Achievable Goals - Michael & Susan Dell Foundation · breakthrough innovator on this next frontier. Starting small, the company has made great strides in helping schools and districts

Achievable GoalsFounders’ Letter 2013

© 2013 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

the Michael & susan dell Foundation – transforming the lives of children living in urban poverty through better health and education

What does it mean to be a child living

in urban poverty? For too many of the

more than one billion impoverished

kids in cities and towns around

the world, it means living with less.

Without access to decent schools, basic

health support and financial stability,

these children fall behind their peers.

• In India, an estimated 47 percent of

children, many of them living in the

country’s urban slums, suffer from

malnutrition, while an estimated 85

percent of school children drop out of

school before grade nine.

• In South Africa, less than one in 20

black students ends up with a post-

high-school qualification or

degree, compared to one in two

white students.

• In the US, two-thirds of children

are overweight or obese, and rates

can largely be predicted by zip code.

Socioeconomic status is equally

determinant in educational outcomes:

90 percent of students in low-poverty

schools graduate, compared to just 68

percent in high-poverty schools.

Overwhelming as these issues can

seem, we believe that, with the right

approach, lasting change is possible.

Results-oriented organizations from

all sectors – business, philanthropic,

governmental, community, the

public health sector and others – are

already making enormous progress.

But we can and must push ourselves

to do more. To that end, we’re issuing

a challenge to ourselves and to others:

We must push ourselves to

ensure we’re taking the smartest,

most pragmatic steps to achieve

transformation. Achieving

transformation at scale demands

that we focus on six key actions:

1. Seeking out and supporting

promising, early-stage ideas

and innovations

2. Working toward systemic change

3. Fostering the creation of

new markets

4. Maintaining a clear focus on

social progress

5. Managing the financial impact of

investments and grants

6. Executing with discipline

Achievable Goals

MICHAEL & SUSAN DELL

EDUCATION

$579.3 MCHILDHOOD HEALTH

$182.1 MCOMMUNITY / OTHER

$116.9 MFAMILY ECONOMIC STABILITY

$36.1 M

total Grants Committed: $914.4 M through dec. 31, 2012


Over the last seven years, the foundation has invested an estimated $175 million in the effort to ensure that US educators can make use of the mass of data gathered about students from the day they first enroll in school. In urban districts with thousands of students, information tools can put data back in the hands of teachers to give them a detailed view of each and every student in their classrooms. Massive as this task is, however, it’s only the first step in moving to an education system in which data enables truly personalized education for every child.

The next step in moving to a model of instruction that takes advantage of the power of data is ensuring that new tools are put to use – and then looping back with teachers and educational leaders to incorporate lessons learned and new requirements into the next set of tools. Achievement Network (ANet), a Massachusetts-based nonprofit company that helps schools incorporate data-driven education into their day-to-day practices, is a breakthrough innovator on this next frontier. Starting small, the company has made great strides in helping schools and districts systematically tackle the challenge of changing people’s day-to-day habits and ways of working.

Breakthrough changes happen because someone is on the leading edge, thinking about new ways to tackle old problems.

Seek out and support promising, early-stage ideas and innovations

2 © 2013 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

AN ARSENAL OF SOLUTIONS: EDUCATION DATA

ANet is an innovator in the education data space. But the context within which it operates – a public education system in the throes of reinventing itself based on advances in technological capability, particularly our ability to aggregate and derive intelligence from multiple datasets – is ultimately the more critical field of play.

And it’s one that requires an arsenal of solutions. The good news is that advances are underway on multiple fronts. Organizations like UChicago Impact, the Urban Teacher Center and others are trying to find practical solutions for giving teachers the specific skills required to put data to work in the classroom. The Data Quality Campaign, which has been working since 2005 to support state policymakers and others who promote the development and use of longitudinal education data systems, has gained significant traction as more and more states make more and more data available to a wide range of stakeholders. States like Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Delaware and Colorado are all on the front lines of building the systems, capacities and policies necessary for transformation.

As part of our effort to kick-start the emergence of a new generation of teacher-facing tools that interlink data and facilitate its use, we have supported the development and release of the Ed-Fi solution for the past four years. The solution, which includes a data standard combined with a free tool suite, is designed to unify multiple, disparate data tools already in use among districts nationwide. Available free of charge, the Ed-Fi solution standardizes, integrates and communicates critical student information to educators and other parties through Web-based dashboards, reports and other applications.

