Education is King

Those of you that know me know that I am a huge sports fan. My day job and other passion is all about philanthropy and community. I work for the Toronto Foundation and we help inspire and manage strategic philanthropy with over 450 different individuals and families. Our fundholders do some amazing things and its so exciting to be able to support them.

It should come as no surprise that I was quite excited earlier this week: LeBron James ("the King"), who many would argue is our current generation's most dominant athlete (in all sports) showed that he is an even bigger and impressive human being. Simply put: He cares. About our future. About young people. And about society.

Monday marked the opening of the I PROMISE School, a joint initiative of the Lebron James Family Foundation and Akron Public Schools. LeBron, his family and other key drivers from his community have been planning this since 2011 when they launched the I PROMISE initiative to target rising drop out rates in the Akron community. This unique partnership between a private family foundation and a public school board is monumental. It represents seeds that are being planted today with the first 240 at-risk grade 3 and 4 students starting their scholastic career and in the years to come, will expand to include a forest of over 1000 students from grades 1 through 8.

It's important to emphasize as well that this school is a public school. James did not partner with a charter school or private school, on purpose. He wanted to highlight the importance of the public school system and what it takes to invest and grow that system. The LeBron James Family Foundation has brought together James himself along with 120 donors, partners, sponsors and volunteers to supplement the funding and provide the necessary additional funds to take care of teachers and other integral resources. This article from SBnation outlines may of the key areas where the Foundation will add extreme value.

Being a fan of professional sports (or any other celebrities from music, film, tv, etc) can be exhilarating most of the time but also quite frustrating at other times. Hearing about the latest MLB players that have screwed up on social media or seeing how the NFL continues to idiotically deal with many important "larger than football" social issues can really infuriate you. Even LeBron acted really immaturely in 2010 when he first left Cleveland with his TV special, The Decision. But he made up for it and apologized for his mistake when he returned 4 years later...

I am thrilled about this story and excited to see how this starts changing the game and building more equity in our communities around the world. Canada, and Toronto are not very different in some respects. All you have to do is lean into Toronto's Vital Signs to see some of the big gaps in our own education offerings. There is so much more to do... but this is an incredible start. I'm feeling inspired. I;m going to start writing more.... because I blessed to have so many more incredible stories to share!

#philanthropy #Vision2020 #citybuilding #donorlove #StriveForGreatness #IPromise