A Conversation with Chris Busse of the Texas Charter School Association

"We need a lot of different types of schools to serve all the different types of kids."
- Chris Busse

Yesterday Central Texas Education Funders met at The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation for a presentation by the Texas Charter Schools Association. When originally scheduled this event was meant to be something of a recap from this year's legislative session and an update on where things are for charter schools now. Of course, as we all know, session isn't over yet (soon! soon we all hope!), so instead Chris Busse, VP of TCSA walked us through what has happened to date in session, what might happen in the coming days, and finally gave us an overview of some of the exciting work and products that TCSA has been developing.

First, a couple of facts that jumped out at me:

• If charter schools were grouped they would make up the 3rd largest school district in Texas
• Charter schools currently serve approximately 120,000 kids
• TCSA represents 90% of charter schools in the state

TCSA has been a very active voice during this legislative session, hosting two rallies, over 80 office visits, and facilitating numerous school visits that put change-makers in the classrooms to see charter schools at work. It seems that a big effort is being made to really educate people as to what a charter school really is, dispelled some myths that are still in the community.

The most exciting information that Chris shared was about the tools that are available through TCSA. "Operations tend to trip you up before academic achievement can," says Mr. Busse explaining the drive behind their Model Board Policy Series, which gives charter schools templates to work from to establish a strong operational foundation on which to build their institution. Along with that series, TCSA has developed a Quality Framework Assessment that charter schools can complete to get an idea of how they measure up on all areas from Academics to Fiscal Management.

At CTEF we are excited to partner with TCSA to learn about the indicators they have established and then to make that knowledge the base for our Common Indicator in the Charter Schools funding area. So look out for that in the future!

All in all a great afternoon. Thank you to Chris for an engaging and informative presentation and to the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation for being great hosts!

--Kate Stark, CTEF Intern

Innovation+

Yesterday CTEF members sat down with Dennis Cavner and Suzi Sosa to learn about an "innovative" new organization called Innovation+. A special project under Austin Community Foundation, the impetus for Innovation+  was identifying the three things that a NPO really needs to grow and thinking about how those can be provided.

Innovation+ says that non-profits need:

1. Growth capital (because currently most of the capital in non-profits is project-based)
2. A mind-share of smart, creative people
3. Human capital to move things forward.

Taking cures from the venture capital work, Innovation+ looks for programs that are on the cusp of transforming from a small non-profit to a larger-scale organization and have high growth potential. They look for organizations that are doing a innovative service, that have proven success, and have the potential to grow given the necessary monetary and human capital.

Even though they are not exclusively considering education non-profits, they have chosen College Forward as their first partner. By doing the due-diligence that is required whenever a grant or a donation is made to an organization, Innovation+ has vetted the organization's model. They have identified College Forward as a viable investment and will proceed to work as something of an agent of their behalf. The idea behind Innovation+ isn't to provide scale funding themselves, it is to help their partner non-profits to find this funding. Through existing connection and extensive networking, Innovation+ intends to become champions for the partners, shopping the idea to people and companies that can provide human and/or monetary capital.

There are other models for this kind of thing. Social Venture Partners is an example that existed in Austin in the 1990s. Under that model, a group of organizations would donate to a communal pot and then distribute the funds to promote growth. Unlike that model, Innovation+ intents to be the link that connects motivated, well organized, strategically versed non-profits with folks that want to help, but maybe don't have the resources to do the research and find a group to support. 

One of their great hopes is that by helping non-profits to grow and scale their work (College Forward has expanded into Houston and plans to continue bringing their model to more cities in the near future) that they can transform the non-profit world from fragmented to united. 

"Non-profits don't have to be little local things where the wheel has to be recreated in every city."  - Susi Sosa, RGK Center/Innovation+

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Organizations like CTEF Members can play a special role in helping Innovation+ succeed. One of the reasons this model holds promise is because unlike an organization asking for donations themselves, they can present a complete package or investment deal that has been thoroughly researched and reviewed and is considered to be a good investment. As area funders, we have worked with and written grants to many potential Innovation+ Partners. By providing testimonials for those non-profits we lend credibility to the deal and that helps to attract investors. Contact us at info@centraltexasedfunders.org if you'd like to get involved and we can connect you with Innovation+.

-- Kate Stark, CTEF Graduate Intern

(For more information about Innovation+ check them out in the Austin Business Journal)

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