Chatham Education Foundation

View their website here!

The vision of the Chatham Education Foundation (CEF) is to be the leading philanthropic partner for the School District of the Chathams for collaborating on innovative ideas to enrich education, support future-focused initiatives, and build a sustainable source of funding through an endowment.

The School District of the Chathams (SDOC) has a long history and ongoing reputation for educational excellence. In our 29th year, Chatham Education Foundation has funded over $1.7 million in grants directly to SDOC that bring innovation to our schools to maintain and enhance this level of excellence.

In addition to annual grant funding of $100,000, CEF established an endowment to address increasing strains on SDOC’s budget. Chatham Education Foundation’s goal is to create a $4 million endowment to support Chatham students for years to come.

Once fully funded, a $3 million Permanent Endowment will yield approximately $150,000 per year in perpetuity for curriculum-enhancing grants for generations of students.

An additional $1 million Term Endowment will help to protect our school district from budget shocks and crises. Chatham Education Foundation welcomes and appreciates your support as we help the district aim higher!

History of Chatham Education Foundation

Founded on March 11, 1994, as a New Jersey not-for-profit corporation “specifically for the purpose of providing grants to the primary and secondary schools operated by SDOC, to further its educational activities,” the Foundation’s Board of Trustees consists of volunteers from all corners of the community and operates independently of the Board of Education, parent-teacher organizations, and booster groups.  The Foundation’s status as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization was confirmed on October 20, 1997. CEF supports initiatives that would not otherwise be funded through the traditional SDOC budget.

Grant-making is structured around four principal goals: 

1. Innovative Learning Spaces

2. Supporting Educator Growth

3. Fostering Student Well-being

4. Supporting Student Learning

Within those broad outlines, Foundation grants support the arts, classrooms of the future, literacy, professional development, social studies, social-emotional support, the future-focused education speaker series, and initiatives in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

Foundation grants:

• Enhance the existing academic program, curriculum, guidance or counseling functions, and staff development of SDOC;
• Enrich—not duplicate or replace—the current curriculum and educational structure of SDOC;
• Reflect the goals of SDOC, including the Superintendent and Building Principal and Curriculum Supervisors, as well as the Technology Supervisors;
• Are innovative and creative in teaching and/or learning;
• Implement new and experimental methods of teaching; and
• Can be evaluated by some measure of quality and be expanded and replicated if successful.

The most impactful grants have been those that help SDOC stay at the forefront of implementing new educational research and technology.  To that end, since its inception, CEF has granted approximately $1.7 million to teachers and administrators to support innovative and creative educational programs and special projects to enrich the experiences of all 4,200 students enrolled in the SDOC’s six public schools.