Shifting Power in Grantmaking

March 21, 3:00 pm ET

Resource: The Future of Co-Creation from The Reinvention Lab at Teach for America

Education funders are grappling with what it means to center equity and racial justice in their work. EdFunders will be launching an impact group focused on this topic, creating events and opportunities for members to learn about promising practices, and learn together through problems of practice within their own work.

Join us for an interactive session that will allow space for learning and conversation. Hear from members who have been exploring ways to shift power within their grantmaking process including changing application requirements, implementing participatory decision-making processes, and working with different theories of change and definitions of impact. Then join us for a conversation to identify topics and themes for this learning group to spend more time on in the months ahead.

There is no cost to attend this Grantmakers for Education program. The session will run for one hour. Registration closes 15 minutes prior to the program time. Thank you for your patience; we review each registration in advance.

This virtual event is intended for members of Grantmakers for Education.

About the Presenters

Sunanna Chand
Vice President of Systems Reinvention
The Reinvention Lab at Teach for America

At the Reinvention Lab, Sunanna helps co-create and lead is an exploratory space within Teach For America dedicated to the future of learning and the future of the organization. Together with young people, parents and caregivers, leaders and educators both in and outside of Teach For America, we pursue equitable innovation and system-level transformation. Our motto, inspired by Grace Lee Boggs, is to “transform ourselves to radically transform learning.” Learn more at www.reinventionlab.org.

Prior to the Reinvention Lab, Sunanna was Director of Remake Learning in Pittsburgh, PA, a diverse network of 600+ schools, museums, libraries, government, philanthropies and more, all thinking about how to create engaging, relevant, and equitable learning experiences for each and every young person across the region (www.remakelearning.org). Sunanna holds an M.Ed in International Education Policy and Management from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, and has previously worked as a public health network leader for local government and elementary school teacher in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Greg Gunn
Board Chair
Nellie Mae Education Foundation

Greg Gunn is a leader in using technology, innovation, and venture capital investing to promote educational and economic opportunity. As co-founder of Lingo Ventures, he makes early-stage investments in education and workforce technologies. In 2000, Greg co-founded Wireless Generation (now called Amplify), a leading educational software company serving millions of students annually with groundbreaking assessment and instruction products.

Mr. Gunn is the board chair of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and of Education Leaders of Color, and is a director of the Donors of Color Network, FHI 360, Bridgespan, Zearn, and City Year.

Meredith Olson
President
VELA Education Fund

Meredith leads VELA Education Fund, where she is determined to serve brave, creative people who are boldly reimagining education in their communities and beyond. Meredith is inspired by everyday entrepreneurs who are willing to let go, listen, and learn from children as they discover their magic spark. Meredith and her husband are raising their family of four children in Wichita, KS.

Shruti Sehra
Managing Partner, Education Portfolio
New Profit

Shruti is a Managing Partner at New Profit, where she leads the organization’s work in education. In this role she supports capacity-building of education organizations and works to align social entrepreneurs, funders, researchers, policy influencers, and opinion leaders to fundamentally reimagine the future of teaching and learning in America. Prior to this, Shruti led New Profit’s portfolio management practice, ensuring organizations were receiving the support and resources they needed both from New Profit and from the Monitor Institute by Deloitte through pro-bono strategic engagements. In addition to leading the Education Team, Shruti currently serves on the boards of CASEL, Envision Education, and Zearn and chairs the board of New Teacher Center.

Shruti joined New Profit in 2006 while finishing a joint M.B.A./M.P.A. Prior to graduate school, she managed a campaign for State Assembly in California while starting up a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping critically-ill workers. Before that, she spent seven years working in the private sector, initially as an engineer at Honeywell, an aerospace engine manufacturer, and later in a series of quality management positions at Howmet Castings, an aerospace casting manufacturer, and Jabil Circuit, an electronics manufacturing services company. Shruti holds an S.B. in chemistry from MIT, an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and an M.P.A. from Harvard Kennedy School and is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow.