News
Heckscher Foundation Welcomes New Leadership Fellows
3.05.2024
The Heckscher Foundation welcomes two remarkable education leaders, Jill Kafka and AiLun Ku as Heckscher Leadership Fellows as of March 1, 2024. Designed after similar programs in the private equity world where successful entrepreneurs are invited to spend a year developing new for-profit ventures, the Heckscher Leadership Fellows Program provides those in senior education leadership positions with an opportunity to develop new non-profit venture projects and approaches that help level the playing field for underserved youth.
Past Heckscher Leadership Fellows have included Ruth Genn, John Mogulescu and Vita Rabinowitz, each of whom continues to advise the foundation on strategic education initiatives.
The Heckscher Leadership Fellows Program extends the reach and impact of the foundation’s venture philanthropy approach to grantmaking. This approach focuses on three high-leverage funding strategies—catalytic giving, strategic partnerships with other funders in the public and private sectors, and targeted problem solving. While seeking out “inflection point funding,” Heckscher focuses on specific obstacles that keep underserved youth from realizing their full potential and the key junctures where the foundation’s grantmaking might change the course of their lives.
Fellows work independently on projects of their choosing and periodically advise the foundation on grantmaking opportunities. An annual stipend is provided as well as access to the foundation’s office space and services, which Fellows may use at their discretion.
Meet our Leadership Fellows:
Jill Kafka
Jill served as Executive Director of Partnership Schools, a one-of-a-kind school management organization that transformed the operation of Catholic schools serving low-income communities and created a new model for school turnaround. She led the transformation of a successful fundraising program for Catholic schools into an organization with full responsibility for student outcomes and school operations. She led the network expansion from six schools in New York to eleven schools in New York and Cleveland; drove substantive academic gains, including closing the racial achievement gap even in the midst of the pandemic, and dramatically grew enrollment. Under Jill’s leadership, the Partnership has become a proven, national model for how to successfully support and operate urban faith based schools serving disadvantaged youth. Prior to her 27 year career in education Jill worked in mortgage-backed securities sales and trading at several investment firms. She holds a BS in Computer Science from Cornell University.
AiLun Ku
AiLun served as President and CEO of The Opportunity Network, a nationally recognized college and career guidance program supporting first-generation college students and young people of color from underrepresented communities. She led the growth of OppNet’s Fellows program to include more than 1,100 Fellows annually. Over the course of her tenure, she spearheaded the launch of the organization’s open-access online learning platform, Uninterrupted: Unstoppable Learning, and its national capacity-building program Career Fluency Partnerships. Prior to OppNet she was a Management Faculty Member at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice and served in various leadership roles at other social impact organizations.
AiLun is a prior recipient of the Pahara Fellowship awarded by the Pahara Institute, the MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellowship, and the NYU Steinhardt’s Senior Leaders Fellowship. She received her MPA from NYU Wagner and her BA from NYU College of Arts and Science.