NewSchools Venture Fund

NewSchools Venture Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit venture philanthropy organization founded in 1998 by Kim Smith, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, and Brook Byers, headquartered in Oakland, California. NewSchools is the first and only venture philanthropy focused exclusively on K-12 education: it raises charitable donations and grants them to early-stage entrepreneurs and educators reimagining public education, with particular attention to students from underserved communities. Since founding, the fund has directed nearly $345 million to more than 1,000 education ventures, activists, and policy advocates, including more than $150 million to over 300 charter schools between 1999 and 2015 that collectively served 157,000-plus students. CBInsights counts 92 direct investments. The fund is currently led by CEO Frances Messano, who succeeded long-serving CEO Stacey Childress effective January 2023. The board includes founders Smith, Doerr, and Byers alongside Stacey Childress, Ime Archibong, and others. NewSchools deploys one-year unrestricted grants of $150,000 to $250,000 along with one-on-one coaching and peer-community support across four investment areas: Innovative Schools, Learning Solutions (K-8 literacy and math including AI-powered personalized learning), Teaching Reimagined (AI-assisted teacher productivity), and Learning Differences. In 2024 the fund announced more than $23 million in new and follow-on investments to 80-plus ventures selected from 1,600 applicants; in October 2025 it announced an additional $10 million-plus to accelerate teaching and learning innovation. NewSchools has spun out several notable initiatives, including Reach Capital, the EdForward DC and Educate78 advocacy organizations, and the NewSchools Ignite edtech accelerator. The fund's three-decade track record makes it the deepest-rooted source of philanthropic venture capital in American K-12 education.