Approach

Accelerating Opportunity: The Heckscher Foundation Challenge

In 2023, the Foundation issued a bold challenge to New York’s workforce training ecosystem: we would fund training programs if employers committed in writing to hire low-income out-of-school / out-of-work...

Artificial Intelligence – Array Education

We are exploring the potential of AI to guide young people as early as 8th grade in the choice of a pathway to a career. Led by esteemed educators Norman...

COOP

COOP is a job placement program based in New York City that targets underserved and underemployed City University of New York (CUNY) students and recent graduates with a clear pathway...

Merit America

We provided the first funding to launch Merit America and have since supported its expansion in New York City, including a $1.4 million 3-year grant in 2025. Our catalytic grant...

Pursuit

Despite all the talk about job growth in the tech industry in New York City, numerous barriers exist for underserved youth in this area. These include geographic areas with lower...

The Inspired Community Project

We provided the underwriting support to launch The Inspired Community Project (TICP), a Bronx-based organization addressing the severe shortage of early intervention services for neurodiverse children from birth to age...

Charter Schools

We have been a leader in funding alternative education initiatives, including charter networks and schools in New York City and New York State. A 2023 study by Stanford University found...

Classical Charter Schools

Classical Charter Schools serves kindergarten through 8th grade students in the South Bronx and is one of the three highest-performing charter school networks in New York City. Students attending Classical...

New Visions for Public Schools

New Visions for Public Schools (NVPS) focuses on system-wide improvement efforts in New York City’s public schools. New Visions is the support organization for 71 district schools citywide. In addition,...

Student Leadership Network

Student Leadership Network’s (SLN) key program is CollegeBound Initiative (CBI), a high-touch college guidance and access program that places highly trained, full-time college counselors in partnering Title I New York...

Success Academy

We supported Success Academies New York in years past with curriculum development, and most recently provided a catalytic $1 million dollar grant to Success Academies of Florida to open schools...

America Needs You

We were one of the earliest supporters of America Needs You (ANY), an organization that has achieved success in responding to the needs of first-generation college students and has received...

Bottom Line

We have long supported Bottom Line’s college success program in catalytic ways, which has allowed for its steady growth; it now serves over 2,500 first-generation New York City students across...

College Transfer Credits

We are making a catalytic impact on the issue of transfer credits by enabling students who transfer between City University of New York (CUNY) colleges, which well over two-thirds of...

Global Glimpse

Our catalytic support of Global Glimpse, a travel and leadership education program founded in the San Francisco Bay Area, positioned it to generate ongoing, sustainable revenue, laying the groundwork for...

National Institute for Student Success (Georgia State University)

The National Institute for Student Success (NISS) was established as a non-profit Institute within Georgia State University (GSU) in 2020 in response to the growing demand from institutions for help...

Nudge4 Solutions Lab

We spearheaded the launch of the Nudge4 Solutions Lab by Dr. Ben Castleman of the University of Virginia to pilot low-cost and high-impact behavioral solutions to address pressing social problems....

OneGoal

We provided the initial catalytic funding to allow OneGoal to expand to New York City. Over the past decade, OneGoal has served over 3,000 NYC students. Nationally, OneGoal Fellows graduate...

Overgrad

Heckscher helped Overgrad develop a customized college match tool for New York City students. Overgrad is a college and career readiness platform working to make the college application process more...

Peer Mentoring Initiatives

Peer mentoring is a scalable and cost-effective solution to improve the retention and graduation rates of at-risk and high-needs college students. We have supported two promising models operating on CUNY...

Posse Foundation

We helped conceive of and provided support to Posse Foundation to create two revenue producing models to complement its traditional college access program. Posse Consulting created an earned revenue stream...

Single Stop USA

We initiated and funded the first-of-its-kind Single Stop USA Community College Initiative to expand opportunities for low-income, high-need community college students. As a result of our founding support at Kingsborough...

