Creating better educational outcomes for young children from birth to age 8.

WKKF is committed to helping ensure that all children have access to high-quality education and learning opportunities, from birth to age 8. We focus on supporting communities where educational outcomes for children are declining and where we find desire and opportunity to increase children’s and families’ access to high-quality early education. We partner with organizations supporting all aspects of early childhood development – academic, physical and emotional, family literacy, innovative educational practices, policy reform and lifelong learning.

In supporting such efforts, MDI focuses on debt financing for educational facilities and working capital for educational providers. It also seeks to make venture capital investments directly into companies with high potential for social impact on behalf of vulnerable children or young adults. Our areas of interest include: professional development for teachers; data/technology tools for instruction and assessment; digital media learning tools; pre-K educational services; K-12 supplemental education services and content; secondary and postsecondary graduation and retention strategies; and postsecondary vocational education.

Targeted investments creating healthy environments for kids and families.

WKKF seeks to ensure that all children receive essential nutrition and stimulation and that they benefit from healthy living conditions and access to quality health care. We are especially interested in efforts that focus on improving conditions for children disadvantaged by multiple societal factors, including a disproportionate percentage of children of color. We help children get a healthy start by funding organizations that improve birth outcomes, create access to healthy foods and educate families and communities about the factors that affect well-being. We also support efforts to improve access to quality health care and public health systems.

In the short term, our MDI focus will primarily target enterprises that directly provide good food to vulnerable children, their families and their communities. We will also consider investing in enterprises directly addressing obstacles to the provision of good food to vulnerable children. We see opportunities both to make enterprise investments and to provide access to finance. In the longer term, we will also pursue efforts to improve access to quality health care.

Innovative approaches and investments for alleviating poverty.

WKKF recognizes that family economic security is a key to creating the conditions for a child’s success. We are focused on ensuring that all families achieve the economic stability they need to provide a strong foundation for their children.

We support innovative programs that increase the financial security of women-headed families, foster entrepreneurship and promote postsecondary achievement and financial independence. We also support strategies to increase opportunities for work and learning, improve access to financial services and reduce class-, gender- and race-based disparities.

Our mission-driven investments target enterprises that help families achieve economic security by earning and saving more and combating the cycle of multi-generational poverty. We see opportunities in providing capital to lend or invest in job creation, entrepreneurship opportunities, access to key services and development of family or community assets. We will also consider equity or fixed income investments in enterprises and programs that enable or directly provide families or communities with access to responsible financial resources, such as lending, transaction services and savings.

Leveraging investments to help communities develop solutions to meet the needs of children and families.

Communities thrive when all voices are at the table, working collaboratively to address the challenges they face and developing innovative solutions to ensure the best outcomes for their children.

Our mission-driven investments complement our grantmaking approach of supporting community-led and driven efforts that are inclusive, innovative and engage diverse audiences in developing solutions together. Our funds have supported nonprofit and for-profit enterprises working at the grassroots level to improve health and nutrition for children in their homes and schools, as well as expanding access to financial education and services to help build economic stability for families in rural communities.

Leveraging investments to enhance equity and healing in communities across the country.

We believe that all children should have equal access to opportunity and the chance to put racial prejudice behind them. Racial equity is a key to both our grantmaking and our mission-driven investments. We give priority to investments that embrace racial equity as part of their enterprise strategy. We also seek diverse investees and investment managers with commitments to achieving racial equity.