Catalyst:Ed is excited to announce a new partnership between Catalyst:Ed and the Walton Family Foundation. The Walton Family Foundation (WFF) is investing dollars in selected communities across the US to identify “community-demanded, community-driven and community-led solutions to improve the quality of education so that all children, especially those most in need, are thriving academically and socially and are supported in finding their unique path to the careers and lives they choose.” Through this work, Catalyst:Ed will support nonprofit organizations in ten of these “Catalytic Communities” to grow their capacity to support students and families. 

Catalyst:Ed will begin this work by leading WFF program officers and community leaders through a design session to answer a fundamental question: “what capacities are necessary for success as a community collaborative working to ensure community-driven, community-led solutions in education?” As with all of our frameworks, this one will be designed to be practically useful, equity-centered, and action-oriented. We will then engage community leaders in a self-reflection process to identify their strong capacities and areas in which they seek to grow, and then will support the communities through our project-matching process to identify providers for capacity-building projects. 

“Catalyst:Ed’s equity-oriented process gives community leaders agency in determining their growth trajectory. We are eager to help define – for the communities we partner with – what capacities are necessary to do this work well. We hope that more communities will use the tools that emerge from this work to improve educational outcomes for students most in need, says Evy Valencia, Senior Program Officer, Walton Family Foundation, “We are inspired by the impact this partnership will have to ensure that communities can develop thriving, resilient, and high-impact alliances.”

At Catalyst:Ed, we partner with foundations to support grantees in their capacity-building efforts. Our Catalyst:Ed Exchanges provide comprehensive, equity-oriented capacity building through diagnostics for self-reflection, advisory services from our team, and tailored capacity-building help from our vetted network of over 830 coaches, consultants, and technical assistance providers. With this support, grantee organizations can work to bring about meaningful change in their communities.

“We’re proud to partner with the Walton Family Foundation to support these ten communities in their efforts to create equitable and impactful change,” says Rachel Klein, VP of Programs at Catalyst:Ed. “This partnership is important to ensure that community leaders have the capacity they need to design and ensure implementation of solutions to the educational challenges they face.”