Stand Together

We're one quarter into 2026. Across the country, thousands of organizations are working to solve problems most big institutions haven't been able to figure out. Progress is coming from the bottom up. Here's proof. 🧵

Stand Together empowers the social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and community builders closest to America's biggest problems, working from the ground up to solve them. And we're just getting started.

Parents and educators aren't waiting for reform. Through VELA, Stand Together has backed 4,835 founders building new, individualized approaches to education — reaching 5.5 million learners across the country and counting.

We're one quarter into 2026. Across the country, thousands of organizations are working to solve problems most big institutions haven't been able to figure out. Progress is coming from the bottom up. Here's proof. 🧵

Some children need a learning environment their local schools can't provide. Education savings accounts help families find one that can.

This Women's History Month, Stand Together recognizes Susan Ramirez, whose life changed with one sentence of belief. Through National Angels, she's ensuring foster kids closest to instability receive the mentorship that helps them see their own potential.

How do we advance pluralism and human flourishing? Our CEO, Brian Hooks, shares how Stand Together is building a more vibrant, entrepreneurial civil society. Don’t miss this conversation on The Art of Association podcast!

Too many families feel stuck in schools that don't fit their child, but they can't afford other options. How Education Savings Accounts are changing that, by funding students instead of systems:

Kerry McDonald's research shows that when students find the right educational environment, whether that's a microschool, hybrid program, or homeschool co-op, they don't just perform better academically. They're happier. And a recent Gallup study confirms the urgency: most students today don't feel they're learning interesting content or feel optimistic about the future. @Kerry_edu's work is helping change that.

This Women's History Month, Stand Together recognizes @ChristinaBDent, who discovered that people closest to addiction understand the crisis better than distant policymakers. Meeting mothers like Joanne transformed her thinking and led her to found @EndItForGoodMS.

William Walden Ford watched neighborhood kids assault a classmate for "thinking he was smart." He disengaged from school and aligned himself with peers involved in drugs and gang activity. When he came home with drugs hidden in a newspaper, his mother knew the system had forced an impossible choice. Virginia Walden Ford worked full time but never earned enough to access the school options wealthier families took for granted. Wealthy parents could buy homes in preferred districts or pay private tuition. Working parents were told to accept whatever their ZIP code offered. She started organizing other parents in her neighborhood who felt trapped by the same lack of alternatives. After years of rallies, congressional hearings, and legislative meetings, her coalition secured passage of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2004. President George W. Bush signed it into law, creating the first federally funded private school voucher program in the country. @VirginiaFord had cleared institutional paths before. In the mid-1960s, she and her twin sister desegregated Central High School in Little Rock. This Women's History Month, the National School Choice Awareness Foundation honors that legacy with the Virginia Walden Ford Parent Empowerment Award. What one mother started in D.C. has reshaped how millions of families nationwide think about their right to decide where their children learn: bit.ly/3PMTzCT

What happens when you empty out an entire elementary school and take every student to Google? Through @vincentcountry, first through fifth graders from Burckhalter Elementary spent the day learning about AI, coding, and robotics. Many had never seen how programming and robotics worked — until now. "We work really hard to ensure our students have access to so many things, but our access is limited," says Dr. Carin Geathers, Burckhalter’s principal. "This broadens the scope on levels I could never explain." @TroyVincentSr and @cheftommiv don't just bring resources to communities, but they build connections and relationships for these communities that last. They create experiences that let students see themselves in careers they didn't know existed. Stand Together is proud to support leaders who understand that every student has unique potential, and that potential shouldn't be limited by zip code or circumstance.

Brandon Vogt and several Orlando homeschool families wanted a high school that was classical, Catholic, and affordable. No school offered all three. Eighteen months later, they opened the Chesterton Academy of Orlando themselves, with no education backgrounds and no institutional experience. The Chesterton Schools Network makes this possible by providing structured support through four stages: discovery, preparation, activation, and launch. The timeline matters because many families have children approaching high school age. Waiting years for an alternative isn't an option. The model just won the $1 million Yass Prize, often called the "Pulitzer Prize of Education Innovation." Forty-five Chesterton schools now operate nationwide, all parent-founded, all classical and faith-based, all costing under $10,000 annually. Students study philosophy, literature, theology, and the arts. Learn more here: bit.ly/3P3Ya3w

40% of Americans with degrees are drowning in student debt. @ascent_funding fixes the actual problem: misalignment between education cost and job outcomes.

Most student loan companies bet against students. @ascent_funding literally can't make money unless borrowers succeed. How that shift could make college a smart investment again:

This Women's History Month, Stand Together recognizes Jody Lewen, whose conviction that every incarcerated person deserves to develop their unique gifts built a college, @MtTamCollege, inside San Quentin Prison. She didn't wait for the system to change. She built something better inside it.

For the ninth year in a row, @TroyVincentSr and @cheftommiv brought @vincentcountry's Safe Zone Activity Day to a host city school. This year: Burckhalter Elementary in Oakland. NFL legends like Ricky Pearsall (@S1ickSzn), Bobby Taylor (@BobbyTaylor21), and EddieMason (@masetraining) showed up. Students coded robots in a Google STEM playground. Vincent Country installed a food pantry, painted a mural, and put in a new turf field. The theme was Dreams Grow Here — and in that spirit, students walked away with resources, experiences, and proof that people in their community believe in them. As Bobby says: "First and foremost, it's about service. Wanting to let them know they're important." Troy and Tommi do this every year, building partnerships that meet communities where they are and leave them stronger. Stand Together is proud to support leaders who show up, unify around a common goal, and prove that change happens when people work together.

The traditional lending system blocks pathways to better careers. No credit history, no cosigner? No loan. That’s why @ascent_funding is reimagining how Americans access the skills training and education that can unlock their futures.