Harlem Educational Activities Fund Receives $180,000 Grant from Harvard Business School Club of Greater New York |
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By: Harlem Educational Activities Fund Posted: 2007-11-10 06:00:36 |
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Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF) announced today that the organization has received an $180,000 grant from Harvard Business School Club of New York. This grant was matched by an anonymous donor. The $360,000 contribution, the largest single contribution in HEAF's history, will support the organization's strategy to expand its programs to additional areas of New York City (including the Bronx and Brooklyn).
Since its inception, HEAF has been working to help underserved students with great potential to transform themselves into high-achieving college graduates. Given the current educational landscape, the gift and resulting attention to the issues could not be timelier. Ninety percent of students who have gone through the HEAF program have either graduated from college in five years or less, or are on track to do so at a time when nationwide, approximately one half of all black and Latino students finish high school. According to the Civil Rights Project at Harvard, in New York City, only 32 percent of black students and 30 percent of Latino students graduated from high school in 2004, compared to 58 percent of white students. Many children who reside in Harlem, Washington Heights and the Bronx are at high risk of not achieving productive adulthood due to factors of extreme poverty, single- parent families, high drug use, lack of English spoken and unemployment, according to the Citizens' Committee for Children of New York. HBSCNY's decision to fund HEAF makes sense, given its previous support of the organization through the HBSCNY Community Partners initiative, which matches Harvard Business School graduates with nonprofit organizations for the purpose of providing pro bono consulting to organizations looking to increase their capacity for larger social impact on the communities that they serve. This past summer, HEAF and the Community Partners team completed a five-year business plan for the organization that was several months in the making. According to Danielle Moss Lee, HEAF President and CEO, "The plan - coupled with this extraordinary contribution - will help to put HEAF well on its way to increasing the number of at-risk youth whose lives are transformed by the work that we do. We expect to use these funds to increase academic enrichment opportunities for our students and expand our capacity to help HEAF college students make a smooth transition from college to graduate school and careers. We hope that the confidence in our vision demonstrated by HBSCNY's generosity will prompt other donors to support our growth strategy." Harlem Educational Activities Fund Founded in 1989, HEAF's mission is to assist college-bound students from educationally and economically disadvantaged communities in developing the intellectual and life skills required for a successful future. HEAF's programs reach high-potential New York City public school students from sixth grade through twelfth grade from lower- and middle-income families in areas currently including Harlem, Washington Heights and the surrounding communities. Media Contact: Brigid Lang |
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