perspectives of psychology, philosophy and theology to better understand what our characters are like and how we can improve ourselves as persons."

Miller is the principal director of the study, which is expected to span three years. The project will build on research previously completed by Fleeson and Furr, which studied the genesis of personality traits.

Wake Forest president Nathan O. Hatch called the project "ground-breaking," adding that "character and how to develop it are at the core of who we are as human beings."

John Templeton Foundation vice president for philosophy and theology Michael J. Murray expressed the organization’s interest in The Character Project.

"Sir John Templeton was very keen to fund research projects aimed at discovering the nature and content of character, with the goal of better understanding how to become virtuous, flourishing individuals, family members and citizens," he said.

Miller is also writing a book, entitled "A New Theory of Character."

Wake Forest University’s research into the formation of character is part of a growing desire to understand how we develop personality traits and moral compasses. Another nonprofit group, the VIA Institute on Character, is also working to unlock the secrets of human nature.