What ROC the Future Alliance does

ROC the Future Alliance is a Rochester, New York-based nonprofit community coalition founded in 2011 to advance cradle-to-career educational outcomes for children from prenatal through high school graduation. The organization operates a collective impact framework in which more than 25 convening organizations — including Rochester City School District, Monroe Community College, and United Way — share governance equally alongside parent/family partners under a 50/50 shared-power structure. Its programmatic portfolio comprises the Whole Child Initiative (prenatal to age 8), the High School Graduation Outcomes Team (HSGOT), the Parent Engagement Collaborative Action Network (PECAN), the Youth Leadership Coalition (YLC), and a Policy Agenda initiative that includes the 2025-launched NYS Place-Based Policy Coalition.

The technology and measurement infrastructure underlying the coalition consists of two data products: the State of Our Children Report Card, released annually since 2012 (now in its 13th edition, 2024–25), and the Cradle to Career Outcomes Dashboard built in partnership with the national StriveTogether cradle-to-career network. These produce longitudinal community outcome data (e.g., RCSD high school graduation rate moved from 53% in 2016 to 71% in 2021, 73% including charter schools) that no single member organization could independently generate. The backbone function was hosted by The Children's Agenda from 2013 and transitioned to the Children's Institute in 2021 to expand organizational capacity for systemic change.

The business model is grant-funded philanthropy, not commercial revenue. Known funding sources include the Children's Institute ($1.55M for the Whole Child Initiative in 2022), a $1.5M federal grant announced by Congressman Joe Morelle for the Get Ready to GROW developmental-checks program, a $600K StriveTogether Accelerate Impact Grant in July 2024, foundation support from ESL, Farash Foundation, Greater Rochester Health Foundation, Rochester Area Community Foundation, and Konar Foundation, plus corporate partnership with Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. Executive Director Brian Lewis (third director, hired 2022) leads a small 1–10 FTE backbone team under Board Chair Dr. LeKeyah Wilson.

Name

ROC the Future Alliance

Legal name

ROC the Future Alliance

Website

https://rocthefuture.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ROC the Future Alliance is a Rochester, NY nonprofit founded in 2011 that operates a collective impact coalition of 25+ organizations and parent/family partners to advance cradle-to-career educational outcomes for children, using shared measurement, grant funding, and policy advocacy.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Education Coalition Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Child and Youth Services (62411), Civic and Social Organizations (813410), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Co-Parenting, Father Engagement & Caregiver Inclusion Programs (EDACALAI)

Keywords

• Collective impact coalition
• Cradle to career outcomes
• Early childhood education
• High school graduation programs
• Parent leadership networks

Headquarters

HQ city

Rochester

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: Primary revenue from grants including $1.55 million for the Whole Child Initiative (2022), $1.5 million Get Ready to GROW grant from federal government, and $600,000 StriveTogether Accelerate Impact Grant (2024).

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

ROC the Future Alliance is a community-wide collective impact coalition that convenes funders, providers, staff, and parent/family partners around cradle-to-career educational outcomes for children in Rochester, NY. It delivers coordinated programs across early childhood, K-12, parent leadership, youth leadership, and policy advocacy, supported by an annual State of Our Children Report Card and a Cradle to Career Outcomes Dashboard. Revenue is derived from grants, foundation funding, and donations rather than commercial sales.

Product overview

ROC the Future Alliance operates as a collective impact coalition focused on childhood education and academic success in Rochester, NY. The organization functions as a unified platform connecting multiple programs: the Whole Child Initiative addressing early childhood development from prenatal through third grade; the High School Graduation Outcomes Team (HSGOT) improving graduation rates; the Parent Engagement Collaborative Action Network (PECAN) for parent leadership; the Youth Leadership Coalition (YLC) for youth development; and a Policy Agenda initiative for statewide advocacy. Supporting these programs are data products including the annual State of Our Children Report Card and the Cradle to Career Outcomes Dashboard. The organization is a member of the StriveTogether cradle to career network.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Whole Child Initiative A coalition-led initiative focused on improving health, education, and human service outcomes for children and families from pre-pregnancy through third grade, addressing child, family, community, and systems levels.
• High School Graduation Outcomes Team (HSGOT) Outcome team that develops and implements evidence-based strategies to improve ninth-grade experience, attendance, and high school graduation rates across all Rochester high schools.
• Parent Engagement Collaborative Action Network (PECAN) Network for parent leadership, decision-making, and co-creation of solutions with 50% parent/family partners and 50% systems partners driving the Whole Child Initiative.
• Youth Leadership Coalition (YLC) Youth development program delivering training in cultural empathy, youth leadership, civic engagement, and collective impact in collaboration with RCSD and community partners.
• Policy Agenda Advocacy program including the NYS Place-Based Policy Coalition to drive policy, funding alignment, data-driven strategy, and place-based infrastructure.
• State of Our Children Report Card Annual data-driven report measuring key indicators of child wellbeing and academic success in Rochester, released publicly since 2012 (13th annual edition released in 2024-25).
• Cradle to Career Outcomes Dashboard Interactive data dashboard providing Rochester's cradle-to-career outcomes metrics in partnership with StriveTogether.

