Education
Promoting equity in educational opportunities
From kindergarten to college, from afterschool programs to summer learning, from literacy to teacher pipeline, the Maddox Fund partners with education initiatives that advance student achievement because knowledge and education are transformative.
Frequently Asked Questions
+ What is the Maddox Fund’s definition of “education”?
In general, the Maddox Fund is looking for programs that promote academic advancement and social emotional learning in Kindergarten through traditional college age students (5-25).
+ What type of education programs is Maddox interested in?
- Academic support and preparation programs, including tutoring services
- Programs that can demonstrate direct impact on academic success
- Summer or after-school academic enrichment
- Math and reading programs
- Literacy programs
- Positive decision-making programs
- Social-emotional learning that is not clinical counseling
- Programs may be provided in a formal school setting or in a setting external to school.
+ What type of education programs is Maddox less interested in?
- Programs for adults
- Parent education programs
- Early Childhood Programs
- Low-intensity programs with infrequent or short-duration participant contact
- GED/HiSET programs
- Arts or music education programs
- Programs focused on infants and toddlers
- Pre-K programs
- Counseling programs
- Post-secondary studies (i.e., graduate school, professional school)
- Independent Charter Schools without a CMO
- Independent Charter Schools without proven academic outcomes
- College assistance for adults
- Education programs that are general in nature (i.e., homebuyer’s education, health education, financial literacy, continuing education, animal population control education, arts education, etc.)
- School volunteer programs or PTSO organizations
The Fund will not support:
- Scholarships to specific institutions not previously supported by Dan and Margaret Maddox
- General scholarship programs
- Graduate school scholarship programs
- Infant and Toddler programs
+ Will the Maddox Fund support programs focused on parents and children together?
The Fund’s focus is on children and youth. Any proposal including parents and family (i.e., parent involvement in a child’s education, parent education, etc.) would need to demonstrate a direct benefit to children and youth and the stated outcomes would need to be child-centered. These proposals would likely be less competitive.
The Maddox Fund will not support family emergency assistance, including programs which provide rent and utility assistance, food and clothing.
Did you know?
Dan and Margaret graduated from high school, but college was economically out of reach for them. They understood how education creates paths to opportunity and wanted to create a way for low-income youth to realize their dreams.
Featured education partners
To support programming and general operations.
Girls Inc. at the YWCA serves 360 at-risk girls through in-school programming, spring break camp, and summer camp. The key objective of Girls Inc. is to equip girls to navigate gender, economic, and social barriers and grow up healthy, educated, and independent.
Harvest Hands out of school programs exist to provide access to positive mentors, homework assistance, and leadership development training for low-income urban youth in South Nashville. Annually, we serve 100 students pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in after school programs (August through May) and summer programs (June through July).
To support programming and general operations.
PtS educates and empowers Nashville’s under-resourced students through hands-on, garden-based learning in partnership with MNPS and public libraries. Our curriculum aligns gardening to language, literacy, math and science standards, as well as social-emotional learning. Students and teachers work side-by-side in the garden, fostering a strong sense of community and connection.
Our goal is to address the achievement gap and prevent summer slide by helping students stay at their grade levels rather than lose academic skills over the summer. Students spend six weeks each summer on our campus engaged in a program that blends high quality academics with cultural enrichment.
