New Schools Venture Fund is a philanthropic venture capital fund that invests in promising and scalable education ideas. Like a traditional VC fund it seeks out good ideas and helps nurture them to fruition. But unlike a traditional VC fund, New Schools is not-for-profit. New Schools invests in ideas like Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, Greatschools.net, Teachscape, Success for All, Green Dot Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools, and Civic Builders.
The venture capitalist John Doerr started New Schools. Doerr, a partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, is a Silicon Valley legend because of his ability to see around corners and over the horizon before others do and for his genuine ability to think outside of defined boundaries. Now he’s applying those skills to the education sector and his strategy is paying social dividends. New School’s co-founder and CEO Kim Smith, who was recently recognized by Newsweek as the sort of young leader who will shape society in years to come, is also a remarkable change agent and has built New Schools into an impressive and progressive presence in education.
Each year New Schools convenes a summit bringing together the social entrepreneurs they support, foundations and philanthropic interests, and key actors in the education. It’s always a great chance to reconnect with fascinating change-oriented people and gifted educators, to recharge, and to learn something new. It starts today in Palo Alto.