Steppingstone Foundation
The Steppingstone Foundation helps city kids compete for slots in elite middle and high schools. Over its 15-year history it has grown from serving 10 young people to more than 800. The expansion has mostly been gradual, but the foundation has experienced some growth spurts, too, as when it launched a program for rising ninth graders in Boston, and opened a chapter in Philadelphia. Most recently, in 2003, a Smith Family Foundation grant challenged Steppingstone to double its size in five years.
Since then, in order to grow soundly, Steppingstone has added staff positions for organizational learning, curriculum, and community outreach. "A key lesson we've learned is to always be testing and evaluating ourselves," says Scott Knox, who has led Steppingstone's expansion. Being "thoughtful about taking stock," he says, prevents growing pains regarding staffing, resources and infrastructure, and protects the program model and quality; just as important, he adds, it helps the foundation share lessons learned, such as the importance of balancing central oversight and local autonomy.
Identifying and sharing best practices is essential to Steppingstone's vision. In addition to reaching more young people through its own programs, a main objective of Steppingstone's growth has been to increase the foundation's capacity for rallying other organizations that address the under-representation of urban students in college.