The FFT Community Factor

Integral to our work is the collaboration of our community partners – foundations, nonprofits and organizations that share our commitment to teachers and their students. Through their partnership on Fellow selection, funding and local support, these valued stakeholders extend Fund for Teachers’ impact across the country in rural and urban schools.

• Beginning in 2015, Dalio Education chose to invest in Connecticut teachers through Fund for Teachers, awarding $4.9 million in grants to 1,135 Connecticut teachers. Dalio Education funds statewide convenings of FFT Fellows, as well as special events for the cohort, including workshops to support their National Board Certified Teacher certification. These grant recipients also receive very special “Welcome to the Fund for Teachers Family” classroom surprise visits, often by Barbara Dalio herself! (Above, pictured second from left.)
• The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation joined our work this year, funding 62 teachers’ grants specifically for public school teachers in rural or low-income areas who designed fellowships focused on field-based science, art and craft, teaching, and protection of the natural world.
• Ohio’s Martha Jennings Holden Foundation is our only partner that can boast TWO statewide Teachers of the Year! This family foundation was founded in 1959 to support Ohio’s non-religious, public PK-12 school programs. MJHF also annually hosts selection committees and fall Fellow celebrations.
• The Ford Family Foundation’s tagline is “Small Towns, Big Futures,” which exemplifies its support of the people and places of rural Oregon. This year alone, the Ford Family Foundation funded approximately $50,000 in FFT grants for public school teachers representing nine districts.
• The Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation is our longest-standing partnership because FFT Founder Raymond Plank initially created Fund for Teachers to support educators in his home state of Minnesota.

We are grateful that these organizations chose to invest in educators by partnering with Fund for Teachers. If you know of like-minded people and/or entities interested in impacting education by investing in educators, please contact us!