Teach For All

Teach For All

Founded	2007
Founder	Wendy Kopp, and Brett Wigdortz, Co-founders
Type	Nonprofit organization
Focus	Eliminate Educational Inequity
Location	New York, NY
Key people	Wendy Kopp - Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer Brett Wigdortz - Co-founder and President Nick Canning - Chief Operating Officer
Slogan	One day, all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.
Website	teachforall.org

Teach For All is a global network of independent social enterprises working to expand educational opportunity in their countries by enlisting talented future leaders to the effort. These organizations recruit leaders of all academic disciplines to commit to two years to teach in high-need areas and to work throughout their lives to address the root causes of educational need. The organization was founded in 2007 by Wendy Kopp (CEO of Teach For America) and Brett Wigdortz (CEO of Teach First).^[1] Teach For All’s mission is to expand educational opportunity internationally by increasing and accelerating the impact of these independent social enterprises.^[2]

History

Teach For All was founded in 2007 through a collaboration of Teach For America (an educational non-profit in the U.S.) and Teach First (an educational non-profit in the U.K.).^[1] A year prior, social entrepreneurs in 12 different countries had solicited advice from either Teach For America or Teach First as they tried to adapt the Teach For America / Teach First model to their respective country contexts.^[1] The organization was initially incubated within Teach For America but is currently a separately funded and staffed organization.^[1] It is headquartered in New York, NY.^[3] It has an annual budget of $14.8 million provided by global foundations, corporations and individuals.^[2] Wendy Kopp, the former CEO and founder of Teach For America, attributes the inspiration to found Teach For All in part to “the inspired, passionate social entrepreneurs in countries, all around the world.”^[4]

Wendy Kopp, Founder of Teach for America, Co-founder of Teach For All

Organization structure

All the member organizations of Teach For All are unified by a common mission. They are all working to improve the education of students in classrooms now while simultaneously working to build the long-term movement for educational equity in their country.^[5] In order to achieve this, the organizations recruit young leaders of a variety of disciplines and academic interests, place these leaders in 2-year commitments in classrooms, provide them with training and support, and foster the development of alumni as leaders for educational change.^[6]

Teach For All is based on the concept of global-local practice – meaning that members have grassroots organizations in their country and belong to a global network of organizations.^[2] The global network exists to help organizations climb the learning curve more quickly and benefit from a shared knowledge base.^[3] The Teach For All model is also demand driven; the organization does not seek out social entrepreneurs to take up the cause in different countries but instead must be solicited to come and help an already established effort.^[2]

Because Teach For All is based around the concept of global-local practice, each organization makes adaptations to the original model in order to accommodate their local culture and context.

Partners

Teach For all currently has 34 partner organizations around the world.^[2] Within this network, Teach For All is supporting over 11,000 teachers that are impacting nearly 800,000 students.^[4] There have been inquiries about joining the Teach For All network from social entrepreneurs in 80 additional countries.^[2] The network expects to expand to more than 40 countries by 2014.^[2]

Requirements

All member organizations must recruit and train young leaders who will both impact students in the short-term and go on to create systemic change in various sectors as alumni.^[3] Upon joining the network, each local organization is responsible for its governance and funding and is encouraged to develop a distinct brand and logo.^[3]

Benefits

Upon joining Teach For All, organizations receive a variety of benefits, including a full-time Teach For All staff member on the ground, a virtual support team, and access to a global network. Andrea Pasinetti, the founder and CEO of Teach For China, praises the network saying, “We feel lucky to have a thought-partner with the collective experience, resourceful staff and penetrating managerial insight necessary to help our organization grow.”^[8]

Funding

Teach For All has received a number of grants and donations from global foundations and corporations that have enabled them to grow. An initial founding partner was McKinsey & Company who helped establish the pilot organization in Chile.^[9] In 2009, the Skoll Foundation gave Teach For All the Award for Social Entrepreneurship and a three year guarantee for an annual donation of $765,000.^[10] The award is given to organizations that have already demonstrated significant impact.

In 2010 Teach For All received the Oracle Commitment Grant. The grant was to help with expansion into the new countries, help develop tools, systems and process to help local programs adapt to the model and totaled $1 million.^[11] Also in 2010, Deutsche Post DHL and Teach For All announced a global partnership that would provide Teach For All with financial support, mentorship programs and career services . The primary goal of the purpose is to expand the enterprises in Argentina, Chile, Peru and India. The partnership will also foster development of organizations in Spain and Brazil.^[12] Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, said the partnership made perfect sense considering, “Teach For All and Deutsche Post DHL both share the same basic principle of assuming global responsibility for future generations“.^[12]

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 History. (2010). Teach For All. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Beck, E. (2010) Project: Teach For All. Change Observer. Retrieved 14 November 2010
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Teach For All. NewProfit Inc. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Teach For All. Skoll Foundation. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
5. ↑ Global Challenge. (2010). Teach For All Network. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
6. ↑ Unifying Mission. (2010). Teach For All Network. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
7. ↑ http://teachforbelgium.org/about-us/the-story-so-far/
8. ↑ About Teach For All. Teach For China. Retrieved 21 November 2010
9. ↑ Kohut, M. (2010) Bringing Teach For America to Chile. Harvard Kennedy School News. Retrieved 21 November 2010
10. ↑ PR Newswire. (2009). Skoll Foundation adds seven organizations to its portfolio of leading social entrepreneurs. Retrieved 21 November 2010 from LexisNesix
11. ↑ Oracle commitment grant: Teach For All. Oracle. Retrieved 21 November 2010
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Deutsche Post DHL and Teach For All launch global partnership. Financial. Retrieved 21 November 2010.