Nationwide Study Ranks CFEF Among Top 25 Education Foundations

Announced September 25, 2014—The nation’s only study and ranking of K-12 education foundations, “Stepping Up: The Top K-12 Education Foundations in the Nation,” has ranked the CyFair Educational Foundation (CFEF) 23rd overall.

Since its 1970 inception, the CFEF has awarded more than $5 million in student scholarships and more than $1.8 million in staff development grants.

“It is an honor to rank in the top 25 in the nation and No. 4 in our division,” said Marie Holmes, CFEF executive director. “This is a testament to the hard work and commitment we have for the children in our community. That’s our main focus, and we are proud to be recognized for it.”

“Stepping Up” looked at eight key performance categories to determine the ranking: annual revenues, revenues per student, total assets, assets per student, investment income, total program expenses, expenses per student and human capital (volunteers).

The purpose of the “Stepping Up” study is to advocate the importance of K-12 education foundations while recognizing those that do it best.

“Most parents have never heard of their local K-12 education foundation, yet nearly all children are impacted by the foundation’s work,” said Dewey Caruthers, president of dewey & associates and author of the study, in a press release. “Education foundations enhance public education in many vital ways; for instance, with scholarships that send low-income students to college, arts and music programs that open children’s minds to more than a high-stakes test and dropout prevention efforts that keep students from quitting, just to name a few.”

The study reviews K-12 education foundations in the top 100 largest school districts in the nation (by population). The eight performance categories used in the study pulls information directly from the foundations’ 990 filings with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Per student calculations are added to better reveal the impact a foundation is having based on the number of students in the district.

“Some foundations raise large amounts of money, but when compared to the number of students in their districts, it becomes clear the impact on most students is minimal,” said Caruthers.

In addition to the overall national rankings, four divisions were created to divide foundations based on annual revenues. Division 1 includes foundations with $2 million or more in revenue; Division 2 includes foundations with revenue of $1 million to $1,999,999; Division 3 includes foundations with half a million dollars to $999,999 in revenues; and division 4 includes foundations with less than half a million dollars in revenue.

Cy-Fair Educational Foundation ranked fourth in Division 2.

“Stepping up is about much more than comparing a $3 million a year foundation to a $300,000 one,” said Caruthers. “This study proves that some of the smaller foundations are among the top-performing foundations.

“Based on the “Stepping Up” rankings, we can see that Texas education foundations are positively effecting public education, and that deserves national recognition.”

To review the full “Stepping Up” study, visit http://deweyandassociates.com.