All Points North Foundation Provides $340,000 in COVID-19
Emergency Grants to Nonprofits Across the U.S.

– Education and Solar Organizations Supported by Additional Funding –

Brookline, MA (June 17, 2020) – To ensure its grantees have urgently needed operational funding to help mitigate or alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, All Points North Foundation today announced it will award $340,000 in emergency grants through December 2020.

A private foundation, All Points North Foundation has a unique, two-pronged mission: public middle-school education (grades 6-8) in underserved communities, whether urban or rural, and significantly advancing the penetration of solar energy through education, job training, and use of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies.

Public middle school education nonprofits will use this COVID-19 emergency funding in a variety of ways from retaining staff, covering general operating costs, supporting mentors and mentees, to the creation and delivery of online tools, micro-courses and resources to support teachers and leaders in making the sudden shift to delivering high-quality remote learning experiences during school closures.

For solar energy organizations, these emergency funds will cover overhead expenses such as utilities and insurance, help retain staff and prevent further furloughs, cover equipment costs incurred from project delays, support other grant-seeking and writing efforts and reduce end-of-year deficits.

The nonprofits receiving emergency funds, descriptions of their work, and ways to learn more about these important organizations follow.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has tested foundations and nonprofits systemically, operationally and strategically,” said All Points North Foundation Board Chair Larry Promisel. “Our emergency grants will hopefully help our grantees build resilience and pivot during this crisis and beyond.”

Aside from the COVID emergency grants, All Points North Foundation has awarded over $2.6 million in 47 grants to organizations since its inception, impacting more than 384,000 lives nationwide.

“We are humbled by the tireless work our grantees are committed to doing every day, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, whether it’s supporting middle school students virtually in underserved communities, both urban and rural, or conducting solar installations and virtual workforce development seminars,” said Executive Director Laura Staich. “Through their work, our grantees continue to change families, communities and the environment even in the midst of these challenging times.”

Education Grant Recipients

Ann Richards School Foundation: Austin, TX-based Ann Richards School Foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on ensuring that students from the Ann Richards School for Young Women leaders gain the confidence and skills to apply, attend, and graduate from college, regardless of socioeconomic barriers. 

Breakthrough Collaborative: Bay Area, CA-based Breakthrough Collaborative partners with highly motivated, traditionally under-represented students to achieve post-secondary success and empowers aspiring leaders to become the next generation of educators and advocates.

Citizen Schools: Boston-based Citizen Schools works with underserved populations to address educational opportunity and access inequities, delivering mentorship and programming to middle school students who need it the most.

Environmental Charter Schools: Los-Angeles-based Environmental Charter Schools is reimagining public education in low-income communities of color to prepare conscious, critical thinkers who are equipped to graduate from college and create a more equitable and sustainable world. Serving more than 1,200 students, the nonprofits’ three campuses are alive, with more than 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables, living streams, school-wide composting and solar powered greenhouses.

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE): Educational nonprofit NFTE activates the entrepreneurial mindset and builds startup skills in young people from under-resourced communities.

PowerMyLearning: Los Angeles, CA-based PowerMyLearning leverages technology to strengthen learning relationships and provides distance learning support to schools and helping students stay on track to graduate.

Sisters Circle: Throughout the middle and high school years, Baltimore, MD-based Sisters Circle empowers young women of color with one-to-one mentoring, after-school programs, cultural and educational events, and college-and career readiness initiatives.

TeachUNITED: Fort Collins, CO-based TeachUNITED supports teachers with a world-class coaching program to increase academic achievement and growth for all learners, especially underserved rural communities.

Solar Grant Recipients

Emerald Coast Fitness Foundation: This Fort Walton Beach, FL-based nonprofit foundation operates two public swimming facilities and provides the community with programs and a venue for swimming lessons, fitness, training and competition, in environmentally friendly facilities.

Everybody Solar: Temecula, CA-based Everybody Solar works to protect the environment and strengthen U.S. communities by providing cost-saving solar power to local charities.

GRID Alternatives: Oakland, CA-based GRID Alternatives is a national nonprofit working to make renewable energy technology and job training accessible to underserved communities, and its National Tribal Program works with more than 40 Native Nations to support their clean energy goals while providing energy cost savings and job training opportunities to improve tribal members’ quality of life.

Instituto Nueva Escuela: San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Instituto Nueva Escuela (INE) is committed to improving students’ academic and socio-emotional outcomes through the implementation of Montessori education programs in Puerto Rico’s public schools. It serves 50 public school communities who have decided to resist the ongoing closure of ‘small community schools’ and transform these into excellent public Montessori schools.

Leelanau Community Cultural Center: The Leelanau Community Cultural Center supports and provides a historic venue for cultural enrichment in Leelanau County, Michigan and serves as a gathering place and community center year-round.

Macon Area Habitat for Humanity: Georgia’s Macon Area Habitat for Humanity provides life changing homeownership opportunities for low-income families and neighborhood revitalization programs in Macon-Bibb and Jones Counties.

Rising Sun Center for Opportunity: Northern California-based Rising Sun Center for Opportunity empowers individuals to achieve environmental and economic sustainability for themselves and their communities through the Opportunity Build program, which trains low-income individuals with significant barriers to employment for careers in the construction and solar industries.

Solar Energy International (SEI): Paonia, CO-based SEI is dedicated to scaling the global solar workforce at a pace that significantly impacts climate change by delivering hands-on experience, safety and technical skills training. SEI collaborates with Native American organizations and not-for-profits to grow renewable solar power capacities in Native American communities via programs like Tribal Train the Trainer.

Spark Northwest: Seattle’s Spark Northwest works to advance equity in clean energy communities across the U.S. Pacific Northwest. This nonprofit accelerates the shift to clean energy by teaming up with local communities to deliver the benefits of solar to environmentally and financially sustainable homes.

About All Points North Foundation

All Points North Foundation was founded in 2011 by a family who believes passionately that everyone has a “true North” – a place of achievement – and that all should have equal opportunity and access to realize their goals. All Points North Foundation provides grants to U.S.-based nonprofits in two areas – public middle-school education (grades 6-8) and solar energy – that have the power to help communities navigate upward.

Click Here for All Points North Foundation’s Response to COVID-19

All Points North Foundation provides grants for U.S.-based projects and initiatives that support our priorities: improving public middle school education and teacher training, and implementing effective solar programs and/or projects.

Have a U.S.-based project you’d like to discuss?