$100 Million for Teach For America

Speaking of TFA, here's great news:

 

Teach For America Attracts $100-Million to Start an Endowment

January 27, 2011, 11:36 am

http://philanthropy.com/blogs/philanthropytoday/teach-for-america-attracts-100-million-to-start-an-endowment/31340?sid=&utm_source=&utm_medium=en

 

Teach for America, the fast-growing organization that places young college graduates as teachers in struggling public schools, is getting $100-million from four wealthy donors to start an endowment, the Associated Press reports.

 

The idea to start an endowment originated with the philanthropist Eli Broad, the news service says. He pledged $25-million from his Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and enlisted other donors to join him.

 

Three more wealthy couples joined by providing $25-million from their foundations or in direct gifts: the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Robertson Foundation (headed by the financier Julian Robertson) and the philanthropists Steve and Sue Mandel.

 

The endowment will produce only about 2 percent of Teach For America's $200-million budget at first, but Wendy Kopp, who founded the group 20 years ago, said she hopes the endowment will grow into a bigger source of support.

 

Ms. Kopp said she hopes the endowment revenue allows the organization to double the number of teachers serving two-year terms to 15,000 and increase the communities they reach from 39 to 60.