News-Views

One of my Foundation goals this year is to survey the landscape of the Foundation’s 3 program areas to examine the impact of disadvantage in each program area, initiatives that attempt to ameliorate the disadvantages and the effectiveness of these initiatives. The idea is to see the Foundation’s programs within this context and better understand their suitability and effectiveness.   Read More

“As much as we love our students, we want them to leave after they’ve been successful.” Read More

The community collective impact meeting on May 4^th was, by any account, a huge success. Speakers included the Presidents of Palm Beach Atlantic University and Palm Beach State College, a Vice-President of Florida Atlantic University, a student from Delray Beach, the Executive Director of Florida College Access Network, the Mayor of Palm Beach County, the Superintendent of the Palm Beach County District School Board, the President of the Business Development Board and representatives from the business, faith-based, non-profit and philanthropic communities. We had about 60 people. Read More

We have been busy since the March meetings and I will use this space to give you an update.  Read More

Two Foundation priorities for the year are improved communication and finding partners for our Palm Beach Johnson Scholars program. Those strategies are coming together in recent months and have been consuming much of our time and energy. Read More

We have been trying to transition the Johnson Scholars Program from a Foundation Read More

The Funds Will Support Gonzaga University's MBA in American Indian Entrepreneurship. Read More

This month Becky Youngman and Wanda Kirby presented a report on the Palm Beach School Board Johnson Scholars program. This was one of four grantee (or potential grantee) presentations made to the Grant Program Committee at its December 6th meeting. A fifth presentation was a third party evaluation of a Foundation grantee, Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. These presentations consumed about two thirds of a packed agenda; it is difficult to imagine how we could spend more time listening to grantees at these meetings. Read More

The Johnson Scholarship Foundation, in collaboration with Take Stock in Children Palm Beach and the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, took 300 students on six charter busses on a college tour this fall. The group visited Tallahassee and Gainesville to tour Florida State University (FSU), Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), Santa Fe College and the University of Florida (UF).  Read More

This month, the Johnson Scholar’s Inaugural Luncheon was held on on October 14th at Valencia College, Orlando. The article summarizes the elements of this program and relates it to two students who are pursuing degrees in the health sciences. We are described as “a national, private foundation with a mission to assist deserving people in achieving higher education and a belief in education as a means to help people to succeed in life.”  Read More

Johnson Scholarship Foundation Partners with Providence St. Mel School to Provide College-Preparatory Education for Inner-City Youth  Read More

We have come to think of our grants as investments, similar to those we make in the financial markets. When we invest in a new organization or idea we are, in effect, venture investors. Like our counterparts in the financial marketplace, we can usually add value by giving our grantee something in addition to money. We might provide specialized knowledge. Sometimes we connect a grantee with another organization or person. We regularly convene meetings of grantee partners so that they can learn from each other and others in their field of endeavor. Often we just show up to meet students or help our grantees raise money. Read More

At next month’s meeting we will celebrate Diane Johnson’s retirement from the Board and honor her years of service to the Foundation. I will miss her deeply, as will everyone who worked with her. Read More

Welcome to the first edition of "Malcolm's Page".  I’m Malcolm Macleod, President of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation. I look forward to using this forum as my opportunity to share with you the news and happenings at The Foundation.  Read More

One of the Foundation’s priorities this year is improved communication. Toward that end we have hired consultants, taken to social media and revised our website. Who are we trying to reach? Why are we trying to reach them? What do we want to tell them? The answer to the first question is that we are trying to reach potential, existing and former grantee/ partners, other grantmakers and anyone else who might be curious about what we do.  Read More