Leading a philanthropy association requires a talent for herding cats — particularly when education is the focus. Few areas of philanthropy and the nonprofit world are as vast and varied as education, and today, the challenges ed funders face are formidable. But as a mother of three and a former teacher with a background in philanthropy, Nicole Rodriguez Leach is used to listening to a diverse set of voices and juggling a variety of demands.
Rodriguez Leach took over as the executive director of Grantmakers for Education (EdFunders) over two years ago, after Celine Coggins stepped down. Since she came on board, she has overseen an array of member surveys and programs, three annual conferences and a national listening tour. The organization is also celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
Meanwhile, few would dispute the fact that it’s a tough time for education in the U.S. Absenteeism is at an all time high, test scores are at an all time low, and schools have become the locus of culture war battles. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is in the process of dismantling the Department of Education (a development that Ed Funders and the Philanthropic Collaborative for Education called “a seismic shift in the education landscape”) and supporting conservative efforts to privatize public schools.
Last year, well before Trump began his second presidency, IP reported that much of the ed philanthropy world seemed to be in a state of uncertainty and disruption. As we pointed out, some large foundations have pulled back from education commitments while others have focused their funding more narrowly; still others appear unsure of how to have the greatest impact.
But EdFunders found something rather different in its latest survey of education funders. In fact, its Trends in Education Philanthropy: Benchmarking 2025 report found a high degree of commitment to education in America. Among the big picture trends: “funders remain committed to supporting education, with more than one-quarter of respondents expecting to increase their education giving over the next year and the vast majority of respondents anticipating that their giving will remain about the same.” The survey also found that funders remain committed to equity “while adapting to a changing political environment.”
Meanwhile, Rodriguez Leach described the mood among funders at EdFunders’ annual conference, held recently in Memphis, as predominantly energized and determined — even hopeful. Now that some of the shock of the administration’s early actions has worn off, education funders — at the community and regional level, as well as the national — appear eager to get down to work.
We caught up with Rodriguez Leach to talk about her experience as the head of EdFunders, education philanthropy in the Trump era, and what makes her hopeful about education in America today.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Could you talk a little bit about your experience at Grantmakers for Education?
It has been two years and a few months; I started July, 2023. My first year was really reorienting around the organization in a new way; I was no longer a member, I was no longer a board member. As a new executive director for a national organization, you spend some time just getting your bearings and, as I say, getting your feet up under you. I liken my time to when you’re merging onto a highway and you’re taught to go fast and to pick your lane, and then kind of go with the flow.
Over the two years I have been finding my lane, and helping our organization figure out its lane, especially with the changing social, political and economic dynamics happening in real time. We’re a relatively small nonprofit with a very, very large footprint. What does that mean for the folks we serve, and how do we help organize, provide infrastructure, steward the good work, and help folks figure out what they’re doing?
The last year in particular has been about helping the field with sense-making, helping folks find each other and connect and stay connected. And resetting our strategic framework so it makes sense of the moment for the near term, for this organization and for the field.
I love this work and it’s also very challenging, because you’re balancing the demands of a nonprofit and the role we play in a sector that is pretty expansive. What funders care about or are thinking about in San Francisco might be different than in Denver, or Chicago, or Atlanta, or New York.
The theme of the recent annual conference was “Transformative Philanthropy: Courageous and Visionary Leadership for Education and Civil Rights.” That’s a pretty big topic.
The conference is designed to carry a high-level conversation amidst these very deep dives. The theme is something we dive into together as a whole, and through smaller discussions in our plenary sessions. This organization has always grappled with big questions — and not just grappled with them, but articulated a set of big questions for education and philanthropy over time. And those questions have changed, obviously. Back in 1995, the questions were about standards-based reform; it was all about efficiency, effectiveness. How do we do our jobs better?
The question this year was: How does philanthropy show up for education — and for civil rights and for civil society more broadly — in this moment and as we look forward to the next 30 years? These big questions will never have a singular answer, but they’re designed to get people to try to answer for themselves and their organizations, and that’s very much what happened this year.
Can you describe the overall mood at the conference? Given the challenges to education at the moment, including an administration that is slashing budgets and programs, were funders pretty discouraged?
That isn’t what we observed. Being in Memphis was really important, I think; being in the Deep South. And Memphis is a small city with a lot of history and a lot happening now around our theme for this year: education and civil rights and democracy and the state of the social-political world.
