Feb 7, 2022 - News

$2 million gift to help Columbus students in need

Alissa Widman Neese

School bus with money — Illustration: Rebecca Zisser / Axios

Communities in Schools of Ohio, a nonprofit that surrounds at-risk kids with services inside and outside school, has received an unprecedented $2 million donation.

Why it matters: The group establishes one-on-one relationships with children and coordinates with schools and local service providers to help families get food, housing, health care, counseling and access to technology for remote learning.

With COVID-19 creating so much disruption, such work is critically important right now.

Zoom out: This is a sliver of a surprise $133.5 million donation philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave to the nationwide organization, its largest ever received.

Zoom in: The Ohio affiliate serves nearly 22,000 students in 34 schools, including the Columbus and South-Western districts and charter schools.

💭 Alissa's thought bubble: As an education reporter with The Columbus Dispatch, I witnessed Communities in Schools buy families food for Thanksgiving dinner and teach kids yoga over Zoom during the early days of pandemic shutdowns.

I'm excited to see what the group achieves with this transformative gift.

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$2 million gift to help Columbus students in need

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