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Need $1,000 and time with experts in design thinking to help accelerate learning for your students? Join us for our WINTER DESIGN STUDIOS for principals and their teams!

Fund 1
$10 million
2000

Fund 1 established a new, higher bar of quality for teachers and principals through seed investments in organizations that recruit, train and support talented leaders for Chicago's public schools.

Fund 2
Fund 2
$15 million
2004

With a new bar established, Fund 2 expanded the number of great educators across Chicago's schools through investments in new certification programs, and pioneered new ways of supporting teachers and principals.

Fund 3

"I am committed to making sure that students are exposed to a wide range of experiences that will allow them to envision who they could become in the future."

Sumner Community Academy
Fatima Cooke, Principal
Fund 3
$20 million
2008

With more high-quality educators in the city's schools, Fund 3 focused on Chicago's ability to identify, support and keep talented educators through investments in aligned teacher, principal and school evaluation systems.

Fund 4
Fund 4
$25 million
2013

Fund 4 investments more than doubled the number of high-performing principals in Chicago's public schools by 2018, supporting these leaders as they transformed and accelerated student learning across the city.

Fund 5
Fund 5
$26.5 Million
2018

Building on the success of previous years, Fund 5 leverages data and invests in programs and initiatives that enable Chicago to attract, support and keep strong school leaders.

Our Investments

The Fund believes that solutions to the challenges in public schools exist. We devote time, leverage data and invest in programs and initiatives that enable Chicago to attract, support and keep strong principals.

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70%
Chicago principals trained or supported by Fund investments
550
Average number of students impacted by one Chicago principal
$95M
Invested by The Fund to improve Chicago's public schools
Our Current Fund

Why now?

In fall 2017, The Fund launched fundraising efforts to support our current phase of work; a $26.5 million effort to make principal quality an enduring aspect of Chicago's school improvement strategy, serving more than 600 principals and 350,000 students, with an emphasis on our most vulnerable schools. With continued support from the corporate, philanthropic and nonprofit communities, we will make permanent the gains of the last decade.

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Invest in Chicago's Principals

Principals have an out-sized impact on their schools and communities. Any amount can make a difference.

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Support Our Work

We aim to serve more than 600 principals and 360,000 students by 2023, with an emphasis on the schools that most need support.

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Celebrate School Leaders

Every October, school communities, city officials, and corporate leaders join together to lift up the great work of principals.

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