How the Madison Public Schools Foundation powers the programs and advocacy that help every student succeed.
Every day, incredible things happen across Madison’s public schools. Students are learning to read. Building friendships. Exploring science, art, and movement. Teachers are adapting, encouraging, innovating. Families are leaning on schools – not just for education, but for stability, safety, and connection.
But none of it happens by accident. Behind every classroom supply, program, and community partnership is a foundation of people and systems making it all work.
At the Madison Public Schools Foundation, this isn’t side work. It is the work. How we do it matters just as much as what we do. This is infrastructure. And it’s essential.
Infrastructure Is What Turns Generosity Into Impact
We often talk about our mission in terms of outcomes: improved student well-being, equipped classrooms, stronger school–community connections. But to get there, you need infrastructure.
You need the logistical capacity to source supplies for 52 schools. The staffing to manage partnerships with hundreds of organizations. The flexibility to listen to educator feedback and adjust programs in real time. The tools to track requests, purchases, donations, and impact. The advocacy power to stand up for public education in legislative spaces. And the communications capacity to bring all of it into the light.
This isn’t overhead — it’s the engine driving everything forward. And like any engine, it needs steady fuel.
It Takes More Than Programs
Take the Teacher Support Network, a program many know as the source of snacks, pencils, and winter gear for students. But it’s just the surface.
Behind it is a 24/7 online ordering system, trusted partnerships with vendors, staff fielding school questions, funding oversight, and careful tracking — every single day.
Or consider the Adopt-a-School program. Behind every successful pairing of a local business and a school lies deep, careful work. We build matches that reflect community values and school priorities. We guide expectations, help partners understand boundaries, and facilitate connections that last. It’s relational. Strategic. And constantly evolving.
This is people-powered infrastructure, and it sustains the programs we all rely on.
Advocacy Is Infrastructure, Too
We also know that if we want to build a future where every student has what they need to thrive, we can’t just work around the system. We have to work within it – and shape it.
That’s why we advocate. For transparency in school funding. For equitable access to public education. For recognition of educators as whole-child champions, not just academic instructors.
We show up in policy conversations. We speak out when public education is under threat. We write. We activate. This, too, is a critical part of how we serve schools. And it’s part of the infrastructure that’s easy to overlook – until it’s missing.
How Champions Keep It All Going
All this — logistics, staffing, flexibility, advocacy — depends on reliable funding.
That’s where Schools Make Madison Champions come in.
Champions commit to giving $500 or more annually to sustain the Foundation’s operating fund — the behind-the-scenes fuel for everything we do.
They’re not funding one program; they’re investing in the systems that keep us responsive, resilient, and ready to meet whatever the schools need next.
In a world focused on visible impact, Champions understand real change requires real, lasting support for the people and systems making it happen.
A Village and Vision Worth Investing In
We are proud to be the quiet force behind so much good in Madison’s public schools. But we are also proud to speak up for the idea that public education is a public responsibility, and that community support must be more than occasional. It must be ongoing. Strategic. Willing to invest in the vital, everyday work where real change takes root.
That’s the infrastructure we’re building. That’s the system we’re strengthening. And that’s what Schools Make Madison Champions are choosing to power.
