GEOList Summary: Grantmaking to School Districts

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is considering making grants to school districts on our PreK work in California, with a goal of better linking PreK to Kindergarten through 3rd grade in these districts. We have not traditionally made grants directly with school districts, and are interested in other foundations' experiences. If your foundation has made grants directly to school districts (not just for PreK work), we welcome your feedback on any of the questions below: 1) Where did you target your investments (e.g., curriculum, teachers, policy/reform, etc.) and what assumptions did you make? Did your assumptions hold up? 2) How long did you invest before you saw changes (if you saw changes)? 3) What have you learned about how to effectively make grants with school districts, especially if you are looking to leverage smaller investments to achieve meaningful change? 4) What potential risks should we keep in mind? Are there certain characteristics that must be in place to make school district investments work (e.g., leadership, size of district, etc.)?