NYU Wagner

Jason Franklin has a background in social justice organizing and philanthropy, urban policy and development, public education advocacy, and nonprofit strategy and leadership. He serves as Deputy Director of the 21st Century School Fund (21CSF), a DC-based nonprofit engaged in research, advocacy and grantmaking to build the public will and capacity to improve urban public school facilities. He is also a Lecturer on Public Administration and Doctoral Candidate at NYU Wagner. Jason teaches Philanthropy, Advocacy & Social Change; Strategic Management for Public Service Organizations; Introduction to American Government; and other courses in Wagner's policy and management programs. His doctoral research focuses on the role of private philanthropy in public policy making and on urban cultural and community development.

Before rejoining the staff of 21CSF in 2007 (previously on staff from 2000-2003), he managed the Rockefeller Foundation's Next Generation Leadership Network. He has also worked for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, White House Office of National AIDS Policy, Aspen Institute, and Oregon Commission on Children and Families. He co-founded Oregon Students Supporting Education (a statewide student organizing effort to prevent major budget cuts to Oregon public schools), the Multnomah Youth Commission (a youth-led agency that advises city and county leaders on program and policy decisions), and IAM LLC (an urban brownfield development planning firm that won the 2004 Goldman Sachs Global Social Venture Competition).

He serves on the boards of directors of the North Star Fund (Treasurer), Zing Foundation, and Resource Generation (Co-Chair); on the Next Generation Advisory Committee of the Council on Foundations; and on the research advisory group for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform's Research Program on the Impacts of Community & Youth Organizing on Public School Reform. He has an MS in Urban Policy and Nonprofit Management from the New School's Milano Graduate School and a BA in Political Communication from the George Washington University.