New Profit, the nonprofit venture philanthropy fund headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, has selected Texas-based AVANCE to join its portfolio of organizations. The announcement comes as New Profit nears its 25th anniversary and is expanding its efforts to advance equity and opportunity in America by supporting innovative organizations with the potential for systemic social impact.
New Profit invests in organizations and leaders whose visionary work is transforming education, economic mobility, health equity, and democracy. In addition to $1 million unrestricted grant funding over a four-year period, AVANCE will also receive dedicated strategic and capacity-building support to help the organization broaden the reach and impact of programming and strengthen its ability to create systems-level change.
“We are thrilled by this opportunity to partner with New Profit to expand and strengthen our work,” said Dr. Teresa Granillo, CEO of AVANCE. “We are aligned with New Profit in our belief in proximity and in centering the strengths and voices of those we serve, and we are excited to see where this partnership takes us.”
Serving predominantly Latino families and communities, AVANCE creates pathways to economic mobility by engaging children, families, and family child care providers through strengths-based and two-generation approaches and innovative, culturally-responsive programming. The AVANCE approach is grounded in meeting families, children, and providers where they are and recognizing the strengths and wealth of knowledge they already possess.
The core of AVANCE is its foundational Parent-Child Education Program (PCEP), which is a national model of early childhood education and parenting education. Parents learn to help their children excel during their most critical years of learning through parenting workshops, creative toy-making sessions, and community resources. The program’s premise is that parents are their children’s first and most important teachers and that home is the first classroom. Studies have shown the clear impact of PCEP. Parents who participate in PCEP provide more educationally stimulating home environments for their infants, have more positive attitudes towards childrearing and their role as teachers, and have better parenting skills compared to non-PCEP parents, and over the long-term, PCEP parents reported incredible increases in educational attainment, employment, and homeownership. Studies also revealed children who participate in PCEP have higher rates of passing kindergarten readiness assessments, higher pre-K attendance, and better reading outcomes than demographically-matched children who did not.
“While AVANCE has supported thousands of families to increase their economic mobility, systemic inequities unfortunately still exist and Latino families continue to be marginalized,” said Dr. Granillo. “At AVANCE, one of our goals is to address the root causes of inequities and remove the barriers that Latino children and families face so that they have opportunities to increase their economic mobility. Our hope is that by expanding our work, we will change the systems of inequities and begin to see a shift in economic mobility among Latino communities.”
About New Profit
New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that backs social entrepreneurs who are advancing equity and opportunity in America. New Profit exists to build a bridge between these leaders and a community of philanthropists who are committed to catalyzing their impact. New Profit provides unrestricted grants and strategic support to a portfolio of organizations led by visionary social entrepreneurs to increase their impact, scale, and sustainability. It also partners with social entrepreneurs and other cross-sector leaders to shift how government and philanthropy pursue social change to ensure that all people can thrive. Since its founding in 1998, New Profit has invested over $350M in 200+ organizations and, through the America Forward Coalition’s collective advocacy efforts, has unlocked over $1.9B in government funding for social innovation.