Staff Blog

Last year, the Curtis Fund piloted a new program for students seeking certificates or credentials in “promising careers” identified by the J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation and the Vermont Department of Labor as highly beneficial to job applicants and to potential employers. Vermonters of all ages, life experiences, personal skills, and educational histories now have another promising path to success.

When we started planning our Community Conversations Series, we looked forward to gathering an amazing group of speakers who could share their stories with fundholders to further empower our work together to close the opportunity gap in Vermont.

Vermont is widely regarded as one of the most queer-friendly states in America. This is thanks to decades of struggle and activism by Vermont’s LGBTQ+ community. But Vermont youth and adults continue to face many challenges, and Samara’s work is certainly not complete.

The first time I heard Raj Chetty live was in April 2017 in Boston at a Center for Effective Philanthropy conference. Chetty, who received a MacArthur Genius grant in 2012, is widely considered one of the most influential social scientists working today.

Last week, as part of our Community Conversations Series, we sat down with fundholders to listen to a panel of Vermonters and explore the role of mission investing. We talked about how mission investing can transform entrenched inequities, and we took a look at the role of entrepreneurship in closing the opportunity gap. The conversation covered a lot of ground, so we want to share in this post some of the highlights of what we learned.