Invest in the future of Richmond,
one bold idea at a time.
We are the trusted bridge between our city’s students and the people who want to invest in their success.
The Richmond Ed Fund is a locally based nonprofit working to give RPS the resources, relationships, and runway it needs to launch and grow big, system-changing work. We partner directly with the district to identify what matters most for students, raise the dollars to make it possible, and help turn promising ideas into game-changing wins for Richmond’s learners.
Richmond Ed Fund At A Glance
Who We Are
We are the philanthropic and innovation engine behind Richmond Public Schools’ most ambitious work in literacy, learning conditions, and life beyond graduation, bridging, research, capital, and relationships to help bold ideas take root and grow.
What We Do
We partner with RPS to identify what matters most for students, raise the funding to make it possible, and help transform promising ideas into reality. We align investments with RPS’s strategic priorities, helping the district test, refine, and scale what works, with shared accountability for results.
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.
Areas of Focus
Thriving Academics
Every student deserves access to rigorous, real-world learning that unlocks opportunity. We fund breakthrough initiatives, help evaluate what works, and build the case for public scale. We're reimagining what's possible in education through data-driven innovation and bold new approaches to learning.
Thriving Talent
Every student deserves access to rigorous, real-world learning that unlocks opportunity. We fund breakthrough initiatives, help evaluate what works, and build the case for public scale. We're reimagining what's possible in education through data-driven innovation and bold new approaches to learning.
Thriving Together
Transformation doesn’t happen in isolation. It takes trust, proximity, and shared ownership. We raise flexible capital to respond quickly to emerging needs and organize cross-sector collaboration that shifts power and expands possibility. We forge connections that strengthen our educational ecosystem and create opportunities for every student.
Impact: Richmond on the Rise
Richmond Public Schools (RPS) educates the most diverse, resilient, underfunded students in the region:
Richmond Public Schools Enrollment
21,247
84%
Black & Brown Learners
66%
19%
Economically Disadvantaged Learners
Multilingual Learners
From 2022–2024:
Black students achieved their highest graduation rate in 20 years
RPS scores rose 5%–13% districtwide in all core academic areas
5–13%
20 years
33.4%
5–20%
Multilingual learners achieved 33.4% proficiency, outperforming the state average of 33.1%
Early literacy proficiency in RPS200 schools jumped 5%–20%
89,316
Richmond added 89,316 classroom hours through increased attendance
