A number of funders in Iowa are interested in backing education-related efforts in our state. The Iowa Council of Foundations brings our member organizations together as the ICoF Education (or Ed) Funders Network. The most prominent effort of this network to-date is the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.
The Iowa Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
In 2014, ICoF launched a statewide funder coalition on the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (GLR Campaign) for Iowa funders interested in bringing the Campaign into their local communities.
This three-year, grant-funded project, was designed to build off a co-funding investigation project in which members of the ICoF Education Funders Network selected the GLR Campaign as their focus area for collaborative work. Click here to read the ICoF Education Funders Network Report.
At the end of the three-year project in June 2017, we achieved our goal of doubling the number of GLR Campaign communities in Iowa from six to twelve – ultimately leading to improved grade-level reading proficiency scores among low-income students in those communities.
The ICoF received additional funding to continue supporting the Iowa Campaign for Grade-Level Reading through the end of 2021. At this time, participants are determining what’s next for the Campaign, and the ICoF is preparing reports looking back on successes and lessons learned — stay tuned!
Current ICoF members, please visit the Member’s Only section of this website for additional GLR Campaign Resources, news, and more.
