by Elizabeth K. Jeffers
Donald Fisher was the co-founder of KIPP Foundation, and he served as the chairman of its board until 2009. Doris Fisher, his wife, currently sits on the KIPP Foundation board of directors. Doris and the late Donald Fisher are the founders of Gap, Inc.
Their son, John Fisher, serves as the chairman of KIPP Foundation and the Charter School Growth Fund. Carrie Walton Penner of the Walton Family Foundation and KIPP Foundation also sits on the board of the Charter School Growth Fund. Stacy Schusterman, chairman and CEO of Samson Investment Company, which was the largest private oil and gas company in the US prior to its sale, sits on this board.
“Charter Fund, Inc. (The ‘Fund’) primarily provides grants and loans to charter school management organizations which management networks of schools,” according to the Charter Fund, Inc.’s most recent 990 tax return. The Gates Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Doris and John Arnold Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, as well as the State of Florida and the State of Tennessee’s Department of Educations have made millions of dollars in contributions to the Charter School Growth Fund.
The Charter School Growth Fund partners with New Schools for New Orleans to incubate.
