The Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS) has received a $3 million grant from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and a generous philanthropist known for making unsolicited gifts.
“I think this momentous affirmation by Ms. Scott marks a turning point for our organization,” said Mindy Binderman, GEEARS’ executive director since its inception 13 years ago. “It’s a validation of our role in the Georgia early childhood community.”
A year ago, Binderman was talking to GEEARS board chair and founder — Stephanie Blank.
“I told Stephanie, ‘We will feel really seen if one day we get a MacKenzie Scott gift,’” Binderman said during an interview Wednesday morning with Blank at GEEARS’ Buckhead office.
Scott’s method of giving money away is nontraditional. People don’t apply to her for grants. Instead, she’s more like a fairy Godmother sprinkling money on innovative nonprofits and institutions working in her focus areas. According to Wikipedia, Scott had a net worth of $27 billion at the end of 2022.
“My understanding is the way the process works is they have a third party that does the research,” Binderman said. “MacKenzie Scott decides on a focus area, and a third-party entity researches innovative, strategic and high-performing organizations around the country.”
In December, Binderman got a call from someone doing research on behalf of an anonymous donor.
“I had an inkling or a hope it was MacKenzie Scott,” she said about a process that took months before GEEARS found out they would be receiving a grant. “The MacKenzie Scott gift is a one-time grant. It is completely unrestricted funding. It’s going to allow us to be very strategic.”
Blank agreed.
“It is the largest grant we have ever, ever received,” Blank said. “It is a confirmation of what we have known for the last decade – that we are doing meaningful, important and life-changing work for children and families in Georgia.”
GEEARS was created following a May 2010 report from the Early Education Commission, co-chaired by Dennis Lockhart, then-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and Beverly Daniel Tatum, then-president of Spelman College.
Blank, who has been involved with early childhood education since the mid-1990s, has been a longtime advocate for Georgia’s children. She realized early on that to make a real difference in students’ lives it was critically important to provide early learning from birth to 5 years old — before they start kindergarten.
“What we have learned is that when children get a really healthy start, they do better in life for the long haul,” said Blank, who praised Georgia’s philanthropic community and elected leaders for understanding the importance of early learning.
GEEARS has been instrumental in helping develop public policy recommendations to improve the quality of and access to early childhood education throughout the state.
Thanks to polling, it’s clear Georgians also understand the issue.
A GEEARS poll in 2022 showed that 78 percent of Georgia voters agree that expanding access to high-quality childcare gives parents the opportunity to participate in the workforce, which is good for Georgia’s economy. Also, 88 percent support Georgia’s free, lottery-funded voluntary Pre-K; and 83 percent support increasing the salaries of qualified childcare and preschool teachers to attract more individuals to the field.
“Especially during these divisive times, we have been able to do all this work under two Republican governors,” Blank said. “It is a nonpartisan issue. Everyone who is concerned about working families and the strength of our economy cares about this issue.”
Blank also said early childhood education has received long-term support from Georgia’s philanthropic sector, including the foundation community and United Way of Greater Atlanta.
“Russ Hardin and the Woodruff family of foundations have been tremendous supporters of not only GEEARS but of early childhood education in general,” she said.
But Blank remains frustrated that all too often, when people think about education, they are talking about K-through-12 without concentrating on the earlier years, the most formative years of childhood development.
“We have been blessed to have state leadership that understands early education,” Blank said. “Georgia is an outlier — in a good way. We are fortunate in Georgia in that we have a Department of Early Care and Learning.”
That department was formed during the administration of Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2004. The issue early childhood education got more traction when the Commission on Child Welfare Reform was formed in 2012 (which Blank chaired). GEEARS has been a key behind-the-scenes player in that reform since its inception.
“We have gone from this little scrappy, two-person organization to a statewide movement that has a respected staff and an engaged, valued board,” said Binderman of the 13-year-old organization that now has 14 full-time employees (soon to grow to 16) and an annual budget of $2.5 million.
Binderman said a great example of the strides that have been made is the Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive (PAACT) program — a $20 million public-private initiative launched by Mayor Andre Dickens. The City of Atlanta provided $5 million, and the Atlanta Public Schools invested $5 million — even though early education is not part of their charter. The remaining $10 million was raised from 15 foundations, 14 corporations and other private donors.
For Binderman, the MacKenzie Scott grant will allow GEEARS to be more strategic and sustainable and better able to invest in capacity building.
“It is like a shot of adrenaline,” she said. “It’s about giving us a moment to celebrate.”
