Microgiving @ Penn GSE launches campaign supporting Penn AHEAD

October 1, 2014 – Penn GSE is using its first microgiving campaign of 2014-2015 to support Penn AHEAD. Founded in January 2014, the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy is dedicated to creating more accessible, more effective, and more democratic higher education institutions in the U.S. and other nations.

Microgiving @ Penn GSE champions the power of small gifts to make a big difference in the education community, and gives Penn GSE students and faculty the opportunity to crowdfund special projects and build community support for their work, putting research into practice in classrooms in Philadelphia and beyond. The new six-week campaign, which begins October 1, seeks to raise $10,000 for three key AHEAD initiatives:

  • A Visiting Scholar Program that offers a scholar or practitioner a professional home, collegial support, travel stipend and office space to conduct research and generate new thinking about higher education’s public purposes.
  • A roundtable series that will bring leaders together to understand complex problems and their solutions.
  • What’s AHEAD: Key Trends, the center’s quarterly poll that spotlights how college and university administrators view important issues.

Last year, all three Microgiving campaigns exceeded their goals: $4,300 was raised for classroom libraries at the Lea School, a Penn GSE public school partner in West Philadelphia; $12,825 was raised for Dr. Marybeth Gasman’s Center for Minority-Serving Institutions; and $1,290 was raised for Project Write, a two week-long summer camp co-sponsored the Philadelphia Writing Project and the National Park Service. Microgiving @ Penn GSE will launch additional campaigns this spring. 

AHEAD is dedicated to promoting the public purposes of higher education in fostering open, equitable, and democratic societies. Located within the Graduate School of Education of the University of Pennsylvania, AHEAD conducts research and, through technical assistance and professional development activities, applies research to improve higher education practice and public policy in the U.S. and other nations.

Click here to learn more about AHEAD, and here to donate to the Microgiving campaign to help reach the $10,000 goal.