Invest in the future of Richmond,
one bold idea at a time.
Richmond Ed Fund is a locally based nonprofit that brings together the resources, relationships, and runway needed to move promising ideas forward.
With Richmond Public Schools as an anchor partner, we invest in stronger public education, clearer pathways to economic opportunity, and new solutions Richmond needs next.
We are a bridge between Richmond’s students and the people, capital, and opportunities that can expand what’s possible for them.
Richmond Ed Fund At A Glance
Who We Are
We are an investment and innovation partner focused on one North Star: every Richmond student graduates ready for a choice-filled life. RPS remains an anchor partner, while our work increasingly follows young people across public education, economic mobility, and the systems that shape what comes next.
What We Do
We identify barriers that carry a real cost for young people and the city, invest flexible capital toward clear outcomes, follow the evidence, and help what works reach larger systems.
Why We Do It
Because every young person deserves access to a school system that fully develops their potential, and because our region’s stability and success depends on it. We mobilize investments, partnerships, and ideas to help Richmond Public Schools deliver real results for students and communities.
How We Help
Our work delivers real gains in literacy, learning time, and postsecondary pathways, while building a stronger system for the long term. By helping design bold solutions, validate them with real-world results, and scale what works, we turn philanthropic investments into sustainable, district-owned impact.
Preparing young people for futures they deserve means more than better test scores.
It involves stability, quality teaching, meaningful pathways after graduation, and a community willing to invest in their lifelong success.
Where We Invest
Public Education
Public dollars are designed to operate a school system. Flexible capital can do something different: take early risks, test promising approaches, and build evidence before they scale. Through the Differentiator Fund, REF invests in ideas tied to clear student outcomes and uses what we learn to decide what should grow.
Economic Mobility
Rich Futures builds the infrastructure between education and economic mobility. We invest where pathways break down, from career navigation and paid work-based learning to employer access, credentials, transportation, and matching, so young people can move from school into a next step that expands their economic opportunity.
Venture + Reinvestment
Some challenges need more than a traditional grant. RVA Can helps build and finance new solutions where no adequate model exists, testing what works and using the evidence to decide what should grow, be carried forward by another organization or system, or inform the next investment.
Richmond Public Schools at a Glance
Richmond Public Schools (RPS) serves a deeply diverse and dynamic student population while navigating persistent underinvestment and gaps in opportunity.
22,000
students
Black & Hispanic students
83%
students economically disadvantaged
2 in 3
students learning English
1 in 5
What We’re Working to Change
