The Goyen Foundation is not especially wealthy. It doesn’t have a bottomless bank account. It won’t give away millions of dollars a year because it doesn’t have millions of dollars a year to give. 

So, let’s consider, as a thought exercise: 

1. You have about one million dollars in the bank. 

2. You want to make the world better for students with learning differences. 

3. What do you do? 

Here are a few core principles and questions guiding my thinking about that question. 

First, how can we directly impact and improve students’ lives right now?

This question is actually a values statement masquerading as a question, but that’s okay. We really, really value direct service. There are students struggling right now, and these students don’t have time to wait until cheaper, scalable identification and interventions tools have been developed. These students need help today (and tomorrow). They need to be diagnosed and supported right now. Any money that we spend must directly support students right now.

Our first funded project is a demonstration study for a screening tool that is more comprehensive than most screeners and is significantly cheaper than neuropsychological testing. While we’re excited about the possibility of more affordable, more targeted alternatives to neuropsychological testing in the future, we ultimately chose to fund this study because we believe our partner’s screening tool will help children right now. In addition, our partner will share strategies and information with parents and teachers about supporting these students, which means we won’t just be leaving in the lurch with a possible diagnosis and no support. In other words, this project promises to help students both today and tomorrow. And, as a bonus, it may offer a model for a more robust screening tool that is still affordable. But even if that tool goes nowhere, we’ll be confident that students received important services that they need and aren’t currently getting. 

Second, how do other foundations operate in the learning difference space? 

This probably should be the first question I consider, but I can’t compromise on the direct service point, so here we are. 

The “Big Four” foundations in the learning differences space (Oak, Tower, Tremaine, Poses...and sometimes Heckscher) have distinct identities and strategies. Oak, the biggest of the four, tends to fund well-established organizations like Teach for America and the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Tower has a regional focus (Western New York and Eastern Massachusetts) and often supports individual schools as well as smaller organizations that offer direct services to students or young adults. Tremaine prioritizes longer-term projects and partnerships and has been focused on improving early literacy in Vero Beach, Florida, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tremaine also operates as the connector in the LD space by bringing together the smaller foundations (like Goyen!) and by exploring ways to unite theoretical research, actual school practice, and policy initiatives. Poses does not have an online presence and by all accounts has stepped away from grant-giving in the last few years. Instead, the foundation has chosen to fund Understood continually, an initiative that the Big Four came together to support a few years ago. 

More broadly, our peer foundations (both small and large) are primarily focused on early literacy. This focus makes sense because early literacy is fundamental to academic, social, professional, and life success down the road and because American schools are not good at teaching students how to read. This focus on literacy does to some extent come at the expense of other common learning and attentional differences. But I also think there’s a chicken and egg problem here. Are they not funding the space more broadly because interventions and programs for students with dyscalculia or ADHD don’t exist? Or do these interventions not exist because we haven’t funded them? I suspect it’s a little of both. 

You might expect that these foundations would work together or share ideas and resources since they have generally compatible goals, but this doesn’t happen as much as I expected. EarlyBird and Understood are two big exceptions. My question here is: what’s the next EarlyBird? What’s the next Understood? What is the next transformative, high-impact program that the foundations can come together and support? And who is trying to answer that question? 
Third, what projects can we undertake without spending money (beyond my salary)? 

Not every useful project is costly. For instance, one of the biggest gaps I notice when I survey the learning difference space is the lack of student voice. Understood is a wonderful resource for parents and teachers, but where is the student voice? Where can I read about the experience of a child struggling with ADHD? Where can I learn from that child, what I could be doing or saying differently as a parent? Where does a 15-year-old struggling with executive functioning going to go for some sympathy and some tips? (Tik Tok probably). Why aren’t we asking students about the interventions and accommodations that help them the most? That’s a real gap. 

One of the projects I'm excited to launch this winter is a space for students to come together and discuss or write about their experiences with learning differences. I’m not sure what the impact will be, but I am sure that those voices should be elevated. It’s my job to get people to listen to them. 

_________

So if you have a million dollars and want to improve the lives of students with learning differences, what do you do? 

Here’s what we’re going to do:

1. Prioritize direct service for today and tomorrow. 

2. Study the strategies of peer foundations, identify the gaps, and fill them. 

3. Identify useful projects that don’t require major grants. 

4. Elevate student voice.