Our Evolution

"The minority pipeline is leaking, if not altogether broken… The issue of minority leadership is becoming more important as there is not a strong pipeline from which to draw and a looming succession problem as the charter movement loses its first-generation leaders."  — Abdin Noboa-Rios (2007)

Partners For Developing Futures (“Partners”) grew out of concerns initially voiced by pioneers in the charter school movement in 2003 about the absence of minority leadership in the sector. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (“the Alliance”) subsequently convened a Diversity Task Force in 2005 to consider how to widen opportunities for leaders of color to rise within the charter school movement. The findings and recommendations from the research study commissioned by the Alliance’s Diversity Task Force revealed a need for action. Education reform funders and leaders who participated in two key convenings in 2007 agreed and began suggesting ideas that would address the study’s recommendations, begin to support minority leaders’ success, and build a pipeline of talent coming into the charter school sector. In fall 2007, the Walton Family Foundation provided a generous startup grant to the Charter School Growth Fund to incubate and develop the strategic vision and focus for the initiative that eventually became Partners. Partners officially launched and began accepting applications in November 2008.