Education

Salesforce Donates $2 Million to New Leaders to Develop Principals, School Leaders

By Denisa R. Superville — December 13, 2018 2 min read
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San Francisco-based Salesforce is giving $2 million to New Leaders, the New York City-based leadership development program that trains and supports school leaders working in disadvantaged communities.

The donation, announced earlier this week, will go toward leadership development programs, with an emphasis on school leaders in areas where Salesforce employees live and work, according to the press release from New Leaders and Salesforce.org, the company’s philanthropic division.

The money will help New Leaders’ Emerging Leaders and Aspiring Principals programs and also establish a support network for future principals and those who are already on the job. Another initiative will “deeply embed effective leadership practices within targeted school networks, supporting consistent execution of instructional improvement strategies by teacher-leaders, principals, principal supervisors, and other members of school leadership teams.”

The details of what the program will look like once it’s launched are still being worked out, said Alexandra Broin, a spokeswoman for New Leaders, but it could involve leadership labs or leadership innovation zones whose impacts will span the leadership pipeline. The goal is to launch the program in the next school year, Broin said.

The initiatives are likely to be in cities where Salesforce’s and New Leaders’ work already overlap, including Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Washington, and Richmond and Oakland in California’s Bay Area, Broin said. More than 250 New Leaders alumni work in the Bay Area, she said.

The partnership evolved from the two organizations “shared commitment to equity, community, and results,” she said.

“At Salesforce.org, we believe equity starts with education and we are deeply committed to investing in partners who are measurably improving outcomes for all youth in our local communities,” Ebony Frelix, the executive vice president and chief philanthropy officer at Salesforce.org, said in the announcement. “New Leaders exemplifies this focus, which is why we’re supporting the organization as it works to expand and innovate its proven programming to achieve ever-stronger results for teachers and students.”

The grant is Salesforce’s largest to an education nonprofit, according to the press release. The company has donated more than $50 million to the San Francisco and Oakland school districts since 2013.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the District Dossier blog.