WHAT WE DO

Services We Provide

Schooling for Hope and strategic partners have the ability to offer schools and their associations (serving predominantly students of color) the following services:

  • Facilitation of a strategic plan and the implementation map for a strategic plan
  • Development of identity and brand materials including brand language (mission statement), logo design, promotional videos, and brand guidelines
  • Development of Financial literacy curricula
  • Executive coaching for school leaders
  • Collaboration with schools and their associations in creating grant appeals
  • Facilitation of school retreats for board, leadership team, faculty/staff
  • DEIB training for faculty and staff

Our Work in Action

Case Study

NativityMiguel Coalition

The NativityMiguel Coalition (NMC) is an alliance of fifty nonpublic schools serving students from pre-k through twelfth grade in the U.S. and Canada that work together to bring equity to all students through education.  Across the Coalition, NMC schools average 46% LatinX students, 40% African-American students, 5% AAPI students, and 2% Native American /Indigenous students, and 94% of NMC students qualify for the federal lunch program.

NMC 2021-24 Strategic Plan

A pro-bono strategic plan facilitation & implementation

In 2020-21, Schooling for Hope and partner organizations did a pro bono facilitation of the NativityMiguel Coalition’s 2021-24 strategic plan:

  • Randolph Carter (founder and associate director of East Ed)
  • Kelly McMurray (founder and creative director of 2communique)

The strategic plan process was unusually inclusive (11 focus groups, 12 NMC school cohorts polled, including 8th graders) and the plan itself was unusually incisive (one page).

NMC 2021-24 Strategic Plan

Progress report on the implementation
  • SfH partners Simon Holzapfel (founder and CHRO of Teal Education Partners) and Jeff Burstein (founder and president of L-EAF) did a pro bono facilitation of the strategic plan implementation map with NMC’s leadership.
  • From funding provided by an anonymous donor, SfH partner 2communique did an NMC website renovation that included a promotional video for all 50 NMC member schools, revised mission, new logo, and brand guidelines–to clarify voice and tone and visual messaging through a rebrand & brand video.  The project supported a number of NMC schools in their fundraising, admissions, and outreach efforts.
  • NMC obtained a three-year, $400K grant from the Howley Foundation to double the NMC central staff by adding a program director to enhance NMC’s support for member schools. The work done by SfH partner 2communique on the website was instrumental in obtaining the Howley Foundation grant.

Projects ahead with for SfH and NMC

In the 2023-24 school year, Schooling for Hope anticipates supporting the NativityMiguel Coalition and its 2021-24 strategic plan in three arenas:

NMC school leadership development
  • Following  SfH board and partners site visits to the five Massachusetts NMC schools, Don  Grace has created 10 Elements of NMC School Success, from a melding of our findings with his own 37-year experience heading and re-energizing under-resourced, creative private schools.
  • Don will work with Ros Jackson, the new NMC program director, to circulate this document and SfH’s learnings about NMC school leadership to the heads of all NMC schools.
  • Don will also use this document to offer support to NMC in their Ready to Lead program designed to grow the next generation of NMC school leaders.
Support for Graduate Support Program schools’ staffs in their work with three key cohorts
  • SfH partner Simon Holzapfel will create a financial literacy toolkit by summerm, 2023, for GSP staff to enhance their essential work with middle schoolers, parents, and alums as 8th graders move to and through high school, college, and beyond.
  • In July 2023, Ros Jackson will join the incoming GSP director and a current GSP staff member of Epiphany School (Boston) at the 2023 Financial Literacy Summit offered by SfH partner Scott (George) Guild (the former executive director of the Massachusetts Council for Economic Education).
  • In the summer of 2023, Don Grace will be collaborating with Brian Maher, head of Nativity Preparatory School of Boston, to appeal for a foundation grant for creating financial literacy curricula for NMC middle schoolers, parents, and alums (first in Massachusetts, then for all NMC schools) in the 2023-24 school year.
Expansion of NMC staffing
  • SfH is collaborating with the NMC resources committee to make grant applications for adding a part/full-time marketing/communications staff member and a development staff member to the Coalition staff.

Stay tuned to this space for progress on these fronts!