With a little help from our friends: private fundraising and public schools in Philadelphia

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we study fundraising efforts for traditional public schools in Philadelphia by neighborhood-based ‘friends’ groups that have incorporated as independent 501(c)(3)s to support individual schools. We situate the growth of school-based fundraising efforts within the well-known social science literature on the shadow state and the devolution of the welfare state over 30 years ago. As far as we know, this is the first application of these theories to education reform. We ask what characterizes schools and neighborhoods where school constituencies have incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations, how school-specific 501(c)(3)s raise money, and what priorities guide their investment objectives. We draw on interviews with local organizations, document review of IRS Form 990 filings, and school district and census demographic data. We find that the work of these organizations must be understood in the context of gentrifying neighborhoods and that they reflect the manifestation of inequalities in local capacity described in the shadow state literature.

KEYWORDS:

• School funding
• neighborhoods
• gentrification
• parent organizations

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to James DeFilippis for his collaboration in the early stages of this research, including partnering in conceptualization of the project, early fieldwork, and commenting on drafts of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. These are American Community Survey estimates. 2012 data is based on surveys from 2008–2012; 2017 data is based on surveys from 2013–2017.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryan M. Good

Ryan M. Good is Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and Co-Director of the Washington Community Scholars’ Center at Eastern Mennonite University in Washington, DC. His research explores the politics of place, community-based political mobilization, and racialized geographies of inequality, with a specific focus on the implications of marketized education reforms for local communities.

Katharine L. Nelson

Katharine L. Nelson is a Doctoral Candidate at the Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy at Rutgers University. Katie’s research is at the intersection of real estate, education, and housing. She uses a spatial-analytical lens to explore inequitable outcomes from planning and policy interventions.