It’s time for back-to-school planning! If education is on your mind, you’re in good company. Charitable giving to education rose in 2024 to more than $58 billion! If education and related causes are important to you, IECF can help you explore a variety of meaningful ways to make an impact. Here are three ideas to inspire a deeper discussion:
Explore options for expanding student support
In many cases, donors set up a scholarship or other type of fund to support a particular educational institution, and then set it on autopilot. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but you might be missing an opportunity to make a deeper impact. The IECF team is happy to facilitate a dialogue with you and the school to structure your funding, whether through a scholarship or other types of support, to fill gaps in student need. For example, if you’d like to support students pursuing a college degree beyond simply scholarship dollars, IECF can help identify needs for dollars to increase faculty salaries, purchase lab equipment, or pay an on-campus counselor to help students acclimate to college life.
Investigate opportunities to improve the quality of education itself
Many donors are concerned that high school graduates are ill-prepared for post-secondary education, whether that’s a traditional four-year college, community college, or trade school. IECF can help you address this gap with your charitable dollars. For example, you could establish a fund to support teachers, which in turn helps improve student success. Indeed, teachers are often considered the single most important in-school factor for student success. Charitable funding that enhances teacher training, mentorship, and ongoing professional development creates ripple effects across classrooms and generations of students.
Find your education “niche”
By establishing a field-of-interest fund at IECF, you can work with the IECF team to identify specific parameters within education that you’d like to fund. For example, you may be interested in supporting local grassroots programs offering tutoring and mentorship. Or, you may decide to direct your charitable dollars to quality early childhood programs, which have been shown to yield high returns on investments in education. IECF can help you identify an area of focus. Going forward, our team leverages IECF’s deep knowledge and research to identify high-impact opportunities, helping to ensure your generosity makes the greatest difference within your area of interest.
Please reach out to our team anytime! As students head back to school and education is top of mind, IECF is here to make sure your giving is impactful, focused, and in line with your philanthropic goals.
Please reach out to our Charitable Giving Team anytime, and stay up to date on all the good work we’re doing through the power of philanthropy. Sign up for our eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters, today.
The team at IECF is honored to serve as a resource and sounding board as you build your charitable plans and pursue your philanthropic objectives for making a difference in the community. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. Please consult your tax or legal advisor to learn how this information might apply to your own situation.