On its own, each effort is important. But truly catalytic impact will occur only when we combine our efforts to provide every educator in the nation with the tools, training, time and support to put data to use for students every day.

FOUNDER’S NOTE

One of philanthropy’s most valuable roles lies in identifying innovative entrepreneurs and organizations who specialize in looking at old problems in new ways. For instance, in the US education sector one of the old problems we face is a legacy public education system designed on a one-size-fits-all model: We expect children to conform, when what we should be doing is ensuring that schools and educators have the tools and skills to personalize learning. The work going on across multiple sectors in this field is deeply exciting.

The opportunity for philanthropy is clear: to identify the best individuals and organizations working on the issue, then help to ensure they grow and scale responsibly – with children’s and teachers’ needs front and center. To enact changes on the ground, we must also identify and engage not just entrepreneurs and traditional nonprofits, but also innovators at the district level who are willing to try breakthrough approaches such as incorporating new school models and empowering school-level leaders to make the frontline decisions that serve their students and communities.

– Michael Dell, January 2013

3Founders’ Letter: Achievable Goals

ANet’s methodology focuses on creating networks of schools that actively support and strengthen one another’s expertise in using data to personalize instruction for each and every student. Schools working with ANet administer standards-aligned assessments at set intervals throughout the year. Over the course of three to five years, ANet coaches work within the schools to teach educators how to analyze the results of these assessments on a rolling basis and use them to identify gaps in students’ learning, and help educators create action plans that help students overcome those gaps. They also work with schools to assess the effectiveness of those action plans so they can be refined and strengthened as needed. Perhaps most importantly, ANET has established a process of network collaboration in which schools meet and collaborate throughout

the year to share problem-solving strategies and best practices, and to benchmark their own performance. Educators themselves share what’s best about the model and, working together, make it more powerful.

ANet began work in seven Boston charter schools in 2005. By the 2011-2012 school year, ANet was working with 252 schools in eight urban areas, including Chicago, New Orleans, Boston, New York, Newark, Nashville, Memphis and Washington, DC, with an impressive track record of success. In 2012:

• 41 ANet-trained district schools in Washington, DC outperformed the city’s other district schools by more than 400 percent in English and language arts, and 200 percent in math.

• 29 ANet-trained Boston district schools outperformed the city’s other district schools by more than 450

percent in English and language arts, and 500 percent in math.

• 20 ANet-trained district schools in Springfield, MA outperformed the city’s other district schools by more than 200 percent in English and language arts, and by more than 500 percent in math.

We first began working with this innovative organization in 2010 with a grant to expand their work in a single district to reach 22,000 students. Two years later, based both on the successes and ANet’s ability to learn from challenges and improve processes, we increased our investment to help them develop new networks in new geographies. The five-year goal is to embed data-driven instruction into at least 500 network schools nationwide, and to provide consultative services to up to another 1000.

MICHAEL DELL

the context of our work in south African education is significantly different from that of our work in the us. Years after the end of apartheid, the south African public system remains highly segregated. But the emergence of a handful of high-quality, high-impact schools and the government’s ongoing commitment to reform present an enormous opportunity for transformation.

According to official estimates,

only about 40 percent of young

South Africans nationwide obtain

any qualification beyond grade

nine. As students progress through

school, the issue of unequal access

becomes glaring: Less than one in 20

black students ends up with a post-

high-school qualification or degree,

compared to one in two

white students.

Turnaround will happen neither easily

nor quickly. But we believe systemic

change is possible. The South African

Extraordinary Schools Coalition

(SAESC), a group that the foundation

has helped to fund, operates on

this principle.

SAESC seeks to foster collaboration

among a new wave of low-cost,

high-quality, high-impact schools

capable of consistently preparing

students for higher education and

careers. Before coming together,

this small group, which includes

educators and leaders from 13 public

and independent schools, had been

4

Work toward systemic change

US EDUCATION: PORTFOLIO DISTRICTS

Despite years of education reform efforts, urban school systems in the US still struggle

to educate all students to a high standard. The concept of portfolio school districts –

originated by the Center on Reinventing Public Education – is one of the most promising

strategies for comprehensive improvements that reach all students in a district. Portfolio

districts are open to and supportive of a variety of school operators, as long as all meet

appropriate quality standards. Successful portfolio districts must undertake seven key

actions. They must:

1. Define school quality based on objective measures that ensure accuracy and

enable accountability; these measures must be the North Star that guides all

decision-making districtwide.

