Project Equity

Pacific utilizes project equity from America’s preeminent foundations and leverages it with debt to create state-of-the-art charter school campuses. We wish to thank the following organizations for their ongoing support of our mission:

NewSchools Venture Fund

NewSchools Venture Fund is a venture philanthropy firm that seeks to transform public education through powerful ideas and passionate entrepreneurs so that all children – especially those underserved – have the opportunity to succeed in the 21st century. Founded in 1998, NewSchools invested its first $20 million fund in nine nonprofit and for-profit organizations, and now has a $70 million second fund under development from more than ten individual and institutional donors. NewSchools’ investments focus on accelerating the growth of nonprofit charter school systems, including investments in Aspire Public Schools, Green Dot Public Schools and Leadership Public Schools; and on enhancing the capacity of school districts to produce high levels of student achievement, including investments in New Leaders for New Schools, Teachscape and Teach for America. For more information, visit www.newschools.org.

Pacific received a pledge for $1.5 million in project equity funding from NewSchools in 2004.

The Broad Foundation

The Broad Foundation's mission is to dramatically improve K-12 urban public education through better governance, management and labor relations. The Foundation's goals are ambitious:

• To train a broad, deep bench of current and aspiring leaders in education.
• To redefine the traditional roles, practices and policies of school board members, superintendents, principals and labor union leaders to better address contemporary challenges in education.
• To attract and retain the highest quality talent to leadership roles in education.
• To equip school systems and their leaders with modern tools for effective management.
• To provide tangible incentives for educators to advance academic performance.
• To honor and showcase success wherever it occurs in urban education.

The Broad Foundation has committed to funding over $400 Million toward K-12 educational issues. For more information, visit www.broadfoundation.org

Pacific received a pledge for $13.7 million in project equity funding from The Broad Foundation since 2004.

The Walton Family Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation, Inc. was established in 1987 as the culmination of the philanthropic interests of the family of Sam M. and Helen R. Walton. The Family's purpose in establishing the Foundation was to focus their philanthropic efforts to assure that their charitable giving would have the most positive impact on communities throughout the United States. The Foundation's primary areas of focus are systemic reform in K-12 education and community and economic development and educational opportunities in the Northwest Region of Arkansas and the Delta Region of Arkansas and Mississippi. For more information, visit www.wffhome.com

Pacific received a pledge for $6.7 million in project equity funding from the Walton Family Foundation in 2005.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through community partnerships across the nation, is committed to significantly raising the high school graduation rate and helping all students—regardless of race or family income — graduate as strong citizens ready for college and work. Through its commitments totaling more than $1.3 billion, the Foundation is both supporting the creation of strong new schools and transforming large, impersonal ones into smaller learning environments designed to give all students a rigorous, personalized education. It supports the creation of thousands of new, high-quality schools by supporting the replication of effective school models and by supporting the conversion of some of our nation’s lowest performing high schools into smaller, more effective schools. In addition to these investments, the Foundation has committed more than $1 billion to help reduce financial barriers to higher education talented low-income students. For more information, visit www.gatesfoundation.org.

Pacific received a pledge for $6.9 million in project equity funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2005.