Overview

The Charter School Growth Fund ("CSGF") is a non-profit venture capital fund working to transform K-12 education by investing in innovative charter school networks that offer outstanding educational options for underserved students. Founded in 2005, our mission is to invest philanthropic venture capital in the nation's highest performing charter school operators to dramatically expand their impact on low-income and minority students. We provide financing, business planning support, coaching and other resources that portfolio members require to build networks of high-performing schools.

CSGF makes very select investments in charter school management organizations ("CMOs") that deliver outstanding academic results, while achieving sustainability on public revenues. The 32 members of our current portfolio were chosen from a pool of over 375 applicants. Collectively, they operate the highest performing schools in their cities and many have completely closed the achievement gap between low-income and affluent students. CSGF grant and loan financing packages enable these organizations to expand their capacity to serve more low-income and minority families in their communities.

To date, CSGF has committed over $100 million to support the creation of more than165,000 new seats for low-income and minority students around the country. Currently, CSGF portfolio members operate schools that serve over 100,000 students -- more than four times the number they served upon entering our portfolio. Over the next decade, we will continue to invest in extraordinary CMOs – those that can transform American education and ensure demography is not destiny for our nation's students.