2. Provide good options and choices for all families by ensuring the ongoing

development of traditional and alternative school models, and transparent

enrollment systems for families and children.

3. Enable school-level autonomy and empower school leaders to make the right

decisions for their schools and students.

4. Ensure that funding follows pupils to schools – this lets school leaders use the

dollars to pay for resources and staff to support their students’ success.

5. Enable school leaders to obtain support services from a diverse set of providers.

6. Expand talent-seeking strategies, and hire and develop leaders from all sectors.

7. Open a two-way community dialogue about the benefits of alternate school

models and the types of schools and choices parents want.

This work has begun in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, Cleveland and more

than 30 other cities. Transformation will depend on active, open dialogue about results

and challenges, on the firm commitment of innovative districts and leaders, and on

community members’ willingness to consider new approaches to improving educational

opportunities for all children, regardless of zip code.


grappling in comparative isolation with

the question of how to provide high-

quality education to disadvantaged

students. Each school faced challenges:

finding, funding and retaining high-

quality teachers; supporting

students who come from poverty-

stricken township environments,

where survival often takes priority

over education; and obtaining

reliable funding.

But participating schools have shown

that they can help students thrive. For

instance, students typically enter LEAP

Science and Maths Schools with a

two- to three-year educational deficit;

within four years, some 94 percent

pass the matric – the standardized

test issued in the final year of South

African secondary school – with a

score that qualifies them for university.

(At the national level in 2011, only 24.3

percent of students who sat for the

exam earned a qualifying score.) The

Inanda Seminary outside of Durban

has likewise achieved outstanding

results over the last few years,

comparable to the best-performing

schools in South Africa. For the past

five years its students, all girls, have

maintained a 100 percent pass rate on

the matric. In that same period, at least

95 percent have earned the bachelor’s

qualification that makes them eligible

for university entrance. Other SAESC

members have achieved equally

compelling results.

The coalition’s current focus is on

articulating how and what each

member does to help students, and

then on translating that into a set of

best practices and guidelines that will

help schools nationwide raise their

own quality. Coalition members have

also agreed that the final measure of

their quality will be their high school

graduates’ ability to get through

university and find employment. In

other words, passing the high school

exit exam, even at the level required

to gain admittance to institutions of

higher education, is no longer enough.

In the coming months and years, the

foundation will continue working

with the coalition, with individual

high-impact schools, and with the

government to identify and codify

best practices in establishing and

maintaining high-quality schools.

We’ll work across sectors to devise

and model new public-private finance

structures to support low-cost,

high-quality schools. And we’ll work

throughout the government school

system to help educators improve their

skills to better address student needs.


The foundation supports multiple South African education initiatives to foster the systemic

change that will ensure that exceptional underprivileged students like Snegugu Vilakazi and

Bianca Lawrence have a chance to succeed as a matter of course, not luck.

All students Inanda students

Percentage of south African students who passed the 2011 matric exam with scores that qualify them for university

97%

24.3%

0 20 40 60 80 100

6

FOUNDER’S NOTE

Transformation happens when you try a different approach or apply a new way of thinking to old problems. We really try to inspire the connections between people and organizations that lead to creative thinking. Wemake it a point to share insights and experience across teams and regions. We try to anticipate potential barriers to change – things that have blocked similar work elsewhere. It’s an approach that fuels some of our biggest efforts – the possible game-changers.

In philanthropy, where each organization is working very hard to drive tangible differences every day, sometimes there doesn’t seem to betime to sit back and look for connections with the work of others. But that is a big opportunity. We can find productive ways to share what works and what hasn’t worked, and apply these lessons from the past to new situations.