Quantifiable outcome

• High school graduation rate improved from 53% (2016) to 71% (2021) for RCSD, and 73% including charter schools
• +2 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• NYS Place-Based Policy CoalitioncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025In 2025, ROC the Future Alliance helped convene place-based leaders from across New York State to create a cross-regional alliance improving outcomes from cradle to career through geographic diversity, proven approach, and community-led equity-centered strategies.
• Harvard EdRedesign LabminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Welcomed Rob Watson, Executive Director of Harvard EdRedesign Lab, for in-person strategic dialogue to strengthen national partnerships and drive local impact.
• Children's InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021In 2021, ROC the Future Alliance transitioned to be welcomed by the Children's Institute to greater support efforts for systemic change, expanding organizational capacity and resources.
• SpreadKarma CollectiveminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020National partnership with youth development training organization from Baltimore, MD. Delivered Train the Trainer Youth Leadership Curriculum for the Youth Leadership Coalition launched in 2020.
• National Parent Leadership InstituteminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016Collaborated to establish PECAN (Parent Engagement Collaborative Action Network) in 2016, creating the table where parents come together to inform systems-level change for cradle-to-career outcomes.
• The Children's AgendacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Appointed as the backbone organization for ROC the Future Alliance in 2013, providing centralized infrastructure and coordination for the collective impact initiative.
• Monroe Community CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011Co-initiator of ROC the Future Alliance in 2011 alongside Rochester City School District and United Way. Selected third-grade literacy as the starting point for the coalition's work.
• Rochester City School DistrictcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011Co-initiator of ROC the Future Alliance in 2011. RCSD provides educational data, collaborates on graduation outcomes teams, and participates in shared governance structure.
• United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger LakescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011Co-initiator of ROC the Future Alliance in 2011. United Way serves as a key convener and funder in the coalition's cradle-to-career initiatives.
• StriveTogethercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational cradle to career network movement building a world where a child's potential is not dictated by race, ethnicity, zip code, or circumstance. ROC the Future Alliance is a member operating within the Systems Change gateway of StriveTogether's Theory of Action framework.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• StrivePartnership (Cincinnati): One of the original StriveTogether cradle-to-career networks operating in Cincinnati. A direct peer with the same collective impact framework, shared measurement approach, and cradle-to-career outcomes focus, serving as a useful operational and structural comparator.
• United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes: Co-founder of ROC the Future Alliance in 2011 and a core systems partner/funder. Operates adjacent community-impact infrastructure in the same Rochester geography with overlapping cradle-to-career initiatives and shared measurement frameworks.
• The Children's Agenda: Served as ROC the Future Alliance's backbone organization from 2013 through the 2021 transition to Children's Institute. Operates in the same Rochester child policy space with overlapping advocacy, data, and policy agenda work - a structurally analogous nonprofit with shared measurement and parent-engagement DNA.
• Harlem Children's Zone: National benchmark for place-based cradle-to-career collective impact, combining education, social services, and parent engagement in a single geographic footprint. Highly comparable as a larger, more mature cousin of ROC the Future Alliance's model and the canonical reference point for place-based community coalitions.
• Boston Opportunity Agenda: Cradle-to-career collective impact coalition operating in Boston with shared measurement, partner alignment, and equity-centered outcomes. Functionally analogous in structure, though larger in scale and resources.
• The Ounce of Prevention Fund: National nonprofit focused on early childhood education and systems change for children prenatal through age five. Closely aligned with the prenatal-to-age-8 Whole Child Initiative pillar, with comparable family engagement and policy advocacy approaches.

Emerging players

• ParentChild+: Early childhood home visiting and family literacy organization focused on school readiness for children ages 2-8. Comparable in the early-childhood and parent-engagement dimensions of ROC the Future Alliance's Whole Child Initiative, though more program-direct and less coalition-based.

Broad incumbents

• Children's Institute: Host organization that welcomed ROC the Future Alliance in 2021 to support systemic change efforts. A broader child welfare and systems-change organization that provides infrastructure/backbone support; comparable as a higher-level operating partner in the same Rochester child-outcomes space.

Others

• StriveTogether: National cradle-to-career network in which ROC the Future Alliance operates as a member. Comparable as the umbrella ecosystem providing theory of action, designation milestones (including Systems Change), and peer learning. Not a direct competitor but the closest structural comparator for a place-based collective impact coalition.
• National Parent Leadership Institute: Strategic partner that helped establish ROC the Future Alliance's PECAN parent leadership network in 2016. A national capacity-building peer focused on parent voice and family leadership in systems change; comparable as a methodology peer and potential replication resource.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/RoctheFuture
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC3aBTiU0sTH1_zkrUOIDLXw
• Facebookfacebook.com/rocthefuture
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/roc-the-future

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ROC the Future Alliance