What does it take to change the lives of millions of impoverished kids? Heroism alone isn't enough. Neither are dollars. But we know that transformation is possible. Our goal is to ignite long-lasting change that will ripple across communities, cities and the globe. We know it sounds audacious, but we aren't alone.

Through our foundation, we partner with innovative organizations around the globe, working alongside them to help identify, test, refine and grow non-obvious solutions to big, obvious problems. We started this work in 1999. Since then, we've refined our approach. We now focus less on supporting finite programs, and more on developing sustainable approaches and flexible tools that can scale and be used anywhere. In this vein:

• We don't treat chronic childhood disease; we aim to stop it before it starts.
• We don't just build new schools; we give educators powerful tools to improve individual student outcomes in the classrooms they have.
• We don't just focus on children; we open access to the capital and other resources that families need to set their children on the path to lifelong self-sufficiency.

To ensure that the impact of our work lasts well beyond the term of our grants, we partner with government, businesses and other philanthropic organizations. By reaching across these sectors, we believe we can we transform today's extraordinary interventions into tomorrow's standard and repeatable best practices.

We aren't naïve about the task we've set. We know that some efforts will fail, while others won't grow as we'd hoped. But we also know that if we partner well and keep our sleeves rolled up, we'll find far-reaching solutions in surprising places.

Michael and Susan Dell
June 2011