Vision, Mission And Approach - Wallace's Report '09: Appraising a Decade

Contents

• Chairman’s Letter
• President’s Essay
• Vision, Mission And Approach
• Ten Years In Review
• Public Outreach
• Workplace
• New Publications And Multimedia Resources From Wallace
• Financial Overview
• Program Expenditures And Commitments
• Funding Guidelines & Restrictions
• About Our Founders
• Directors And Staff

Click here to download the full report:
 Wallace's Report '09: Appraising a Decade

Vision: That children, particularly those living in distressed urban areas, have access to good schools and a variety of enrichment programs in and outside of school that prepare them to be contributing members of their communities.

Mission: To improve learning and enrichment opportunities for children.

Guiding Principles:
To create change that is deeply rooted and sustainable, we will:

• Take a systemic view that looks at the larger environment surrounding the issue being tackled, and engage the people and institutions involved at the appropriate level (federal, state, city, school district, and community organization).
• Work with those who have power and authority to make change, including governmental agencies (such as school districts and state and city governments) as well as non-profit institutions.
• Also support organizations that are working outside current system, which is where innovation often begins.
• Assess the results of the innovations we support through research and evaluation.
• Encourage the use of those ideas and practices that are evidenced-based and represent an advantage over current practice.

Wallace Approach:
In all areas of our work, we seek to develop and test useful ideas “on the ground,” gather credible, objective evidence on the results from significant innovations, and then share that knowledge with the individuals and institutions with the authority to bring those effective ideas to life in ways that bring benefits to children. There are two components to this approach:

1. Develop innovation sites: we work closely with sites (such as states, school districts and cities as well as non-profit organizations) to help them plan and test new approaches for bringing about mutually-agreed upon change goals. These sites provide insights into what ideas are or are not effective and what conditions support or impede progress.
2. Develop and share knowledge: in concert with the innovation site work, we support independent research that fills knowledge gaps in the field. We also assess the results of the innovations we support through a range of evaluation methods. We then share our knowledge with others and encourage the use of the ideas and practices that seem most promising. In this way, we hope to improve practice and policy in organizations that will never get Wallace grants.

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