NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DonorsChoose, the leading education nonprofit that connects public school teachers with public donors, today announced that Robert F. Smith, Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”), and PowerSchool fulfilled over 1,800 teacher funding requests for classroom supplies by over 1,300 teachers at over 670 schools where more than 50% of the student population is African American, across 6 southern cities plus a surrounding 100-mile radius. The donation, worth over $1.25 million, will support teachers in predominantly Black schools in and around Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Houston, Memphis, and New Orleans – communities that are home to half of all Black people in the country.
Across the United States, teachers who work primarily with students from low-income households and students of color spend more of their own money on classroom materials. This equates to over $100 on average that these teachers spend out of their own pockets compared to teachers who work with majority white students from higher-income households.
Recognizing significant educational inequities across our nation’s classrooms – deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic – this gift aims to provide a targeted surge of funding, and inspire others, to support all teachers in these classrooms as they head into the 2021-2022 school year.
“As the son of educators, equal access to quality education has always been a core tenet of my life. The ability to identify problems and enjoy finding their solutions begins in the classroom, yet our teachers and administrators continue to face uphill battles in securing the proper resources and materials to engage students, particularly Black students and students from low-income households,” said Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. “While no amount of money is ever repayment enough for our educators’ relentless dedication to their students, we hope this funding will ease their burden and catalyze others to join our efforts.”
Hardeep Gulati, CEO of PowerSchool said, “At PowerSchool, our mission has always been to support our educators and students to help them realize their full potential. We are proud to join this effort alongside Vista to fund projects via DonorsChoose and equip our teachers with the resources they need to transform their classrooms and inspire the next generation of innovators, problem solvers, thinkers and doers.”
PowerSchool’s contribution is part of its recently announced PowerSchool Education Fund, designed to tackle some of the most critical issues in the education ecosystem including, the national teacher shortage and diversity gap, and access to education technology and resources.
This gift is part of the ongoing efforts of DonorsChoose to partner with organizations committed to addressing racial inequity in education. Across the platform, over 77% of funded DonorsChoose projects are from schools where over half of students come from low-income households. Over the next year, DonorsChoose seeks to bring special attention to the schools at the intersection of both racial and socioeconomic inequity and lift up communities of color.
This gift addresses significant historical inequities in school districts serving BIPOC students. Across the United States today, these districts receive $23 billion less in state and local funding than districts with the same number of white students.
This gift builds on the Southern Communities Initiative (SCI), launched in April 2021 by Robert Smith, Rich Lesser, and Dan Schulman, the CEOs of Vista Equity Partners, Boston Consulting Group, and PayPal, respectively, to accelerate the deployment of corporate resources into six southern communities that are home to approximately 50% of African Americans. SCI is an open-source blueprint for advancing racial equity that brings together local organizations that are embedded in communities, with leading national experts on banking, broadband, education, and other pressing needs, to present “menus” of actions that corporations can take quickly to address inequities, in ways that are locally sustainable and that improve lives holistically, across traditional siloes. Menus developed to-date would help eliminate inequities in banking, broadband, and small business.
About DonorsChoose
DonorsChoose is the leading way to give to public schools. Since 2000, 4.8 million people and partners have contributed $1.1 billion to support nearly 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. As the most trusted crowdfunding platform for teachers, donors, and district administrators alike, DonorsChoose vets each request, ships the funded resources directly to the classroom, and provides thank yous and reporting to donors and school leaders. Charity Navigator and GuideStar have awarded DonorsChoose, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, their highest ratings for transparency and accountability. For more information, visit www.donorschoose.org.
About PowerSchool
PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 45 million students globally and more than 12,000 customers, including 93 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in over 90 countries.
About Vista Equity Partners
Vista is a leading global investment firm with more than $77 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2021. The firm exclusively invests in enterprise software, data and technology-enabled organizations across private equity, permanent capital, credit and public equity strategies, bringing an approach that prioritizes creating enduring market value for the benefit of its global ecosystem of investors, companies, customers and employees. Vista’s investments are anchored by a sizable long-term capital base, experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions and proven, flexible management techniques that drive sustainable growth. Vista believes the transformative power of technology is the key to an even better future – a healthier planet, a smarter economy, a diverse and inclusive community and a broader path to prosperity. Further information is available at vistaequitypartners.com. Follow Vista on LinkedIn, @Vista Equity Partners, and on Twitter, @Vista_Equity.
