Are you being tested?

Mark Zuckerberg’s big $100 million gift in 2010

In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder and CEO) gave $100 million to help fix Newark, New Jersey’s failing school system. His goal was to develop a model for fixing education throughout America’s urban communities.
“$100 million dollars should be enough to fix just about anything,” I thought at the time.
 

So what happened?

Some consultants got paid $1,000 a day to the tune of $20 million.
Charter schools got a lot of money and they proved that they work.
Teachers (especially their union) got pissed because they had to compete with those charter schools based on new accountability measures.
 

But what really happened?

I mean, it’s been almost 6 years. Where’s the rollout for the rest of America? Why was Zuckerberg’s recent vow to give away 99% of the value of his Facebook stock lacking any mention of a rollout of a proven system to improve education in urban communities all over the United States?
 

I think he was testing.

I believe that he, like many of your supporters, was trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his wealth. He was trying to learn how to be a philanthropist. He was testing.
And, I think many of your supporters are testing you and your organization as they explore their philanthropic interests.
 

So, now I suggest you ponder this:

Who’s testing you right now?
What are you doing to help more philanthropists test you and your organization?
And, what are you going to do to make sure they expand their tests to make a bigger impact later?
 

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