– Susan Dell, January 2013

SCHOOL-BASED HEALTH IN INDIA: MODELING CHANGE

Childhood malnutrition leaves children in India’s slums stunted, impairs their cognitive

abilities and makes them prone to serious illness. It also renders them more likely to

drop out of school and to face a lifetime of diminished earnings. But proven interventions

exist and can be easily administered in the place where impoverished children are

most likely to congregate: government schools. Relatively simple intervention

opportunities include distribution of deworming tablets; mid-day meals that are

contractually provided to government school children by NGOs and that can easily be

fortified with critical nutrients such as iron, folic acid and vitamin B12; and water

kiosks in government schools.

In 2012, the foundation helped facilitate the government-run deworming of 19.5 million

school children in Delhi and Rajasthan. We’re also working in the states of Andhra

Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan to showcase the implementation of more comprehensive

school health models at scale. The hope is that these initial implementations

will 1) demonstrate an approach that works, 2) enable the development of a blueprint

for successful implementations in other states, and 3) lead to the eventual

entrenchment of effective school-based health programs as a routine part of state-run

governmental operations.

The strategy has begun to gain momentum. In late 2012, the central Indian ministries

of health and education formally partnered to support the development of school-

based health programs, including a deworming component, to help address chronic

malnutrition among urban school children. This is the first time politicians leading the

two key central government ministries involved have publicly announced their intention

to actively collaborate on the implementation of school health programs in India.


School-based health initiatives have the

potential to reach millions of malnourished

children across India. Well-designed

pilot programs can act as models for

replication nationwide.

SUSAN DELL


India’s housing crisis – conservatively estimated at 25 million homes nationwide – presents a massive challenge to the well-being of children and families.

Most of India’s urban poor live in

cramped spaces with limited access

to water or sanitation, and have little

to no opportunity to formally own

property and thus build household

economic security.

To spur the development of a viable,

affordable urban housing market,

we’ve launched a variety of projects

that address various facets of the

challenge. For instance, in late 2007,

we backed Janalakshmi Financial

Services with risk capital to partner

with a leading developer and a leading

housing finance company in India. We

also contracted the Monitor Consulting

Group to create and disseminate viable

business models for construction of

affordable homes and origination of

micromortgages.

At the start of 2013, over 40,000

low-cost houses are being added in

urban areas in India on an annual

basis, along with 10,000 housing

loans being offered by mortgage

finance companies focusing on low-

income families. As the sector begins

to deliver and showcase models that

work, we expect additional players –

investors, builders, lenders focused

on microloans – to enter the market.

However, India’s affordable urban

housing market is still nascent.

Given the complexity of India’s cities

and the newness of the industry,

unexpected challenges have emerged:

a mismatch between the type of

housing that can be affordably built

and the aspirations of first-time home

buyers; unexpected interest from

real-estate investors seeking

affordable urban properties; and

lenders’ struggles to verify the

low incomes of people working

in a cash-only economy are just a

few examples.

Will the market ultimately address

these challenges? Perhaps. The work

of seeding and building new markets

8

Foster the creation of new markets

By applying the lens of market impact to our efforts – whether in the form of grants, investments, consultations or other engagements – we shift beyond a focus on localized programs.

Tanaji Thombare of the Micro Housing Finance Corporation: Housing finance companies

that serve the urban poor are one aspect of a comprehensive market-based solution to India’s

housing crisis.


FOUNDER’S NOTE

Over the past few years, the foundation’s leadership team keeps returning to a key question: What role do we, as philanthropists, have in helping to identify and foster market-based solutions to social problems? What role do we have in spurring the creation of new markets? We believe it’s significant.

The fact is that we’re seeking tangible results for children, students and families living in urban poverty. And we’re not just in it for the short term; we want to make contributions that last long after we’re gone. Philanthropies and development organizations have had and will always have a huge role in tackling problems related to poverty. That’s not going away. But in the end, philanthropic dollars are an inherently finite resource. Developing new markets that responsibly address the specific needs of the poor – whether that’s access to affordable homes, better education, basic health and sanitation, or effective financial tools – is clearly important.

Philanthropists are in a unique position to help foster the creation of new markets, and to help ensure the development of safeguards for responsible deployment. Established business leaders also have a critical role to play, especially those willing to lend their time, or to take leadership and operational roles – even for short tenures – in existing and newly created markets. Particularly in India, where major developmental change will require the best of the best of talent, we encourage high performers to take roles with reputable players – including our investees and grantees – who are involved in market creation.


focused on serving underserved

segments of society – in this case

India’s urban poor – is neither certain

nor simple, but in it, we see the true

possibility of addressing gaps that are

so deep and broad as to be beyond the

reach of philanthropy on its own.

