The Educating All Learners Alliance (EALA) by InnovateEDU is excited to launch our 2024 New Champions Fund opportunity on May 1st, 2024. 

Beginning in 2022, EALA has granted an annual unrestricted competitive sub-grant and year-long mentorship to support leaders of color, or allies of the equity in education movement, who are actively working to support students with disabilities, including students who are also marginalized, come from underserved communities, or experience poverty. Additionally, EALA has provided two additional $5,000 sub-grants to runners-up as determined by the panel of New Champions judges.

As a part of this process, funding applications are vetted by the EALA review team and reviewed by the diverse group of New Champions Fund Judges using this EALA New Champions Rubric.

Explore the Request for Proposals document below. Make a copy and draft your responses before navigating to the Submission Portal.

Start your application today by creating an account or logging into our Application Submission Portal.

Are you a leader of a community-based organization (CBO), school or district, non-profit, or for-profit organization (under $2 million in revenue)?

Are you a leader of color or ally of the equity in education movement?

Are you actively working to support students with disabilities, including students who are marginalized or come from underserved communities and those experiencing poverty?

As we are actively looking for applicants who are not- yet-recognized for their exceptional work and who may be first time grant applicants or someone who is unsure about the grant-application process, we want to support you through this grant application process.

Open, drop-in office hours are available at the following dates and time. Please follow the links below to register:

Please keep in mind that we are looking to fund a new champion who is actively working to support students with disabilities, including students who are marginalized or come from underserved communities and those experiencing poverty. When writing your responses to the proposal questions, please keep in mind the focus on serving these communities of learners.

Additionally, before completing your submission, please review the EALA New Champions Rubric the judges will be using to determine the 2024 New Champion.

The New Champions Judges are leaders in the cross-section of equity, innovation, and education.

Together, they represent a diverse collective of industry leaders in the non-profit, advocacy, digital literacy, K-12 education and edtech sectors, all committed to advancing equity and opportunity in the field.

Past Champions

2022 New Champion, Dena Simmons Ed.D

Bio

2022 Runner Up, Dr. Charles Cole III

Bio

2022 Runner Up, Dr. Leena Bakshi McLean

Bio

2023 New Champion, Kim Riley

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2023 Runner Up, Antoinette Banks

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2023 Runner Up, Nekia Wright

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