Yield Giving

Yesterday was a milestone for a small but mighty organization called South Bronx United and its founder, Andrew So. This non-profit was selected to receive a 2 million dollar grant from Mackenzie Scott’s Yield Giving Foundation. But the journey actually began 15 years ago.

I was lucky enough to meet Andrew 10 years ago and observe his hard work and the impact on the South Bronx community.

In 2009, Andrew took a risk, leaving his job as a math teacher in the South Bronx because he noticed a gap in programming, observed shockingly low graduation rates, and wanted better outcomes for his students and the community. He made a business plan to combine soccer programming with academic enrichment and today, the rest seems like history. Andrew was an entrepreneur, except he founded a non-profit.

In 1994, Jeff Bezos also left his job as a hedge fund manager and founded Amazon after coming across a startling statistic, “Web usage was growing at 2300% a year. I decided to make a business plan that made sense in the context of that growth. I picked books as the first best product to sell online after making of list of 20 products to sell.”

Today, many benefit from Bezos’ risk through daily convenient deliveries from the everything store, and also from the generous grants from Mackenzie Scott’s Foundation.

And now, over 1,600 students and their families benefit each year from Andrew’s (and his wife Stephanie’s) risk in an underprivileged community. South Bronx United students now have a 100% high school graduation rate.

Jeff Bezos famously said, “We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.”

Andrew So and South Bronx United have always put their customers first, the students. They’ve invented new ways to achieve academic success through combining attendance of classes as a requirement to play on their soccer team, and yes, they have been patient. They've been on this amazing journey for 15 years.

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If you liked this post, show Andrew and South Bronx United some love by liking this LinkedIn Post.