The Rogers Family Foundation would like to share these additional resources for teachers, parents, students, and nonprofits in the Oakland area. We recognize that this is not an extensive list, and invite the community to share resources with our team to add to this list. Please email: kray@rogersfoundation.org with your suggestions.
For Students:
East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions, Inc.—list of local scholarships, college workshops and career workshops, tutoring and mentoring, and more.
Oakland Enrolls—lists important information regarding charter school enrollment in Oakland, including deadlines, and dates of school informational sessions
Oakland Promise—scholarship opportunities for graduating seniors, and support with college applications, scholarships, technology, and access to internships at Future Centers sites, and a mentor program providing wrap-around services for college students.
Oakland Public Library Scholarship Database—lists of local scholarships, national scholarships and information about financial aid
OUSD Enrollment—lists important information regarding OUSD school enrollment, including deadlines, and dates of school informational sessions
For Families:
Energy Convertors & Families in Action A-G Toolkit—a tookit that includes an explanation of the high school courses California students must take to be minimally eligible for admission to the UC or CSU systems, college scholarship and grant information, and a list of Oakland district and chart schools with their A-G completion rates for Black and Latino students.
GO Public Schools Family Learning Guides—guides for Math and Literacy that include what students should be learning by grade level, and tips for collaborating with teachers.
Home to School Connection Guide—practical tips, tech tools, and strategies to increase engagement when families have access to a computer or a smartphone.
The Oakland REACH—family advocacy fellowship empowering graduates to demand high quality education for their students, school enrollment support, and workshops.
Oakland Enrolls School Finder—provides data from Oakland charter schools to assist families in making informed decisions about which schools to enroll their student(s) in.
#OaklandUndivided—offers free virtual tech classes every Tuesday, tech support, and free devices and internet access to qualifying Oakland public school students.
For Teachers:
Agency by Design Oakland—teacher fellowships, free workshops at the Maker Bar & Teacher Resource Center, consultancies for schools and districts
Black Teacher Project—offers professional development programs for Black educators that focus on building the leadership capacity and pedagogical skills needed to transform schools into communities where learning experiences are equitable, responsive and liberating
DonorsChoose—teachers may create pages listing supplies needed for projects, and donors will provide funding to contribute to the projects
Edutopia—a comprehensive website and online community that increases knowledge, sharing, and adoption of what works in K-12 education. It emphasizes core strategies: project-based learning, comprehensive assessment, integrated studies, social and emotional learning, educational leadership and teacher development, and technology integration.
Fund for Teachers—grants for individual teachers or groups of educators that can be used to design summer learning experiences that will develop skills, knowledge and confidence that impact student achievement.
LIGHT Awards Program—grants awarded to small groups of educators from public/charter schools for professional learning projects. Applications are typically due in November of each year.
Oakland Public Education Fund: A to Z Grants—teacher professional development, general classroom grants focused on art and music, literacy, outdoor education & health, student engagement, field trips, sports, dance, PE, and STEM.
Philanthropic Ventures Foundation: Teacher Resource Grants—small grants given directly to teachers with projects focused on arts, environmental science, excursions, science, special education, and math
The Teaching Well—offers trainings on community care and stress resilience, individualized support around change initiatives, and executive coaching around mindful school leadership
For Schools:
Blended Personalized Learning Resources—a compilation of case studies focused on the use of blended personalized learning in schools locally and nationwide, and resources and tools that can be used to inform the implementation of BPL. Visit this page to learn about our previous work with BPL and NGLC in Oakland.
Board on Track—a board management platform built for charter school governance. Become a member to access their platform, community, training events, and more.
CA School Dashboard—includes important data on student demographics, academic performance, academic engagement, and the conditions and climate at the school and compares current and prior year results.
CORE Data Collaborative — This Collaborative brings together the CORE Eight Districts with participating offices of education, districts, and schools in peer learning opportunities to examine their data and work to uncover their strengths and areas for improvement. Collaborative members, including the Oakland Unified School District and charter schools across the city, have access to the CORE Dashboard which includes a range for academic, culture/climate, and socio-emotional learning data. A hallmark of the CORE Dashboard is the CORE growth model which examines how students are progressing from year to year. Growth data for participating Oakland schools can be found here.
For Nonprofits:
Candid—includes lists of current funding opportunities, helpful articles and webinars for nonprofits regarding development, jobs, and more. Some resources are free, while others require a fee.
Goodnation—connects donors and funders to non-profit organizations
Grant Advisor—a place for grantseekers to find public advice from peers on what it takes to secure grant funding, and provide feedback on funders grantmaking processes
Taproot Foundation—connects nonprofit organizations with skilled volunteers who donate their time and expertise pro bono
TechSoup—technology helpdesk services, Office 365 support, technology courses, software and hardware at discounted prices, articles, blogs, and webinars
UpMetrics—empowers nonprofits to highlight your organization’s impact to access funding, track progress toward goals over time, share compelling stories with funders and donors, visualize impact and gather insights with data
For Funders:
A Date Certain: Lessons from Limited Life Foundations—this report illustrates the ways in which limited life foundations approach spending down in nine key areas, including investing, grantmaking and strategy, and communications.
Center for Effective Philanthropy—CEP works to influence foundations and major donors to be more effective through a focus on providing data and insights. CEP’s resources include assessments that gather essential feedback from key stakeholders, data-driven research, customized advisory services, thought provoking events, and incisive commentary through their blog.
Grant Advisor—a platform that allows nonprofits to provide anonymous feedback about the grantmaking process of funders, Grant Advisor can be used by funders to see which of their grantmaking processes are or aren’t working.
NonprofitAF—written by Vu Le, former Executive Director of Seattle based nonprofit RVC, Nonprofit AF is a blog for funders and nonprofits which features weekly posts related to timely topics, industry best (and worst) practices, and of course, Vu’s excellent sense of humor.
TBP in 4D—the most recent report from Trust Based Philanthropy Project dives into the four dimensions that are required to truly embrace a trust-based approach: practices, culture, structures, and leadership.
Trust Based Philanthropy (The Whitman Institute)—The Whitman Institute developed practice of Trust-Based Philanthropy to alleviate power imbalances in the philanthropy sector by embedding trust, dialogue, and relationship-building in its practices with grantees. Check out their website for an overview of trust-based philanthropy, surveys to learn how the practices might already show up in your organization,
Trust-Based Philanthropy Project—guides and how-to’s, presentations and webinars, trust-based templates, resources from the field, blogs, events, and more, all focused on Trust-based Philanthropy and encouraging these practices in philanthropy.