We in many ways design the conference to help folks enter into the question that we’re posing, to think about and grapple with and try to articulate some answers together. There are many on-ramps for folks so no matter what they’re funding, no matter where they’re based, they can find their way into the conversation.
That’s what really happened at this year’s conference. What I saw more this year than typically happens, when I got to visit different session rooms, I would see groups of people sitting at these round tables, leaning in toward each other. Eyes very intense. They were strategy sessions. They were really deep listening conversations. What-am-I-going-to-write-down-and-take-back-with-me kinds of sessions. I think we need that in education philanthropy right now, and the conference provides those lab spaces.
At the conference this year, we heard a lot about courageous philanthropy and courageous leadership. One of our plenary speakers talked about the need to be both a firefighter and an architect. This is a time when you have to be both: You’re going to have to put out fires and you’re going to have to build anew.
The first half of this year was all about sense-making: What just happened? What is the latest? But when I got on the road this summer, meeting with funders to talk about our benchmarking report, I started to hear ‘OK, how do we start to move — not just sense-making, not just rapid response, but how are we going to organize ourselves?’ And by the time we got to the conference, there was more of the sense that ‘We’re going to roll up our sleeves together now.”
What I saw happen at this conference was also a willingness to bring more people to the table — and not just in education, but in other sectors of philanthropy and other parts of the education system. That is what I saw when I opened the door to the session rooms, which was just beautiful and brilliant and not taken for granted, because six months ago, I think that may have been harder to do.
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Overall, would you say that the administration’s attacks on the nonprofit sector and philanthropy have had a chilling effect? It sounds like many funders are determined to stick to their values.
You know, I think both are true. The administration’s decision to change the nature of federal leadership in education places a different kind of pressure on philanthropy. The demand on private dollars is very real in education, like it is in other spaces. Also, most foundations are structured as 501c3s and so the threats to nonprofit entities apply to foundations, too. So this is a type of vulnerability for philanthropy as a sector that, frankly, it’s not used to. It is, perhaps, a muscle you have to build in a sector that is not used to having to flex that muscle.
So there is a chilling effect, and those very same folks are also rolling up their sleeves. Both things are true at the same time, and that’s what you’re seeing in education philanthropy, it’s what you’re seeing in education broadly, and what you’re seeing across the field.
Are you feeling hopeful about education right now?
Yes, for sure. I mean, I am an optimist. I’m a realist, I’m very pragmatic. But I think my personal experience as a learner, as a parent, as a teacher, working in community organizations, and our historical understanding underscores the power of education, the power of learning. It would be too simplistic to say that education is the great equalizer. I think we all know that’s a nice thing to say, but it doesn’t always play out in real lives. But education is a very powerful institution, and I feel hopeful that as an institution, it can be refined and improved.
I also feel optimistic about the process of learning and learners. I used to be an alumni interviewer for my college and I’d interview 17- and 18-year-olds. I always say that if I were applying today, I would not get in. Young people today are so much smarter, so much more engaged than I was at that age. I feel pretty good about my career and my contributions, and I still feel very energetic and committed. But I do feel learners are showing us every day how, generationally, there’s been development over time. We talk about AI and the internet and how much information they have access to, and how it’s so distracting and all of those things are true, but that also gives them an incredible way to be engaged as learners.
It’s important to remind ourselves that we are all learners and we are all teachers in almost a fundamental, core value way. I think philanthropy believes that, too. Education is a space where philanthropy shows up.
Finally, I wanted to learn a little bit more about you. What do you do in your spare time?
Well, I’m a mom of three, and I really do enjoy spending time with my children. Each one is so different, and they’re old enough that now I’m relating to them in different ways. It’s always a parent-child relationship, of course, but we can watch a football game together, or have a meal and have deeper conversations. So I really do have the joy of spending free time with my children when they’re here, or going to see them where they live.
And I actually grew up dancing. Before I even stepped into a classroom, I was a dancer. I really fell in love with teaching, but I still take dance classes, and I also take yoga classes. I was trained as a yoga instructor many years ago, and I don’t teach anymore. If I had time, I would teach yoga, even if it was just one class once a month. Also, I have a piano in my home, because one of my kids is a musician, and I would like to learn, so hopefully one day I’ll get to do that. And I’d like to be a better cook.
