The World Leadership Foundation Story

World Leadership Foundation’s mission is to partner with K-12 schools around the world to bring greater purpose to learning. Our vision is that K-12 education can, and should be, the ultimate platform for launching children into lives of purpose. World Leadership Foundation accomplishes its mission by partnering on school transformation efforts with schools across the Americas and also supporting our long-standing global school partners in 10 countries around the world.

World Leadership Foundation was created in July 2009, with the stated purpose of “supporting educational and community development projects, promoting global exchange between local participants and U.S. students, and empowering participating youth to create a positive change in their community.” At first, World Leadership Foundation worked to support overseas rural schools with donations raised by students traveling with World Leadership School. Since 2009 these donations have exceeded $1 million in a variety of projects for rural schools ranging from clean water systems to dining halls.

The evolved mission of the World Leadership Foundation is to “partner with K-12 schools around the world to bring greater purpose to learning.” We accomplish our mission by partnering on school transformation efforts with schools across the Americas and by continuing to support our long-standing global school partners in 10 countries around the world.

Each February in Boulder, CO, World Leadership Foundation hosts the K-12 Purpose Summit. This event convenes educators from around the world to explore what purpose means for us both personally and professionally.

World Leadership Foundation also hosted a webinar series called “Reimagine Advisory with Purpose,” where we interviewed a series of experts on how to bring great meaning to advisory. Advisory is a regular time during the school week when students meet in small groups with a trusted advisor.
With our partner schools abroad, World Leadership Foundation in 2022 focused on making key investments in rural school communities that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These investments included a range of projects related to providing food, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and critical infrastructure improvements.

​Over the last decade, World Leadership Foundation has incubated an ambitious effort to “reduce inequity through education” in rural schools via an initiative that was first known as TabLab and then TeachUNITED (www.teachunited.org). TeachUNITED became an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit as of January 1, 2020. As of May 2023, TeachUNITED had reached 1 million students and we are proud of the role that World Leadership Foundation had in starting this impact-driven nonprofit.