Education Fund

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CAUSE FUNDS > education fund

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The Education Fund is ideal for donors who want to focus their giving on educational opportunities for children and adolescents who live in extreme poverty. Charities in this fund work to increase access to and participation in education, while promoting literacy, numeracy, and life skills that create self-sufficiency and improve overall well-being, future earnings, and health outcomes. Due to gender disparities, the Education Fund places emphasis on the compounding benefits of matriculating girls.

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Key Strengths: Scale, Depth of impact, Durability

Multidimensional Poverty Index Indicators: School attendance, Years of schooling

Other Key Outcomes: Improved learning outcomes, Reduced early pregnancy rates, Reduced early marriage rates

 

Why donate to the Education Fund?

Over 244 million children globally were estimated to be out of school in 2021. This is unacceptable when we know education can fundamentally change the trajectory of individuals and communities. Additionally, despite efforts to increase access to education, many students in low-income countries around the world continue to struggle with fundamental reading and math skills. This can have long-term consequences, making it difficult for students to access higher education and gainful employment, and ultimately limit opportunities for economic and social mobility.

Out of school rates are disproportionately higher in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, particularly for adolescent girls. In many poor countries, adolescence can be a particularly dangerous time for girls, as they are at higher risk of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, sexual violence, malnutrition, and exposure to HIV/AIDS. Schooling is a strong deterrent to all of these risks, making access to education critical. Research has also shown that providing education for adolescent girls can strengthen girls’ agency and participation in their communities and empower them to make leadership decisions both within and outside the household.

Average learning-adjusted years of schooling, 2020

Learning-adjusted years of schooling merge the quantity and quality of education into one metric, accounting for the fact that similar durations of schooling can yield different learning outcomes.

Data source: Filmer et al. (2018) via World Bank – OurWorldInData.org/global-education | CC BY

What is the intended impact of the Education Fund?

  • Increasing learning access, which can increase future employment options and promote children’s well-being by providing them with safe spaces to learn, grow, and flourish.
  • Improving learning outcomes, which can lead to better academic performance, higher graduation rates, and increased economic opportunities.
  • Ensuring equitable access to education for girls, which can help to break the cycle of poverty and promote gender equality.

 

How do we measure impact?

Our research team works closely with our recommended nonprofits, actively monitoring their progress on key outcomes. These outcomes focus on educational dimension and indicators of the Multidimensional Poverty Index, measuring years of schooling and school attendance among children. We also monitor increases in learning scores as a result of the work of the organizations in this fund. We explore the sources of impact metrics, ranging from internal monitoring and evaluation data, to external impact evaluations, including randomized controlled trials. In evaluating the impact of our recommended charities and projecting their future potential, we analyze the convergence of evidence from diverse sources, including external evaluations and the broader literature on specific interventions. Additionally, we assess the impact of our grants and their ability to strengthen the ecosystem of high-impact organizations. Key questions are central to these evaluations, such as: 

  • Do our grants effectively realize their intended objectives? 
  • Are our recommended nonprofits making tangible progress towards their goals on an annual basis? 
  • Are these organizations able to secure additional funding and expand the reach of their programs? 

The successful scaling and increased financial backing of our recommended charities serve as indicators of achievement for our team.

Read more about how we measure impact

To learn more about our research and evaluation process, please refer to the following links:

 

 

How does the Education Fund work?

Our research team establishes annual funding goals for each recommended charity through our ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and understanding of funding needs across our fund of recommendations. These goals inform the percentage allocated to each charity within the fund.

We actively review funding goals and determine fund allocations every six months. You have the option of giving 100% to charities – or sending 90% of your donation to the charities and 10% towards our operations. We give this option because we do not charge donors fees, but rather raise funds for our own operations separately.

Read the current Education Fund allocations.

 

Who are the Education Fund recipients and what is their demonstrated impact?

Select Charity
Educate Girls Teaching at the Right Level Africa

​Educate Girls aims to provide equitable access to education for all girls in India. Its primary beneficiaries are out-of-school girls in rural communities. They strive to boost school enrollment and learning with local volunteers who mobilize parents and communities and by delivering supplementary remedial learning curriculum.

Their annual demonstrated impact includes [1]:

  • Successfully enrolled 411,461 out-of-school girls (aged 5-14) back in school.
  • Provided training to 93,698 School Management Committee (SMC) members.
  • Enabled 36,931 adolescent girl leaders through Life Skills Education.
  • Improved learning outcomes for 260,083 children in foundational literacy and numeracy.
  • Enrolled 10,934 adolescent girls and young women (aged 15-29) in open schools and conducted 705 camps to facilitate grade 10 exam preparation and credentialing.

Teaching at the Right Level Africa aims to ensure that in over 12 countries and counting across Africa, every child is being taught effectively. Rather than strictly focusing on age-based curriculum requirements, a practice that leaves students behind without opportunities to catch up, their approach involves teaching students at their actual learning levels. Their annual demonstrated impact includes:

  • Improving learning outcomes for 5 million children in sub-Saharan Africa by way of governments institutionalizing the Teaching at the Right Level approach in Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Zambia, reaching over 1,000 schools in Côte d’Ivoire, over 2,000 schools in Nigeria across 7 states, and over 5,000 schools in Zambia, more than half the primary schools in the country.
  • Aiding children in increased their reading and arithmetic results by 14 to 37 percentage points.

Fund Manager

Our team works to recommend high-impact donations. Contact us if you would like to know more about the Education Fund.

Matias Nestore

Matias Nestore

Senior Associate, Research and Evaluation

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