Posted on February 26, 2009

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Kellogg Foundation Awards 'Mission Driven' Investment to For-Profit Company

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan, has announced that it is investing $500,000 in Acelero Learning, a for-profit company that supports local Head Start programs in Nevada and New Jersey.

Under its new mission-driven investment strategy, the foundation will provide $100 million over the next five years in the form of direct private equity investments to companies like Acelero that work to create social benefit while generating a financial return. "Mission-driven investing takes foundation assets, not grantmaking dollars, and looks for hybrid enterprises that can generate financial and social returns," said Kellogg Foundation president and CEO Sterling Speirn. "We strongly believe that more risk-targeted, comprehensive, high-quality early childhood services are the key to dramatically increasing learning capacity and readiness among vulnerable children."

In partnership with local community leaders, Acelero works to make Head Start programs more efficient while designing and delivering systems that support the improvement of outcomes for children, raise teacher salaries, and increase the number of children served. The foundation's investment will provide support for the company's continued refinement of its approach and expansion to new communities.

"The foundation is committed to creating the conditions of success for vulnerable children with a special emphasis on interventions between their birth and the end of third grade," said Speirn. "We are looking to both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors for creative ways to achieve success for these children."

“W.K. Kellogg Foundation Invests in Acelero Learning.” W.K. Kellogg Foundation Press Release 2/24/09.

Primary Subject: Children and Youth
Secondary Subject(s): Education, Community Improvement/Development
Location(s): Nevada, New Jersey

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