As a foundation, we have the

opportunity to look at the market

impact of all our work. By applying

the lens of market impact to our

efforts – whether in the form of

grants, investments, consultations or

other engagements – we shift beyond

a focus on localized programs. We

instead adopt a systemic view and

seek to enable a set of conditions

that allows multiple actors to tackle

challenging problems from multiple

angles – ideally using tools and

strategies that we can’t even envision

at the outset of our work. Silver bullets

are seldom the answer. Silver buckshot

might be.


Both programs provide students

with direct support – in the form of

financial assistance as well as wrap-

around support services, from financial

counseling to support negotiating

the personal and financial challenges

that often derail first-generation,

low-income college students. The Dell

Scholars Program has made significant

breakthroughs in the US. As of the

end of 2010, our six-year graduation

rate of 78 percent for low-income

students outpaces the national rate

by 300 percent. Some 98 percent of

our 2011 freshman class persisted to

their sophomore year, a critical leading

indicator for successful graduation.

Eighteen percent of our graduates are

pursuing advanced and professional

degrees. Our 350-plus graduates carry

an average debt load equal to only

29 percent of what their peers have

to shoulder.

Our South Africa program, which

began in 2010, is still in its earliest

phases. We have so far awarded

scholarships and bursary fees to

165 Dell Young Leaders enrolled at

the University of Cape Town and

the University of Pretoria. Our first

two graduates completed school in

SOCIAL PROGRESS IN US HEALTH: COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

In 2012, HBO aired The Weight of the Nation, a four-part documentary that examines

the roots and consequences of the obesity epidemic from every angle – evolutionary,

individual, political, environmental, economic, biological and more. The series was the

culmination of three-plus years of work that demanded intensive partnership from

experts at HBO, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, the Institutes of

Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes

of Health.

For an outcomes-focused foundation that has historically funded on-the-ground

interventions that provide measurable evidence of impact on children’s lives, funding a

documentary may seem like a stretch. But the project presented enormous opportunities.

At the most obvious level, it allowed us to participate in crafting a compelling narrative

that would help jump-start a massive public health campaign, jolting the public out

of its passive acceptance of the real health risks presented by obesity. But the opportunity

to form deep partnerships with the most cutting-edge policy researchers and scientists

working on the issue of obesity prevention was just as great. The three years we spent

working on the project helped us forge strong partnerships among the consortium of

organizations who participated. In that time, we began mapping out a public health

campaign to combat obesity. We agreed upon strategies for combating the crisis, and

began developing practical tools that could be used at the local level by organizations and

communities seeking to take matters into their own hands.

For us, the end goal of this work had less to do with filmmaking and more to do with

community empowerment. By releasing free screening kits and developing a blueprint

for community members to take action to improve their own health, the partners

on the project sought to enable a distributed network of individuals – families, parents,

children, community leaders, business owners, teachers, local government officials,

clinicians and others – to do what it takes to improve access to healthy foods and physical

activity, to change community norms, and to educate one another about

good health.

the direct impact of our work is most apparent in our dell scholars Program in the us and our dell Young Leaders Program in south Africa.

12

Maintain a clear focus on concrete social progress among individuals


Founder’s note

We’ve worked to create an environment where everyone at the foundation is always pushing to look at existing problems in new and different ways. But the star that guides us is always the benefit for children and families living in poverty. What I always ask is, “In whatever we do, and no matter how big or how small we’re forced to think, what is the money doing TODAY to help a child?” That’s what it’s all about.

Those working to make a difference should ask themselves tough questions and take the time to understand the answers. How do our efforts impact children and families? Have their lives changed? In what specific ways? Do they see tangible, quantifiable improvements? Have we created a situation in which short-term results can translate into long-term benefits? Those are the questions that animate our work, and we ask them every day.


December 2012. The remainder of the

2010 cohort is expected to graduate in

2013. By 2015, the program is

expected to include 400 scholars at

multiple institutions.

Our work in India doesn’t yet include

a direct scholarship program. But

the efforts of one partner – a company

in which we’ve made a substantial

investment – have every bit as

direct and tangible an impact on the

well-being of the youth it serves.

