A Message from our CEO
Twenty-five years ago, Richmond Ed Fund was created out of necessity because families, educators, and civic leaders saw a school system under stress and chose to step in, together. The idea was simple: help where you can, fill gaps, and be of service.
Today, that just isn’t enough.
Richmond’s public education system should be an engine for upward mobility, expanding a young person’s world and opening doors to lives of choice, purpose, and passion. But teachers, students, and families in Richmond Public Schools (RPS) have too often been asked to make extraordinary progress using underfunded, outdated systems, while schools are expected to address generational challenges no district can solve alone.
Richmond’s public education system should be an engine for upward mobility, expanding a young person’s world and opening doors to lives of choice, purpose, and passion. But teachers, students, and families in Richmond Public Schools (RPS) have too often been asked to make extraordinary progress using underfunded, outdated systems, while schools are expected to address generational challenges no district can solve alone.
We’re still running schools on a model built more than a century ago. The world has changed, but too many of our systems haven’t. And when public education stalls, everything else stalls too, including opportunity, economic growth, and the future of our city.
That’s why the Richmond Ed Fund exists, and why we’re thinking bigger than ever.
As RPS’s closest philanthropic partner, we bring flexible dollars, national research, and real partnership to a district serving mostly Black, Brown, multilingual, and low-income students. We raise money, yes, but more importantly, we listen, coach, and roll up our sleeves alongside educators and leaders. We help teachers feel valued, we help families through crises, and we help Richmond Public Schools mobilize quickly when opportunity or urgency calls.
Our role is simple: we are here so that RPS can dream bigger for its students and act faster on what works. We’re here to close the imagination gap: that space between what our students deserve and what an underfunded system has been able to offer.
As we approach our 25th anniversary, we’re promoting a new blueprint for public education in Richmond and beyond: schools as engines of economic mobility, classrooms built for real life, and learning aligned with the future, not the past. Richmond is the perfect place to prototype what’s next, not because we have all the answers, but because we have the urgency, the talent, and the will to lead.
If you share our belief in the potential of Richmond’s students, I invite you to join us in the bold, patient work of building a stronger, more resilient public education system.