SUNY Student Emergency Fund

For the majority of underserved students in New York City who wish to attend college away from home, the State University of New York (SUNY) colleges are the most accessible...

Coursemojo

We made a catalytic early-stage investment in Coursemojo’s tool, Mojo, which was built as a response to the daily struggle teachers face in trying to differentiate instruction for all the...

Get a Financial Life NYC

Get a Financial Life NYC is a free financial literacy curriculum designed for New York City’s 11th and 12th graders that teaches the practical money skills young people need as...

Instruction Partners

Curriculum reform is a particularly difficult area but we recognize that helping schools make wise curricular choices can lead to catalytic impact. Instruction Partners is a non-profit that partners with...

Leap Educational Consulting (LEAP)

We have played a catalytic role in helping Achievement First (AF) to replicate its K-8 math program to selected partner schools in New York City outside AF’s traditional charter network...

Navigate the Maze to Achievement

New York City’s most selective public high schools rank among the highest-performing in the country and guide students into top-tier colleges, and long-term success and stability. However, historically marginalized communities...

New York City Summer Meals Program

We showed New York City Government how to increase the number of free meals served to poor students. The New York City Department of Education’s Office of SchoolFood, which provides...

Swim (Asphalt Green, Staten Island Collaborative, Zero-Drownings Initiative)

We believe that learning to swim is a life skill, not a privilege. Swimming builds confidence, self-reliance, and safety, and our goal is to make instruction a standard part of...

Take the Field

A quarter century of budget cuts had resulted in the acute deterioration of physical education and sports facilities at New York City public high schools across the five boroughs when...

BioBus

We provided the earliest funding to BioBus, a mobile science laboratory to help minority and low-income students from kindergarten through college discover, explore and pursue science. Since our catalytic grants,...

DREAM

The Foundation has been a supporter to DREAM/Harlem RBI since its founding by a group of volunteers who transformed an abandoned, garbage-strewn lot into two baseball diamonds for the youth...

National Dance Institute

The National Dance Institute (NDI), founded in 1976 by New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d’Amboise, serves students in school-based programs each year through partnerships in 45 schools across...

Row New York

Row New York is one of the most successful outcomes-driven sports and college prep programs in New York City. We provided a catalytic grant that played a central role in...

Brooklyn Public Library + The Reading Institute

The Foundation recognized that libraries play a central role in teaching and supporting children and families to master the skills taught by the Science of Reading. Thus in 2025 we...

CUNY Reading Fellows

We helped pioneer the use of CUNY Brooklyn College students enrolled in early-childhood literacy courses as literacy tutors for New York City public-school students, utilizing the evidence-based Reading Go (for...

EarlyBird: Reading Disability Screening App

The diagnosis of developmental dyslexia in underserved children is primarily based on a “wait to fail” approach. Dyslexia diagnoses are usually not made before the third grade even though studies...

Literacy Academy Collective

We underwrote the creation of the Literacy Academy Collective (LAC), led by our Heckscher Leadership Fellow Ruth Genn, to create the first New York City public K-8 public school providing...

Quill

Quill is a personalized online learning tool that helps students build writing, comprehension and grammar, and develop critical thinking skills. As students work through activities, Quill provides instant feedback and...

Reading Partners

We funded Reading Partners replication from California to six elementary schools in New York City in 2010 and have since funded its expansion. It now operates in 24 reading centers...

Springboard Collaborative

Reading proficiency is closely linked to high school graduation rates, yet over half of New York City students in grades 3 through 8 are not proficient in reading. Literacy remediation...

SUNY Impact Foundation – Science of Reading Initiative

The SUNY Impact Foundation partners with private funders to pilot innovation and scale prove programs among the State University of New York’s 64 campuses, 1.4 million students, and 30,000+ faculty....

The Writing Revolution

We identified the potential of The Writing Revolution (TWR) to train teachers and school leaders in expository writing instruction, introducing proven strategies that enable students to improve their writing skills,...