Every Student. Every School. Every Day. DONATE!
Building Dynamic Community Partnerships to Support Our Schools
Pasadena Educational Foundation unites the power of our committed community to help to raise between $12 and $15 million dollars a year for the Pasadena Unified School District. Those funds include large government grants, foundation grants, individual, and corporate donations, which together help us support myriad essential programs from the large to the small. Some programs are run by PEF, others by PUSD, and still others represent various levels of partnership. From the smallest Friendship Bench to the largest Magnet Program, PEF works with our community partners to impact every student, every school, every day!
“The support that the Pasadena Educational Foundation provides our schools is essential to keeping our momentum going. Our schools are stronger today and will be even stronger tomorrow thanks to this outstanding partnership.”
—Dr. Brian McDonald
Former Superintendent, Pasadena Unified School District
What’s New
A Celebration of PUSD Staff Dedication: Thanks to You TacosThe Pasadena Educational Foundation (PEF) held [More]
Marshall Fundamental Gets New Media Center MakeoverArticle courtesy Pasadena NOW By Eddie Rivera The library [More]
PEF Hosts Second SciTech Roundtable at Caltech
Principal for a Day 2024 In PicturesTHANK YOU! It’s a Milestone! Over 500 Community Members [More]
OUR WORK
In The Classroom
The Pasadena Educational Foundation has a far-reaching commitment to the arts, technology, and teaching innovation in Pasadena Unified School District schools.
From enhancing arts and music, to elevating STEM education and technology, to engaging our young people’s minds and bodies during the summer, PEF provides unique and enriching programs throughout the district all year-round.
Programs include Summer Enrichment, My Masterpieces, Middle School Robotics, Math Academy, Open Stage, App Academy, and 3D Printing.
Grants & Awards
The Pasadena Educational Foundation works with our community partners and supporters to provide grants, awards, and scholarships to PUSD teachers, schools, and students.
Every year we award PEF Teacher Grants to help our inspirational teachers take their creative projects from idea to reality by providing them the necessary resources to enhance their classroom experience. In 2022 we awarded a total of $200,000 to Pasadena teachers and principals and provided Field Trip grants.
Grants, awards, and scholarships include: Teacher & Site-wide Grants, Field Trip Grants, Summer Internship stipends, and College Scholarships.
Health and Wellbeing
PEF is committed to supporting the health and fitness of all our PUSD students. We bolster access to healthy living resources by supporting District health programs, and we partner with Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy to teach healthy living through nine edible school-community gardens, a master gardener, and farm to table programs. We help fund an asthma nurse to monitor all students with asthma, and we are invested in helping our middle and high schools build their athletic programs and facilities, including the recent renovation of the Muir baseball field.
Outreach
Through active community engagement campaigns, activities, events, and initiatives PEF builds dynamic community connections to support the public schools of Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre. Our Principal for a Day program has seeded many partnerships and projects such as the restoration of an historic mural at McKinley, and helps increase the visibility of the myriad wonderful programs happening in our schools to the community at large. The nationally recognized Realtor Initiative provides opportunities for realtors to learn more and get further connected to our schools. We welcome other Community Ambassadors to help us spread the word.
Services
PEF provides grantwriting services to PUSD that have assisted with raising more than $8 million annually. Grants are for initiatives that provide parents and students with a high level of school choice and quality, family and community services, college readiness, and innovative programs. From large Federal Magnet Grants or California College & Career Pathways Grants to smaller grants to fund a ceramics artist or grow a school-community garden, the grants PEF has secured have supported arts, sports and athletics, health, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), college scholarships, teacher training, and many other programs in PUSD. We provide fundraising and accounting support to nearly every school’s Annual Fund, enabling schools to more efficiently raise community dollars to meet immediate needs. Schools are now raising a collective total of over $1 million in their annual funds.