GRAS Education and Training Services

Limited provides high-quality

vocational training to underprivileged

Indian youth between the ages of 18

and 25. The goal is to equip them to

gain lasting employment in India’s

organized job sector.

The need to address the employment

challenges facing these youth is clear:

Only 12 percent of the estimated 400

million youth between the ages of 18

and 25 are believed to have the skills

to obtain employment in the formal

sector. With economic growth in

India projected to create some 100

million jobs in the next five years, a

growing skills gap is recognized as a

major threat to stability. The Indian

government has set a goal of providing

vocational training to some 500 million

youth by 2022.

Operating on a fee model that

leverages government funding

to make training more affordable,

GRAS runs three- to four-month

vocational courses. The focus is on

trades such as mobile phone and

laptop repair, services in retail stores,

basic accounting and other similar

emerging jobs in urban India. Along

with technical skills, students are also

taught basic life and interviewing

skills that are necessary to break into

the organized sector, and to maintain

employment. The company now

operates dozens of centers in northern

India and plans to scale up to 200

centers in the next five years. GRAS

holds itself to a job placement rate

of 70 percent. Apart from the focus

on placements, the organization has

put great emphasis on the quality

of education. All trainers have prior

industry experience and are selected

based on a written examination and

interviews. The course curricula

are developed in partnership with

industry and are constantly revised

to keep them market-relevant.

The organization has also set up

strategic partnerships with experts in

course curriculum.

What these programs in India, South

Africa and the US have in common

is that they all tackle – in the most

direct way possible – the challenge

that lies at the heart of philanthropy

and development work: making a

measurable, lasting impact on the lives

of individuals.


In 2006, when we first initiated a series of equity investments in a limited number of early-stage urban microfinance institutions, we wanted to show that a market-based model could effectively deliver microfinance in urban environments.

The rural model was already

established at that time, but investors

were reluctant to back MFIs in urban

settings, which they viewed as

having loose social ties and transient

residents who couldn’t easily be fit

into existing group lending models. We

believed that by taking early risks and

showcasing viable urban microfinance

institutions, we could catalyze

investors’ interest and significantly

enhance poor families’ access to

financial services in urban markets like

Bangalore and Mumbai, where the vast

majority of those living in poverty

were unbanked.

Over the next three years, we invested

in eight early-stage MFIs, including

Ujjivan Financial Services, Swadhaar

FinServ, Arohan Financial Services,

Janalakshmi Financial Services, Svasti

Microfinance and others. All were

focused on serving the urban poor.

As we did so, commercial interest in

microfinance, including investments in

urban startups, heated up substantially

with, at its peak, an annual compound

growth rate of 30-40 percent. By

the end of 2009, we felt that we had

made substantial progress against our

original goal. The market had begun

to embrace urban microfinance. So

we began re-envisioning our role in

the sector. We no longer needed to

focus on providing seed capital to help

pioneering entrepreneurs transplant

existing microfinance models into

new environments. We adjusted our

focus to include the expansion of other

microbanking services, such as savings,

pensions and mortgages.

But then, in October 2010, growth

in the microfinance sector ground to

a halt as concern about client abuse

in southern India cast a pall over the

entire industry. As the crisis played out,

we recalibrated our strategy to address

radically altered conditions. Given

market realities, our goal at that point

was to stabilize the viable companies

that we were already working with.

In the last two years, regulatory clarity

has increased and the market has

again begun to rationalize. Urban and

rural microfinance institutions alike are

once again attracting investor support.

In fact, there is now close to $1 billion

in commercial loan capital available to

India’s urban poor. Given the changed

climate, we have begun to exit specific

investments, most recently Ujjivan.

Our goal as we exit these investments

is as strategic as it is simple: to ensure

that each dollar we invest can be

reinvested and put to use elsewhere.

The willingness to extend patient,

practical support, the knowledge to

gauge when investees have found their

market legs, and a hunger to seek out

and support innovators with high-

impact potential through the same

cycle are all key factors in our ability to

effectively extend the reach of each

dollar we invest.

14

Manage the financial impact of investments and grants

Our goal as we exit these investments is as strategic as it is simple: to ensure that each dollar we invest can be reinvested and put to use elsewhere.


