In June 2005, VPP and The SEED Foundation, which founded and oversees The SEED School of Washington, DC—the first urban, public boarding school in the nation—began an investment partnership.

The first phase of this investment partnership will focus on business planning. VPP will provide $350,000 in funding and strategic assistance to enable the Foundation to engage leading experts in the fields of strategic planning and outcomes design to help it develop a comprehensive, multi-year business plan. This plan will guide SEED toward achievement of its aspirations to serve an additional 600 youth in the region and become a national model for other communities wanting to establish urban boarding schools. Based on the successful completion of the business planning phase, we would enter into a multi-year investment agreement.

OPPORTUNITY
The SEED Foundation and The SEED School of Washington, DC have demonstrated a successful educational model. The investment in SEED has the potential to expand a unique approach that offers students an educational enrichment opportunity they would otherwise not have, thus breaking the cycle of poverty. At the present time, there are no other successful urban boarding school models.

The leadership, management, and board of The SEED Foundation and School feel strongly that expanding this model in the DC area will lead to its replication in several other major city locations and inspire increased national political support. To that end, their aspiration is to:

• Triple the number of students attending a college preparatory, urban public boarding school in the greater Washington, DC area;
• Refine and enhance The SEED School’s model and outcomes;
• Define a range of funding models for building capital-intensive urban boarding schools and other capital-intensive nonprofit services; and
• Expand into other states where legislation has been passed to support charter schools or other alternative forms of public education, where precedent exists for innovative educational solutions for children and adolescents, and where capital funding opportunities may already exist.

INVESTMENT RATIONALE
The SEED Foundation has very strong leadership in its founders and managing directors, Eric Adler and Rajiv Vinnakota, who are highly regarded for their innovative approach to educating students in urban settings and for their exceptional talent in mobilizing resources and support for The SEED School. They and their leadership team have evolved from a small group of visionaries to nationally recognized thought leaders focused on inner-city education and revitalization.

They are now at a major crossroads. The current location is self-sustaining. They can either continue to successfully educate 300 children each year and graduate 25 to 50 children prepared to enter college, or they can demonstrate that the multi-site urban boarding school model can be replicated and is viable in this region as well as other regions across the county. In the latter case, there is the potential for many more children to be served and the possibility to shift some basic tenets of public policy around education.

An investment in The SEED Foundation at this time will enable it to plan strategically to take its efforts to the next level. We estimate that an investment of up to $2 million would support business planning and enhance organizational capacity and implement growth objectives to help SEED fulfill its overall aspiration.

Success Factors
The SEED Foundation has demonstrated that it can successfully raise significant funding, open and operate an urban boarding school, and effectively prepare young adults to be accepted into four-year college programs.

The SEED Foundation is poised for further success. It has the financial backing locally (from foundations and individuals) and, increasingly, nationally. It has local as well as some national political support. SEED demonstrates an educational model that succeeds in educating children in a demanding college preparatory and boarding school setting, which has led to interest from other cities to create local campuses. SEED’s staff has successfully attracted parental support and has also established a very strong board. SEED hired an experienced educator, John Ciccone, as head of school, recruited experienced academic and boarding staff, and is building a management team at the Foundation to support and manage a multi-site organization.

Use of Funds
Through the first phase of this investment partnership, VPP will provide up to $350,000 in funding and strategic assistance for The SEED Foundation to develop a business plan to achieve its aspiration of becoming a multi-site organization. The planning process will help the SEED leadership define a strategy to triple the number of children served in the region and test other financial models to support this exponential growth.

Seed Foundation Website