Draft:StriveTogether



StriveTogether is a national nonprofit based in Cincinnati, Ohio. StriveTogether leads the Cradle to Career Network, a cross-country network of place-based partnerships, or communities dedicated to advancing racial equity and economic mobility. The Network focuses on making shifts to policies, practices, resources and power structures that affect Black, Indigenous, Latine and Asian youth and families and young people experiencing poverty.

History
Strive Partnership was founded by community leaders in Cincinnati and northern Kentucky in 2006 to improve education outcomes for youth in the region. More than 300 representatives working across sectors joined the partnership, including leaders from education, business, nonprofits and philanthropy.

Funding from Living Cities in 2008 led the expansion of Strive Partnership's framework for action being tested in four additional communities. The Stanford Social Innovation Review published a seminal article describing the work, coining the phrase “collective impact” in 2011.

In 2017, StriveTogether became an independent 501c3 organization to advance this work by supporting the growing Cradle to Career Network.

In 2023, the Ballmer Group pledged $175 million in support of the organization’s Vision 2030, with a goal to put at least four million additional young people on a path to economic mobility. Another philanthropic collaborative, Blue Meridian Partners, additionally granted $50 million each to three communities in the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network in 2023. In January of 2024, StriveTogether was recognized at the World Economic Forum as one of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship’s Social Innovators of the Year 2024.

StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network
The StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network consists of approximately 70 place-based partnerships across the country working to improve educational outcomes. These partnerships bring together cross-sector leaders from education, business, government, community organizations, philanthropy, and others to address the barriers preventing youth and families in their communities from achieving economic mobility.

Network members support cross-sector partners by using StriveTogether’s collaborative improvement methodology, as well as by providing data capture and analysis, grantwriting and fundraising, and other capabilities. These supports are used to improve outcomes in seven academic milestones: kindergarten readiness, early grade reading, middle grade math, high school graduation, postsecondary enrollment, postsecondary completion and workforce. Data has shown that equitable outcomes in each of these areas lead to economic mobility and success later in life.

StriveTogether’s approach to collaborative improvement is codified in their Theory of Action™, a roadmap to building [https://www.strivetogether.org/what-is-this-civic-infrastructure/#:~:text=Civic%20infrastructure%20is%20sometimes%20called,outcomes%20for%20children%20and%20families. civic infrastructure] with a focus on racial equity. StriveTogether provides network members with tools and resources — such as coaching, assessments and opportunities to convene — to support their work and track progress.

StriveTogether Theory of Action™
The StriveTogether Theory of Action™ is a framework for developing "civic infrastructure" — such as relationships, collaboration, goal setting and data sharing — which can help improve outcomes, close gaps in education, and drive economic mobility. This theory of action is built on lessons learned from the Cradle to Career Network, and was validated by Equal Measure in 2017.

Research has shown that investment in education increases intergenerational mobility. To measure progress within the Cradle to Career Network, the StriveTogether Theory of Action™ has five progressive gateways, or sets of milestones that a community moves through while building and strengthening civic infrastructure and making equitable improvements for youth and families across seven outcome areas. Each of the seven StriveTogether cradle-to-career outcome areas has a demonstrable impact on a person’s livelihood. These include kindergarten readiness, early grade reading, middle grade math, high school graduation, postsecondary enrollment, postsecondary completion and employment.

Other organizations such as Feeding America have adapted StriveTogether’s Theory of Action™ to their own models.

Civic infrastructure
Civic infrastructure connects people, ideas and resources to make communities stronger. Just like roads and bridges provide the infrastructure that supports people in a community, civic infrastructure supports community problem solving and decision making. This concept stresses the interdependence of government, business, individual citizens, nonprofit organizations, and other sectors in meeting the needs and aspirations of communities and their residents.

According to the StriveTogether Theory of Action™, building and strengthening civic infrastructure is what allows every Black, Indigenous, Latine and Asian youth and family and people experiencing poverty to have the opportunity to achieve economic mobility.

Awards

 * In 2024, StriveTogether was recognized at the World Economic Forum as one of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship’s Social Innovators of the Year 2024.