The SEED Foundation

The SEED Foundation

The SEED Foundation opens and supports public boarding schools that help underserved students who need more than a traditional educational setting overcome obstacles and succeed in school, college and life.

The SEED Foundation (SEED) integrates a rigorous college-prep academic program and individualized instruction with a nurturing boarding program within a safe campus environment. It operates 24-hour-a-day (Sunday evening to Friday afternoon) learning and living communities that start in middle school and extend through high school. SEED’s College Transition & Success program helps students find the right college match and provides academic, career, financial, and personal guidance to help SEED graduates persist in college.

SFF/MAPCS integrates all of the support services a traditionally challenged student needs into one seamless, intensive school program. It provides students with small classes, individualized instruction, and a wide range of wrap-around services, including tutoring, mentoring, career preparatory training, internships, enrichment classes, mental health services, residential opportunities, transition support, and “real-world” learning experiences.

OUR INVESTMENT

EMCF and its True North Fund partners invested $7 million in SEED from 2011 through 2014. This investment helped prepare SEED to operate public boarding schools in Ohio and Florida; create a model in Florida for admitting students who are in the foster care/child welfare system; recruit an experienced program team; develop a blueprint for opening a school that increases efficiency; re-examine its model to prioritize quality and efficiency; and engage in rigorous evaluation.

While remaining in the True North Fund, SEED was removed from the Social Innovation Fund portfolio in May 2014, during the third year of its initial grant, after it decided to de-emphasize growth and undertake an organizational restructuring. SEED’s decision to restructure reflected the challenges inherent in its proposed approach to replication, which depended on large amounts of up-front capital and complex state and local legislative processes.              

SEED completed an impact and implementation evaluation that was published in June 2016.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Learn more about The SEED Foundation at seedfoundation.com.