The Kenneth Rainin Foundation envisions a world where every Oakland child has the literacy skills to communicate, learn and thrive. The possibilities for young learners are boundless when we surround them with caring adults who are equipped to ignite their full potential. To seed lasting literacy gains, our grantees engaged families and caregivers, embraced evidence-based practices and fostered culturally connected environments.

In 2024, we celebrated 15 years of formal grantmaking with new investments, shaped by and for community, to strengthen Oakland’s education ecosystem. As we deepened our trust-based practices, we gained insights to enhance our impact. Guided by community and grantee input, we identified gaps and designed accessible, targeted support to expand opportunities for under-resourced communities.

To commemorate our 15-year anniversary, we honored five leaders with Rest And Care Awards for Education. These women have significantly contributed to the field and their community, and their organizations are long-time partners in advancing literacy for Oakland children. Each organization received a $40,000 grant to support the leader’s six-week sabbatical, plus planning and staff capacity assistance. Awardees receive personalized coaching and, with their staff and other Education grantees, access to The Teaching Well’s wellness workshops.

The awards were designed in collaboration with our Arts Program to engender a mindset of abundance and possibility, acknowledging the deep burnout affecting many grantees. Along with tenure, organizational capacity and community leadership, we prioritized leaders who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color to acknowledge the disproportionate impacts the pandemic had on them and their communities.

In 2024, we partnered with Informing Change to assess our early literacy strategies and impact in Oakland. The evaluation affirmed that engaging families, evidence-based programs and strategic partnerships are helping to advance a more inclusive and effective learning ecosystem. It also illuminated the potential of schools as levers of change where educators, family leaders and tutors unite around students. The findings emphasized the need for new funding pathways and deeper investments for literacy intervention, which led to the launch of Early Care Spaces.

Shaped by community input, this new grant program addresses gaps in early care for children from birth to five years old. It prioritizes informal early care spaces and providers who have the least access to supportive resources, and honors parents and caregivers as leaders in their children’s education. Its flexible design allows us to respond and adapt to community priorities and a complex landscape. The inaugural grantees include Afro-Play Oakland, BANANAS, Destiny Arts, EDvance College, Lincoln Families, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Museum of Children’s Art and Parent Voices Oakland. They are all committed to supporting Oakland’s communities, especially those most often overlooked. Their efforts range from culturally connected programs for children and caregivers to initiatives that use art, storytelling and movement to foster language comprehension. 

Across Oakland Unified School District, Education for Change Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools and Lighthouse Community Public Schools we saw stronger infrastructure for educator training as well as literacy instruction and interventions.

Our long-time grantee FluentSeeds merged with Collaborative Classroom, to combine evidence-based literacy, social-emotional learning and professional development for educators. Literacy coaches from Collaborative Classroom and the district work together to improve teaching and student outcomes by sharing responsibilities around planning, training and student data tracking. The literacy leadership of 3Ls The Academy supports schools and students through after-school interventions, educator coaching and training, and building families’ capacity for literacy development. The Oakland REACH equips parents and caregivers with the skills needed to be paid tutors in the lowest-performing schools.

Photo Credit: Mitch Tobias

At Cox Academy, Courtney Morales Rosen, Omar Currie and Kavitha Senthil led the effort to transform student outcomes in close collaboration with teachers and tutors. Our case study highlights how these school leaders innovated their tutoring model to boost literacy, maximize student learning time and increase teacher capacity and retention.

Thriving learning environments reflect the needs and experiences of the students and adults. To create pathways for educators who reflect Oakland’s diverse communities, we awarded grants to Reach University, EDvance College and Alder Graduate School of Education. To support well-being and sustainability, our investments in Lead Liberated and The Teaching Well advance culturally connected practices for educators.

Organizations like Families in Action and High Expectations are showing what’s possible when families are valued and supported as leaders in their children’s literacy progress and needs. Parent Voices Oakland is integrating organizing efforts with early literacy and language development training for their parent base.

The momentum to recognize literacy as a civil rights issue inspires our grantees and our grantmaking. FULCRUM is a critical advocacy partner locally and nationally, catalyzing practice and policy improvements to strengthen literacy instruction and increase access to literacy interventions. Another collaborative effort by American Public Media and APM Reports is adding to this effort by increasing awareness about the science of reading in the “Sold A Story” podcast. Their investigative reporting has inspired educators, schools and policymakers to shift toward evidence-based literacy practices.

Fostering relationships grounded in transparency, mutual learning and accountability are trust-based philanthropy practices that help us address the inherent power imbalances between us and our grantees. Our Early Care Spaces program emerged directly from community input, enabling applicants to see themselves reflected in the opportunity. We remain dedicated to centering community perspectives in our decision-making and learning. To deepen this commitment, we established a Community Advisory Council of school and nonprofit leaders, who reflect the neighborhoods and communities they serve, to help us design funding opportunities.

We also integrate trust-based philanthropy practices to reduce grantee burdens and provide holistic support beyond the financial grant. Our Rest and Care Awards included wellness training, a benefit we extended to all current Education grantees. We also streamline paperwork and reporting requirements for grantees by relying on existing public education data. We will continue to listen to our community and incorporate their insights.

Across Oakland, collaborations are building connections, inspiring new solutions and generating promising results. The collective membership of Oakland Starting Smart and Strong advances training for educators and childcare providers, and advocates for solutions that center children and families. The Oakland Literacy Coalition unites diverse stakeholders to address literacy inequities and strengthen Oakland’s literacy ecosystem through advocacy, capacity building, family and community engagement initiatives and the annual Literacy and Justice for All symposium.

The Foundation continues to participate in the Emerging Bilingual Collaborative with five other California-based foundations. We are collaborating to ensure the state’s increasing number of young multilingual learners receive high-quality literacy instruction in environments that value them. We also renewed support to a funded pool through Eat. Learn. Play Foundation that provides evidence-based, high-dosage literacy tutoring to children in 33 Oakland Unified School District schools.

Early Care Spaces Program

Provides support to organizations promoting early language and literacy development for Oakland children from birth to five years old. Learn about the 2024 Early Care Spaces grantees.

Education Program Invite-Only Grants

These grants support equitable literacy approaches in partnership with underserved communities to ensure that all Oakland children have the literacy skills to communicate, learn and thrive by the beginning of third grade. We are honored to partner with these organizations. Learn more about the 2024 Education Program invite-only grantees.

Rest And Care Awards For Education

Provides support for a six-week sabbatical for the executive leader, plus planning and staff capacity assistance. Learn about the Rest and Care Award grantees.

Response Fund

This discretionary fund supports exceptional and emerging opportunities that will have an outsized impact and move us closer toward our vision of all Oakland children reading at or above grade level, no one suffering from Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Bay Area artists thriving. Learn more about the 2024 Response Fund grantees.