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Sprout Fund

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Grants

2016 (2 years 4 months)
$500,000

The Sprout Fund is a non-profit incubator and innovation fund that runs programming and supports community-based organizations working to make Pittsburgh a better place to live, work, and raise a family. In 2012, Pittsburgh became the third national location of the Hive Learning Network, with the Sprout Fund as its host. This grant provides the Sprout Fund with support to ensure long-term sustainability of the ideas and practices of the Pittsburgh Hive Learning Network. The goal of the Pittsburgh Hive is to build a networked approach to learning that provides all children and youth in Pittsburgh with the best available opportunities to learn and be creative. In doing so, Pittsburgh – with Sprout as a key contributor – represents the leading edge of a national movement advancing learning, digital media, technology, and creativity for youth.

2015 ( 8 months)
$250,000

The Sprout Fund is a nonprofit incubator and innovation fund that runs programming and provides modest financial awards to community-based organizations working to make Pittsburgh a better place to live, work, and raise a family. It has the been the host of the Pittsburgh Hive since 2012, and it is the anchor organization for the Pittsburgh City of Learning, the Pittsburgh instantiation of a new MacArthur-Ied effort to transform learning across the country called Cities of Learning. Cities of Learning is designed to align city resources, connect in- and out-of-school learning, and advance workforce development to prepare young people for college, career, and citizenship. It is the culmination of MacArthur's grantmaking in Digital Media and Learning, building on the new knowledge, tools, and prototypes that have emerged from research and design experiments supported over the past ten years. With grant funds, the Sprout Fund is implementing the Pittsburgh City of Learning. It is partnering with city organizations and agencies to connect youth to learning opportunities in the city, to allow them to explore their interests, and to gain recognition for their accomplishments by earning digital badges.

2013 (2 years)
$1,200,000

The Sprout Fund is a non-profit incubator and innovation fund that runs programming and provides modest financial awards to community-based organizations working to make Pittsburgh a better place to live, work, and raise a family. Last year, Pittsburgh became the third national location of the Hive Learning Network, with the Sprout Fund as its host. The Sprout Fund will use this grant to support operations of the Pittsburgh Hive in general, and for providing grants to Hive members to develop Connected Learning-based activities for youth.

2012 (1 year)
$500,000

The Sprout Fund is a non-profit incubator and innovation fund that runs programming and provides modest financial awards to community-based organizations working to make Pittsburgh a better place to live, work, and raise a family. It will use this grant to establish Pittsburgh as the third location of the Hive Learning Network, an effort to test and incubate innovations in learning and make visible and add value to the learning that takes place in informal learning places. The grant will support operations and be used to establish a dedicated fund for the development of activities for youth in Pittsburgh.