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By 2033, Wildflower will support the growth of more than 1,000 child-centered, teacher-led Montessori microschools across the U.S. – meeting families’ needs through diverse, customized, affordable programs that meaningfully incorporate communities and are led by a majority of educators who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color.

 

To meet this demand, Wildflower is embarking on a five year, $60 million growth campaign and is currently raising funds for several purposes:

 

• $25 million to provide startup grants directly to emerging schools. Starting a new school typically requires $125,000 in grant funding. Across the country, we anticipate starting more than 150 new schools over the next five years and will need to raise $25 million in grant funding to make that happen. We have learned that the most powerful thing Wildflower can do to support growth and momentum is raise the funds needed to launch emerging schools anywhere – seamlessly meeting Teacher Leaders’ and families’ energy as it arises. 

 

• $20 million to operate the Sunlight Loan Fund CDFI, which provides low interest, unsecured loans to help Teacher Leaders create schools in underserved communities. To support these loans, we raise grant funding that serves as a loss-reserve and equity layer (25% of capital), take Program Related Investments (PRIs) from foundations and CDFI loans from commercial banks at low interest rates (50% of capital) and borrow money at market rates from impact investors (25% of capital). We are currently seeking to raise $20 million to support loans to 200+ schools over the next five years.

 

• To provide a bridge to self-sustainability for the Wildflower Foundation. By 2029, membership fees that each school contributes to help fund shared services will pay for Wildflower’s operating budget. Until then, we must raise ~$15 million to fund the School Startup Journey incubator and coaches that support Emerging Teacher Leaders as they create new schools; tools, templates, technology and events that support the work of open schools; the growth of Wildflower’s charter footprint in new regions and related supports for the rising number of public schools in our network, etc.

 

• To make focused investments in growth in geographical regions. We currently have staffed growth initiatives in Colorado, the Mid-Atlantic region (Central/Southern New Jersey, Greater Philadelphia, and Delaware), Minnesota, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.

 

• To pay for specific high-value, one-off projects to meet the expressed needs of  network schools that we could not undertake without philanthropic support. These initiatives include building new technology and tools to support the School Startup Journey, creating technologies that leverage computer vision to help Montessorians capture continuous data about children’s development and growth in order to support individualized learning and launching a program to facilitate the creation of school cooperative pods that will share workload, support and accountability in small, trusted groups of up to six schools.  

 

Today, Wildflower’s philanthropic investors are seeding the early stage development and growth of a national ecosystem that will one day fully self-sustain its own operations – and will foster the ongoing growth of thousands of community-nested innovative microschools where every child can have the opportunity to be known, to be loved and to thrive to their highest potential. 

 

We hope to make Wildflower schools an option for a diverse mix of children and families everywhere – but it takes a supportive ecosystem of individuals like you to enable a whole field of wildflowers to grow. 

 

If you’d like to connect about becoming an investor of capital, advice or relationships, we’d love to start a conversation or host you on a school visit. 

 

If you're inspired to nurture the growth of Wildflower Schools today, we hope you'll consider joining our community of donors by donating online or by sending a check to:

 

The Wildflower Foundation

5500 Nicollet Ave #19590

Minneapolis, MN 55419

 

If you wish to donate by wire transfer, through a gift of stock, through your trust or will or as a corporate sponsor of a school, please contact Erica Cantoni at erica.cantoni@wildflowerschools.org.

 

The Wildflower Foundation is a 501c3 tax-exempt organization. Our EIN is 81-2826681. All donations are tax-deductible. No goods or services will be provided in exchange for this contribution.

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