2023 Annual Report

July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023

Dear GFPE friends, partners, and supporters,

Thank you for your support of the Georgia Foundation for Public Education (GFPE) and Georgia’s public school students this past year. As the philanthropic arm of the Georgia Department of Education, we exist for the sole purpose of supporting educational excellence for students in Georgia. We, in partnership with our generous donors, provide funding to a variety of projects all aimed at fulfilling our vision of public school excellence. This year we continued our efforts around the PEACH Education Tax Credit and launched the first round of Innovative Education Fund grants, which is made possible through tax credit donations. Finally, we worked with individual donors to help them invest in programs and initiatives important to them.

We hope you enjoy reading some of the stories of how we are supporting Georgia’s public schools and fostering academic success to ultimately produce students who are prepared to thrive in a 21st century workforce, and we invite you to join us in fulfilling our mission of meeting students where they are – wherever they are.

With gratitude,
Davis Knox, Board Chair
Paige Pushkin, GFPE Executive Director

PEACH Education Tax Credit Dollars at Work

Georgia’s PEACH Education Tax Credit offers an exciting opportunity to advance public education and foster excellence for students across Georgia. Individuals and corporations can support Georgia’s K-12 public education students at no additional cost to them by securing a PEACH Education Tax Credit. GFPE then uses donated funds to provide innovative grants to public schools and districts to improve student achievement. It’s a win-win opportunity for Georgia residents and public schools. Keep reading for a few stories of PEACH dollars at work.

Solving Challenging Issues Facing our Schools with Corporate Gifts

With teacher shortages continuing to plague school districts, Muscogee County, like many districts across the state, waived teacher certification requirements for new hires. Although this concession puts more people in the classroom, these new educators are coming to the classroom with little to no formal education training. Muscogee County School District recognized these new educators needed more support to be successful, and they developed a plan but needed funding to implement it. Then a generous donation to the PEACH Education Tax Credit in the amount of $50,000 from Synovus allowed MCSD to implement professional development modules to equip all noncertified educators and paraprofessionals with the training they need to feel confident and be effective in the classroom.

Thanks to Synovus’s PEACH Education Tax Credit donation, the company was able to establish a donor advised fund with GFPE to support innovative projects in the Muscogee County School District and is using its dollars to help the district solve one of the most challenging issues it faces.

Learn more about how to support public education in our state with a PEACH Education Tax Credit donation.

Improving Outcomes for Students through Innovative Education Fund Grants

When Georgia individuals and corporations donate to the PEACH Education Tax Credit, they are helping to fund programs improving outcomes for Georgia students. One of GFPE’s grant programs funded by PEACH dollars is the Innovative Education Fund, which provides traditional public and charter schools, school districts, and their partner organizations up to $20,000 to implement innovative programs that foster academic excellence.

This year, GFPE awarded six Innovative Education Fund grants to Georgia schools, districts and organizations totaling $90,000.

To see the full list of organizations and projects, click here.

“Support Education” License Plate Dollars at Work

Funding for our signature annual grant program and Georgia Teacher of the Year program comes from the sale of Georgia’s “Support Education” license plates. When you purchase this specialty plate to honor educators, you are helping us continue to support excellence for K-12 public school students statewide. Apply for your plate at your local county tag office.

Impacting Rural Education

GFPE’s Rural Education Fund provides traditional public schools, charter schools and school districts located in counties with 35,000 or fewer residents with up to $10,000 to use however they wish to drive student success. This year, we awarded a total of $70,000 to seven schools or districts focused on art and music education, STEAM programs, virtual reality experiences, literacy, and community service projects for high school students.

Click here to check out our full list of Rural Education grantees.

Georgia’s Teacher of the Year

Georgia’s 2024 Teacher of the Year is Christy Todd, a music technology teacher at Rising Starr Middle School in Fayettte County. As Teacher of the Year, she serves as an advocate for public education in Georgia traveling the state speaking to educators and community groups.

Workforce for Georgia

The Georgia Power Foundation partners with GFPE to fund the Workforce for Georgia Grant Program, which offers a competitive opportunity for schools to apply for funding to implement or expand Career, Technical, and Agricultural (CTAE) or College and Career Academy (CCA) programs. Georgia Power is dedicated to giving back to the communities they serve and supporting educational initiatives throughout the state, so partnering with GFPE to help facilitate this grant program provided them a great way to achieve their vision of impactfully serving students in Georgia.

During the most recent grant cycle, GFPE and the Georgia Power Foundation awarded a total of $938,374,000 to 31 schools and school districts. Learn more about the funded projects here.