Case Study on Youth-Serving Community-Based Organization: Stuck Between Philanthropy and Urban Public Schools

• In Event: Philanthropy and Education SIG (#148) Paper Session

Abstract

This study utilizes a case study of a community-based youth-serving organization to explore the relationships between a non-profit organization, the philanthropic entities that financially support it, and the urban public school district that most of the participating students attend. Two questions guide this research:

1)What does this non-profit organization aim to accomplish and what are the barriers to their success?
2)What is the role of this non-profit organization in the broader urban schooling landscape? What does the organization see the nature of its relationship with the urban schools which their students attend? What is the organization’s relationship with its funders?

My findings illustrate how private wealth shapes goals, structures, and student experiences, in racialized ways, at this youth-serving community-based organization.

Author

• Abbie Cohen, University of California - Los Angeles