The Future Project

The Future Project
Founded September 2011
Founder Andrew Mangino
Kanya Balakrishna
Area served
United States
Key people
 Andrew Mangino (CEO)
Kanya Balakrishna (President)
Employees
70
Mission To transform America by inspiring its young people to discover their passions and purpose — and change the world.[1]
Website www.thefutureproject.org

The Future Project is an American non-profit organization that inspires young Americans to live lives of passion and purpose — and learn how to change the world.[2]

In its pilot phase, The Future Project worked with urban public high schools, embedding in each school a full-time Dream Director, a new position that the organization designed with experts. As of 2015, The Future Project is working with 25,000 students across New York, New Haven, Washington, DC, Newark, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Detroit.[3] In 2014, Andrew Mangino, co-founder of the organization, was named an Ashoka Fellow.[4]

History

Andrew Mangino and Kanya Balakrishna met through their work at Yale Daily News. After graduating from Yale in 2009, both moved to Washington, D.C. to take on positions as speechwriters in the Obama Administration. While living in DC, they developed the idea of The Future Project after speaking with friends and educators who told them that the students, in general, were not inspired. In October 2011, they built a volunteer team of fifty people and launched the project.[5] Kat Evasco joined the team as Chief Dream Director of San Francisco since February 2015.

Model

The Future Project — whose model is based on evidence about what students need to thrive in the 21st Century — recruits staff members called Dream Directors and trains them at a summer Dream Academy, deploying one to each partner high school.[6] The Dream Director begins with a listening tour of students, faculty, and community members and then helps to craft one project for the school. Upon doing so, they build a Dream Team of students, charged with responsibility of serving as "Dream Directors" for their peers and launching their own world-changing Future Projects. Over time, Dream Directors work with hundreds of students to engage them in a transformational lifelong process of helping them to discover a big idea, believe in themselves and each other, and turn their dream into reality. As they do so, Dream Directors work with Dream Team members to bring the school's culture more fully alive.[3][7][8]

Funding

The Future Project is funded primarily by private individual philanthropic donations and small to medium foundations as well several institutional partners, including Quicken Loans, Google, Blackstone, and Yale University. The organization received $15,000 from a Yale philanthropy class[9] and raised $5 million in its first two years.[5] In spring 2013, the organization won the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation grant, which is given to the top 1% of emerging social enterprises each year;[5] and also received a grant from the Arbor Brothers and The Heckscher Foundation for Children.[10][11]

References

  1. ↑ "The Future Project Home Page". The Future Project. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  2. ↑ "Edwards pushes Wilson High to higher goals". District Chronicles. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  3. 1 2 Dennis, Celeste Hamilton. "The Future Project: Helping students change the world with their wildest dreams". Idealist Blog. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  4. ↑ "Andrew Mangino". Ashoka. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 Caprino, Kathy. "How Two Young Dreamers (And Their Supporters) Are Changing American Education". Forbes. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  6. ↑ "Igniting Kids' Passion To Save Our Failing Schools". Fast Company. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  7. ↑ Stromer, Bryan. "Having A Dream, And A Dream Director, In High School". Gotham Schools. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  8. ↑ Jiggetts, Valerie. "Moving Beyond "Doing the Right Thing"". American Sociological Association. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  9. ↑ Shelton, Jim. "Yale philanthropy class awards $50G to 6 organizations". New Haven Register. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  10. ↑ "The Future Project". Arbor Brothers. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  11. ↑ Bailey, Melissa. "High-Powered Cast Gets Behind "Dream City"". New Haven Independent. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
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