01
Textbooks for schools in need
Classroom sets and library stock for schools that cannot buy their own, in the United States and abroad.
Our Mission
A world where history is never forgotten, and language is treasured.
A world where every student — no matter where they are — has the ability, and the tools, to follow their dreams, and to be whoever they want to be.
That is the whole of it. Ellie spent her working life making difficult history legible to young readers, and her spare time in classrooms and libraries doing the same thing in person. The Foundation does not try to improve on that idea. It just keeps doing it.
We work small and concretely. A box of textbooks for a school that has run out. A scholarship for a student who writes. A grant so a teacher does not pay for the field trip out of their own pocket. A speaker who makes a roomful of fifteen-year-olds argue about something that matters. A room in a library where teenagers are not shushed for existing.
A child handed the right book at the right moment can be changed by it.
Why any of this worksNone of these are large gestures. Taken together, over years, they are how a legacy actually gets passed on.
What we fund
Five kinds of support, offered to students and the people who teach them.
02
Scholarship programs
Support for students pursuing writing, journalism and the language arts — the subjects Ellie gave her life to.
03
Grants
Classroom projects, supplies, and financial help sending students on educational trips they would otherwise miss.
04
Educational lectures
Speakers brought into schools to engage students in current affairs, critical thinking, and the world’s unsolved problems.
05
Teen library programs
Dedicated spaces and programming for young adults — room to study, meet a tutor, or read in peace.
In practice
This is not theoretical.
A teen room at a regional library, an annual lecture series, a graduation award, a community garden, and classrooms sponsored every year.