Back to School with MCF: Expanding Support for Education

As backpacks are filled, pencils sharpened, and classrooms prepared for another year, back-to-school season isn’t just a time for students and teachers—it’s also a reminder of the powerful role community support plays in education.

If education is on your mind, you’re in good company. Charitable giving to education rose in 2024 to more than $58 billion! If education and related causes are important to you, Midlands Community Foundation can help you explore a variety of meaningful ways to make an impact. Here are three ideas to inspire a deeper discussion:

Explore options for expanding student support

In many cases, donors set up a scholarship or other type of fund to support a particular educational institution, and then set it on autopilot. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but you might be missing an opportunity to make a deeper impact. The MCF team is happy to facilitate a dialogue with you and the school to structure your funding–whether through a scholarship or other types of support–to fill gaps in student need. For example, if you’d like to support students in their post-high school pursuits beyond simple scholarship dollars, MCF can help identify locally specific needs for funds to support programming and resources that guide and prepare students– whether they’re looking at a traditional four-year college, community college, or trade school.

Investigate opportunities to improve the quality of education itself

Scholarships are a great way to support individual students, but many donors are interested in a broader approach to supporting quality education. MCF can help you address a range of educational needs with your charitable dollars. For example, you could establish a fund to support teachers, which in turn helps improve student success. Teachers are often considered the single most important in-school factor for student success. Charitable funding that enhances teacher training, mentorship, and ongoing professional development creates ripple effects across classrooms and generations of students.

Find your education “niche”

By establishing a field-of-interest fund at Midlands Community Foundation, you can work with the MCF team to identify specific parameters within education that you’d like to fund. For example, you may  be interested in supporting local grassroots programs offering tutoring and mentorship. Or, you may decide to direct your charitable dollars to quality early childhood programs, which have been shown to yield high returns on investments in education. MCF can help you identify an area of focus and ensure your generosity makes the greatest difference within your area of interest.

Please reach out to our team anytime! As students head back to school and education is top of mind, MCF is here to make sure your giving is impactful, focused, and in line with your philanthropic goals.