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Fact Sheet |
Leadership |
| Impact Summary »
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 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 drop
outs; 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 himself,
his board and staff, and his entire organization.
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