Immigration‹ Back to Lessons Learned
Partnerships are critical
Immigration
United States
Mission
Collaboration has been invaluable for PSF’s work on immigration. Here, the Foundation has relied heavily on partners with deep expertise and close ties to organizations on the ground meeting the needs of underserved and new Americans. TheDream.US, for example, a national scholarship fund for DREAMers – immigrant youth who have received DACA status but are ineligible for federal aid – has posted extraordinary persistence rates for the Dreamer scholars it has sent to college. PSF was able to partner early in the creation of this scholarship alongside funders like Dream.US founder Don Graham, the Gates Foundation, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, among others, and benefit from the immigration and higher education expertise of the Dream.US staff and their university partners. Similarly, in New York, PSF has worked with the Robin Hood Foundation to identify and support some of the most effective organizations meeting the needs of immigrants who comprise half of the city’s poor. Starting with the American Dream Fund and, more recently, the Pershing Square Immigrant Opportunity Fund, Pershing Square and Robin Hood have joined forces to focus on innovative ways to improve lives, with a particular focus on health and legal services.