See Forever Foundation

Please note: this Investment Summary represents VPP's perspective at the time of the investment agreement, March, 2003.  

In March 2003, VPP entered into a multi-year investment partnership with the See Forever Foundation (SFF). See Forever runs the Maya Angelou Public Charter School, a school that is helping to turn around the lives of high-risk teenagers, many of whom are school dropouts and have been involved in the city's juvenile justice system. VPP will provide funding up to $2,200,000 over a four and one quarter year period to the See Forever Foundation and will contribute significant non-financial support to the organization during that time, bringing VPP's total funding for SFF to $2,443,000 (VPP provided $243,000 to SFF for comprehensive planning in 2002). This non-financial support will include strategic management assistance and the leverage of VPP's investors, board, advisors, and other contacts. This funding is contingent upon SFF's achievement of agreed-upon milestones (outcomes, outputs, and organizational accomplishments) and the continued validity of the key assumptions upon which this partnership has been based.

OPPORTUNITY

The goal of this partnership is to help See Forever implement their comprehensive strategic plan to expand the number of charter schools it operates, improve program quality and outcomes, and serve as a national model to increase the impact and reach of its approach. The success of the SFF model has the potential to revolutionize the way our country addresses the unique needs of these children and have a substantive impact on the youth who experience SFF's comprehensive approach to education and social support. SFF's specific aspirations and objectives of its strategic plans are to:

• Expand from one school serving 85 students, to four schools with four "academies", serving 610 students (During the four-year VPP investment period, SFF will expand into two of the three new schools.);
• Improve graduation rates and student outcomes;
• Serve as a national model for the creation of learning environments where teens who have not succeeded in traditional schools can achieve their potential;
• Create a distinctive, codified curriculum and program;
• Design and open an academy to prep students for success at Maya Angelou.

INVESTMENT RATIONALE

• Outstanding leadership: Founders David Domenici and James Forman have demonstrated that they can accomplish remarkable things, raising more than $3 million to develop the school; overseeing its construction; successfully designing and establishing a nationally-renowned, multi-faceted school program; and then achieving promising results with the most difficult children in just four years.
• Demonstrated performance: The school's results to date with current students and their graduates are very encouraging. While the school has only been in operation since 1997 and its model for reaching teens who have failed in other school settings is nascent, 27 of 34 students who have graduated from Maya Angelou have gone on to college. That's a college attendance rate of 79 percent, well above the DC public school average.
• Possibility of significant impact: The potential for impact is significant in several areas: dramatically alter the course of the lives of Maya Angelou students; revolutionize the way our country deals with youth in the court system and with school dropouts; and underscore the potential of the charter school movement.
• Community/external stakeholder support: In addition to the support of the District of Columbia Public School System, the charter movement, local government, and national foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Maya Angelou has won the support of national juvenile justice and youth development experts. For example, the Annie E. Casey Foundation approached Maya Angelou to see if Casey could fund an evaluation of the school, recognizing the unique nature and success of the model to date.

USE OF FUNDS

SFF, with the support of the VPP partnership, will work to strengthen its organizational capacity and grow its organization to achieve its long-term goals by:

• Strengthening its management team and operations;
• Instituting compelling outcome measures, backed by effective information systems;
• Achieving strong staff performance, satisfaction and retention;
• Demonstrating a sustainable economic model including the creation of a highly effective funds development capacity; and
• Creating a larger, highly engaged and effective board with extensive fund-raising capacity.

INITIAL PLANNING PHASE

The formal strategic planning effort ran from October 25, 2002 to January 14, 2003. McKinsey & Co. led the effort in conjunction with a planning team made up of SFF staff and board members and two VPP representatives. In addition, a working group of SFF staff members helped provide information for the effort. In the planning phase, SFF reviewed its current internal and external situation; revisited its mission and aspirations; identified priority initiatives and resources required; and developed an implementation plan and communicated findings. The planning effort included planning team meetings, board reviews, interviews, site visits, and focus groups, and entailed hundreds of hours of collective working time. The end result is a comprehensive strategic plan that will provide SFF with a clear roadmap for achieving its aspirations over the next five years and beyond. As executive director David Domenici describes it, the planning process has been "transformative" for him, his board and staff, and his entire organization.