FOUNDER’S NOTE

We want to grow networks of healthy organizations that are capable of thriving and growing independent of us. We know that not every investment or grant we make will follow that model; there are just too many variables at play. But we view our model of catalytic philanthropy as key to seeding the sector with viable, responsible organizations focused on providing the urban poor with access to the financial tools they need to achieve economic stability.

The fact that we’re seeking lasting social change dictates our behavior. We don’t want to be a long-term investor. We help organizations and initiatives mature, scale and achieve stability. We ensure they’re poised for growth and success. Then we redeploy our resources where they can have additional impact. To that end, we encourage other philanthropists to provide risk capital to help promising teams prove out viable models and attract additional investment. Dollars deployed this way can often be reinvested later for additional impact.

We likewise encourage the impact investment community to ensure that it is relentlessly redeploying resources in areas beyond traditional microfinance. For instance, the education space, especially personalization, is an incredibly rich field. In India, employment-linked vocational training programs are both life-changing and potentially financially viable. Even the microfinance field remains rife with opportunity in the form of needed but still scarce products like microsavings, micropensions and micromortgages.



Investing in early-stage urban microfinance institutions and exiting once they achieve stability

has allowed us to reuse dollars to ensure greater impact in the fight against poverty.

We’ve worked in Mumbai since 2005. during that period, we’ve invested some $16 million and reached roughly two million children.

Our efforts – which span education,

microfinance, water and sanitation

projects, childhood health, and

affordable housing – put us in a unique

position when the Mumbai Municipal

Corporation conceptualized an

ambitious, multiyear School Excellence

Program aimed at improving the

outcomes of some 400,000 students

in government-run primary schools

around the city.

Initial work on the project began in

2010. Although the foundation opted

not to commit dollars at that time,

we were nonetheless involved from

the very start – first, through active

consultation and problem-solving

with McKinsey & Company, which

serves as the municipal corporation’s

program management partner as the

initiative gets off the ground; and

second, because all five organizations

the city selected to implement

the transformation program are

foundation investees: Naandi, Kaivalya,

Save the Children India, Rishi Valley and

Educational Initiatives. Now among

the most highly regarded NGOs

working in Mumbai, each of these

organizations is known for achieving

high-quality results in Mumbai schools.

Each is also known for rigorous

application of data to understand and

improve children’s outcomes.

Going forward, the foundation

will help to fund ongoing program

management. UNICEF has likewise

identified this program as a strategic

initiative in its new focus on urban

India, while the State Bank of India has

also committed financial support.

Given the scale and complexity of

the program, interventions will be

methodically rolled out through

2015; first with a focus on achieving

significant scale, next with a focus

on sustainability. The final deliverable

will include an outcomes-driven,

citywide school excellence program in

Mumbai, as well as a comprehensive

guidebook on school transformation in

India. Given the fact that the success

or failure of the Mumbai effort and

others like it will ultimately depend

on careful execution in the last mile,

this second deliverable – detailed

process documentation that will

serve as a guidebook and blueprint

for other cities seeking to transform

their education systems – is critical.

The document will lay out in detail the

steps involved in a successful school

turnaround program; it will establish

benchmarks and thresholds for moving

from one stage of a project to the

next; it will establish recommended

timelines for the transformation

stages; and it will establish

performance metrics and expectations.

16

Execute with discipline

“ Experience, talent and the right partners are key to staying the course through the hard, unglamorous work that will ultimately help us get from point A to point B.” – Susan Dell


Consistent, high-quality results and

scalable, data-driven practices led five of the

foundation’s long-term Mumbai grantees to

be selected as implementation partners in the

city’s School Excellence Program.

FOUNDER’S NOTE

We’re not afraid to try new things – in fact, we believe that part of the role of philanthropy is to push the envelope and do exactly that. But we believe in gathering data and learning as we go. We also believe that experience, talent and the right partners are key in moving from ideas to action – and to staying the course through the hard, unglamorous work that will ultimately help us get from point A to point B. How can others do the

same? By rolling up their sleeves and actually helping people do the work.



Mumbai’s School Excellence Program will reach some 400,000 students and document a set of

best practices for future municipal turnaround programs in other cities.

18 © 2013 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

In the end, our goal as a foundation is to ignite long-lasting change in communities and cities around the globe.

