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“Make the world a better place for this and future generations.” W. Clement Stone

The Foundation is dedicated to bringing about positive change in five major urban areas in which Foundation family trustees are affiliated – Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and the states in which they are located — with a commitment to providing the educational and developmental opportunities that support equitable outcomes and enable all children and young people to fulfill their potential.

Stone Leaders for Change

The Foundation awards scholarship grants to youth leadership organizations that are currently part of the Foundation’s youth development portfolio. Executive directors are able to use funds for purposes that they believe will most strengthen their own organizational impact, flowing from their leadership and professional growth.

Grantee Convenings on Equity

Annually, the Foundation staff and grantee leaders from the three portfolios and all funded geographies, in partnership with Dr. Sherri Killins-Stewart, co-design an annual convening focused on racial equity. The convenings allow both the Foundation and grantees to forge a closer partnership to address the challenges of system wide inequities.

Mission-Related Investing

The Foundation goes beyond grantmaking and uses the impact portion of its investment portfolio to help achieve the Foundation’s mission. Together with our advisors, we actively track the rapidly-growing field of impact investing, and continually re-examine our approach to make sure we are making the most of opportunities in a dynamic investment landscape.

New & Noteworthy

They experienced discrimination and abuse as children in the state’s care. A new report shares their experiences.

October 2, 2024
Youth advocates and staff with the Juvenile Law Center (JLC) unveiled a new report Wednesday that details unjust experiences and dismal conditions inside the Pennsylvania youth justice and welfare systems. Using the testimonies of young adults who were abused and mistreated as youth in placement facilities alongside supporting research, “Broken Promises: Futures Denied” advocates for increased protections and a reprioritization of the needs of children living under congregate care and the juvenile justice system.
Sixteen and 17-year-olds in Oakland and Berkeley will be able to vote for the school board by mail and in person at the Alameda County registrar's office in November. Credit: Amir Aziz

All systems go for Oakland, Berkeley teens to vote in November

August 8, 2024
The wait is over. Four years after Oakland voters approved Measure QQ—and eight years after Berkeley voters passed a similar measure—the youth vote will be a reality this fall. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds in Oakland and Berkeley will be able to cast their votes for school board directors in November, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters announced Wednesday. The cities will be the first in California to lower the voting age in school board elections.

Counting — and supporting — young children

August 12, 2024
The Count All Kids Campaign has released a report — The Changing Young Child Population of the United States: First Data from the 2020 Census — that points to important trends about young children from birth to age 4. A key caveat, the report says, is that in the 2020 Census, young children were undercounted by 5.4%, which is higher than any other age group. Among the most undercounted are Black and Hispanic children who “were missed at a higher rate than non-Hispanic young white children.” Undercounts also varied by state. Florida had the largest undercount of -9.87%; and Vermont had the smallest at 0.02%. Collecting accurate data is crucial because Census numbers are used to allocate federal funding for child-friendly programs such as Head Start, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Undercounting children leads to inadequate funding for these programs.

Removing School Resource Officers Hasn’t Led to More Disciplinary Issues or Made Students Feel Less Safe, New Report Finds

June 26, 2024
As Chicago Public Schools prepares to eliminate resource officer positions districtwide, a new study found removing police from city schools has not led to increased disciplinary issues, nor did it make students and staff feel less safe. The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research on Wednesday published a new report examining the impacts of removing resource officers from Chicago public high schools. “We found teachers’ and students’ reports of their sense of safety did not change significantly after the removal of SROs, based on their responses on 5Essentials Surveys,” Amy Arneson, lead author of the report and a senior research analyst at the Consortium on School Research, said in a statement.

Pritzker signs bill creating new Department of Early Childhood

June 25, 2024
Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation Tuesday creating a new cabinet-level state agency dedicated to early childhood education and development. The new Department of Early Childhood, which will become operational in July 2026, will take over programs currently housed across three state agencies, including funding for preschool programs, child care centers and the licensing of day care centers.