SAN DIEGO, CA, November 15, 2023 - Today, Cambiar Education, in partnership with Tyton Partners and with support from the Walton Family Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, announced award recipients of the Thrive Grant, a $3 million program to surface new, innovative approaches to providing parents and caregivers with easy-to-obtain, meaningful, and actionable information about their child’s K-12 education and development.

The Cambiar Thrive Grant awarded a total of $3 million in the amounts of $50,000 - $250,000 to 31 grantees, representing a range of organizations, leaders, communities, and ideas. Ninety percent of the grantees serve families of color and high-need populations, including low-income, disadvantaged, and multilingual learners. 

“Our grantees represent the voices of parents and caregivers across the country, and are committed to meeting their needs in fresh new ways that are timely, relevant, and actionable,” said Christina Heitz, CEO and Founder of Cambiar Education.

The Cambiar Thrive Grant aims to address the increasing demand and need to provide parents and caregivers with academic and non-academic information about their children. A recent survey by Learning Heroes, a Thrive grantee, shows how critical it is to get student data into the hands of parents and caregivers, particularly in light of the significant learning loss students continue to experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, 90% of parents think their children are at or above grade level in math and reading. In fact, on the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress, 26% of eighth graders are proficient or above in math and 31% are proficient or above in English, and the most vulnerable students are even farther behind.*

From parent platform solutions built for national reach and specific community needs to parent activators with deep dive areas of focus as well as tools and workshops leading local and deep transformation, Thrive grantees are committed to getting data and information into the hands of parents. Organizations like TalkingPoints and PimsPoints are tapping into accessible platforms like text messaging and mobile applications to connect schools and families and help break down common barriers in support of student success. “At 8 years old as a Korean immigrant at a new school in a new country, I didn’t speak a word of English. But, my mother was able to use the little English she knew to talk to my teachers about how she could help me at home,” explains Heejae Lim, Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints. “The difference between my mother and my peers' parents wasn't love, but access to the skills and tools she needed to support my learning.”

Other grantees are piloting and expanding new approaches that address specific community needs. Thrive grantee Ulster BOCES, a district in rural New York state serving a high-need population of diverse learners, is building out a student “engagement score” that combines academic and other indicators to help families better understand how their children are doing. The South Bend Empowerment Zone is collecting parent feedback to inform the development of a system-wide app that combines third party services into a central, accessible, and understandable information hub. Parents (regardless of their primary language) will easily know where to turn for urgent updates, ongoing status tracking, and fluid communication with teachers and school administrators. Another grantee, Southwest Creations Collaborative’s Hacia: Towards the University, focuses on a grassroots, multigenerational family engagement model to address barriers Latino and low income families experience and is led by a team that shares the lived experience of families in the program.

“We look forward to seeing how our grantees’ innovative approaches will have an impact on the way schools engage with parents and families. Collectively, we will be able to see what initiatives are really moving the needle, and how this program can support growth and scale. Those will be key learnings we can use as we continue to transform parent engagement and advance data equity,” said Nick Kind, Managing Director, Tyton Partners. 

See full list of Cambiar Thrive Grantees

MEDIA CONTACT:  Carla Punsalan McLoughlin, carla@cambiareducation.org

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*U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2022 Reading Assessment, 2022 Mathematics Assessment.

About Cambiar Education

Cambiar Education is a nonprofit venture design studio focused on student success and equity. Our mission is to spark positive change by scaling bold ideas that massively accelerate student success for ALL. We partner with Change Agents to bring game-changing ideas to fruition, and operate Cambiar Initiatives that unlock human potential and cultivate communities to create a more equitable world.

About Tyton Partners

Tyton Partners is designed to be different. As the only advisor dedicated to the rapidly evolving Global Knowledge Sector, we have assembled a team of consultants, bankers, principal investors, operators, and educators to deliver industry-defining insights to power executives’ and investors’ critical decisions. For more information, visit tytonpartners.com.

About the Walton Family Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses, work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving K-12 education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Overdeck Family Foundation

Overdeck Family Foundation was established in 2011 by John and Laura Overdeck, with the goal of providing all children the opportunity to unlock their potential. The Foundation focuses exclusively on enhancing education, funding efforts both inside and outside of school in the areas of early childhood, informal STEM education, and K-9 programs that include supporting educators and student-centered learning environments. To learn more, visit overdeck.org.

About the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation

Founded in 1974 by Beth and Ravenel Curry, the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation’s mission is to make lasting, positive impacts on the lives of others by supporting effective, inspiring, and innovative leaders and organizations that are identifying and intervening at the source of societal challenges. The Foundation focuses its efforts in the areas of poverty alleviation, effective education, and medical research. The Foundation supports programs consistent with public policies that are designed to promote individual freedom and economic liberty. 

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees.

About Carnegie Corporation of New York 

Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. In keeping with this mission, the Corporation’s work focuses on the issues that Carnegie considered of paramount importance: education, international peace, and a strong democracy. To learn more, visit carnegie.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 to help solve some of society’s toughest challenges — from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our communities. Through collaboration, providing resources and building technology, our mission is to help build a more inclusive, just and healthy future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.