Will we always succeed? No. But we’ll always learn from our mistakes, and we’ll always shoot high.

So what change do we hope to see a decade from now?

Significantly increased access to affordable, high-quality education for all school-age children in the urban US, South Africa and India.

• In the US, that means preparing low-income students for college. Starting in kindergarten, US kids at every income level should have access to high-quality schools – schools where teachers have the tools and support they need to meet all students’ needs, every day, by using the wealth of educational data available. They need challenging coursework personalized to meet their needs as well as, in some cases, targeted support to help them address the academic deficits that often emerge as students progress through school. Along the way, we must also ensure that we’re preparing them with the financial and life skills they’ll need to make it not just to college, but all the way through to graduation.

• In South Africa, that means dramatically improving an education system that Jonathan Jansen, one of

South Africa’s leading academics and intellectuals, has described as in crisis. It means establishing an ecosystem of high-quality, high-impact schools that not only prepare all students for higher education, but that exert positive pressure on the quality of the entire school system. It also means helping a few promising individuals through top universities so they can become the vanguard of a generation of young leaders pushing for greater opportunity for those who follow in their footsteps.

• In India, it means seeking out and supporting a raft of educational initiatives, including after-school and whole-school turnaround programs, early-stage, citywide turnaround programs, professional development programs, high-quality private schools that serve the poor, and

innovative, low-cost, high-impact schools in slums. It means finding tools and techniques that help deepen children’s learning, and working with organizations to refine, reproduce and distribute them to a broad base of trained users. It means thinking about education broadly, and providing alternative training for youth who have dropped out of school but who are seeking vocational training to gain a foothold in the formal economy. Ultimately, it means building and strengthening institutions that can measurably and sustainably improve children’s outcomes; models that can be copied as well as ones that can grow to address the challenges of India’s vast urban underprivileged child population.

The work ahead: The next 10 years


School-based programs that focus on nutrition are one key to changing the health outcomes of

children in the United States and India.

A clear path for poor urban Indian families, low-income American youth and historically disadvantaged South African youth to move beyond poverty into economic stability.

We must broaden our understanding of a range of tools available to help families move out of extreme

poverty. We must find creative ways to foster the development of new market sectors and work to ensure their responsible development. We must create the critical links between high school graduation and college graduation in the US, and between college graduation and job placement in South Africa. In India, we must foster a commitment to ensuring high-quality learning at every level of school, whether private or governmental, while also maintaining a pragmatic focus on the symbiotic needs of youth who have dropped out of school and employers’ need for trained workers.

Drastic reduction in the prevalence of twin, preventable diseases in the US and India: childhood obesity and malnutrition.

• In the US, childhood obesity is the critical health issue of our time, threatening to make this generation of children the first in our history that lives sicker and dies younger than its parents. That’s an unacceptable and entirely preventable outcome. The comprehensive changes required can only come about with a groundswell

of recognition that something must change. The day that parents, doctors, educators, policymakers and others come together to change the current reality is the day the tide will start to truly turn in favor of our kids.

• In India, we’re seeking to kick-start programs that give mass numbers of kids a healthier baseline so their bodies can stave off the various diseases they may be exposed to over time. In 2011, the World Bank found that India had the second-highest rate of childhood malnutrition in the world, estimating that fully 47 percent of its children lacked adequate nourishment. School-based health programs – executed routinely at government schools – have the potential to radically alter the health profiles and lifetime outcomes of India’s children. Our goal is to ensure

the establishment and maintenance of evidence-based school health programs throughout the country.

We’re realistic. We know these changes won’t happen overnight. But we also know that the nature of true transformation is to build on major innovations as well as incremental shifts – a wave of demand here, a change in habits there – and that over time, the landscape of opportunity will measurably change for the better. As a sector, working together, we can move the needle one child, one school, one neighborhood and one city at a time.

20

In 2011, the World Bank found that India had the second-highest rate of childhood malnutrition in the world, estimating that fully 47 percent of its children lacked adequate nourishment.


Educational initiatives such as the Society for

All Round Development at the Nagar Nigam

Primary School in India are one facet of the

work required to help urban families and

children move out of poverty.

Documents

Achievable Goals - Michael & Susan Dell Foundation · breakthrough innovator on this next frontier. Starting small, the company has made great strides in helping schools and districts