The Education Freedom Foundation (EFF) is more than just a resource provider for families and educators—it’s a force driving the transformation of education itself.
EFF focuses on equipping entrepreneurs through its Start-A-School Initiative, offering tools, mentorship and resources to help them successfully launch new schools.
Formerly known as the Optima Foundation, EFF is committed to supporting educators and families involved in alternative education options outside the traditional public school systems, including private, charter, micro and hybrid schools. EFF offers premium consulting services, mentorship and access to curated resources to support school founders at every stage.
By empowering educational entrepreneurs, EFF creates opportunities for families to thrive in non-traditional settings. They are proving learning can happen anywhere, and alternatives are not only viable but valuable. Through initiatives such as its Start-A-School Toolkit, EFF empowers entrepreneurs who are passionate about education to start their own unique educational programs.
Support from organizations like EFF empowers families with the agency to decide what’s best for their children while giving educators the space to innovate and inspire.
If you’re an educator, parent or community leader interested in alternative learning, EFF opens the door to opportunity. Through their free DIY Start-A-School Toolkit, free and fee-based resources and guidance, they are helping build a world where education adapts to the learner—not the other way around.
History of the Educational Freedom Foundation
Erika Donalds, founder and CEO of EFF, was inspired to start the nonprofit while sitting on her local school board.
“I decided not to run again,” she said. “I felt like it was going to take a long time to reform the education system in a way that would give an immediate impact to my friends and neighbors who I knew were really desperate for school choice.”
Launched in 2017 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Optima Foundation focused primarily on launching and supporting K-12 charter schools across Florida. The organization successfully launched four classical charter schools across the state, which are thriving today.
But Donalds and her team recognized that brick and mortar schools weren’t a scalable option for families looking for more choices in the short term. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Optima Foundation expanded into virtual education, helping to start Optima Academy Online (OAO), a classical education-based virtual instruction platform serving students in grades K–12.
The organization rebranded as the Education Freedom Foundation in March 2025 to reflect its national mission to champion education freedom by empowering families and visionaries through classical and innovative academic solutions. EFF is primarily focused on working in states where education scholarship accounts (ESA) are available to families.
Developing a Toolkit That Helps Entrepreneurs Launch Schools
Donalds and her team compiled comprehensive resources to build the Start-A-School Toolkit — offering tools, best practices, templates and guidance for launching private schools, charter schools, hybrid schools and microschools.
“The same people who helped me start the schools are the ones who are helping entrepreneurs start the schools they envision, help them get public funding and help them advertise,” Donalds says. “Now that there are ESA programs, it’s much easier [to start a micro school] than a big charter school.”
Many entrepreneurs who work with EFF want to start a variety of different school models, Donalds says.
“It could be a STEM school, a classical school or a hybrid in the form of a microschool,” she says. “Once it gets off the ground, they can decide whether to expand into a bigger traditional school, keep it small or open many.”
One feature that makes EFF’s support distinctive is its mission to inspire school founders to build their own educational models, Donalds says. While many charter school programs are prescriptive, Donalds wants to bring free market principles to the school choice environment.
“The way to do that is to give people as much flexibility as possible to design the program the way they envision it, then carry it out. Our toolkit gives them maximum flexibility to design something innovative in the education space,” she says.
The toolkit includes a project management resource that walks entrepreneurs through every aspect of starting and launching a school so they can open it in their strategic time frame. Additionally, EFF offers mentorship and expert-led meetings for entrepreneurs through its fee-based membership program.
For additional support, EFF offers optional premium services such as consulting, project management tools and charter application assistance.
“We have a plethora of resources in every state and will continue to build on that as we get entrepreneurs in other states,” Donalds says.
Microschool Success Stories
EFF’s microschool model is already seeing success. Donalds recounts a story of a mom she encountered at a basketball game who described a learning environment she’d always dreamed of creating for homeschoolers. The mother described a place where students can go to do their schoolwork, have clubs and participate in sports together.
“I said, ‘You’re describing a microschool. That’s something that exists now—you could take the scholarship,’” says Donalds. “Through this basketball game, I convinced her she should start a microschool, because that was her dream.”
Donalds provided the mom with the resources that eventually became EFF’s toolkit.
“This conversation happened last basketball season, not a year ago. She opened last fall with 29 kids and a waitlist of over 20,” Donalds says. “Now she has her dream realized. This is the first of many success stories.”
In another community, Donalds knows a founder who wants to open a microschool in an area where workforce housing is being built for teachers and first responders.
“They don’t want to live there because the schools are not desirable,” Donalds says. “This mom is taking it upon herself to open a microschool near that new community so there’s a high-quality school option nearby for those new community members.”
EFF Support Leverages Available ESA Funding and Mitigates Risk of Program Loss
In some states, available charter and private schools have prohibitive waiting lists that keep families on the sidelines and often separate siblings. In states like Florida, parent-driven funding is available.
“We’ve got over 500,000 [Florida parents] taking advantage of scholarships now, and 14 other states that have universal programs,” Donalds says. “We need to ensure these programs don’t fall flat because parents are frustrated that they’re on waiting lists for private or charter schools and they’re not getting in.”
Crowded choice schools deter businesses and families from moving to Florida, Donalds says.
“Even though the [ESA] scholarship is very attractive and families get approximately $9,000 per student, they say, ‘Well, where am I going to spend it?’
“All these schools have wait lists, even to the extent in South Florida that siblings can’t get into some of the most desirable private schools. It is an issue with school choice states now and absolutely needs to be addressed.”
Those ESA funds can be redirected into starting a microschool, Donalds says. With EFF’s help, founders can take advantage of available funds and mitigate the risk of losing school choice programs completely due to underutilized resources.
“I don’t know anybody else who’s doing it the way we are,” she says.
How Donors Can Get Involved
Donors interested in supporting EFF can fund the development of startup resources, micro grants for entrepreneurs and outreach efforts to expand educational freedom. Laws are in constant flux, so EFF regularly researches and updates its toolkit to meet the standards for any public funding entrepreneurs are seeking.
In addition, EFF is starting a micro grant initiative that will award small grants to entrepreneurs to help them promote their new schools and get startup students. EFF encourages founders to set a goal of enrolling 25 students if the school is having to pay rent, or 10 students for a rent-free learning space, Donalds says. Micro grants would help cover those advertising and startup costs.
Donors may also support EFF’s expansion into new states and markets, according to Donalds. The organization needs funding for promotion and outreach to entrepreneurs in communities across the country. Spreading awareness of the Start-A-School Initiative will allow potential founders to take advantage of available resources.
If you are interested in learning more about EFF or how Philanthropy Roundtable supports K-12 education, please contact Pathways to Opportunity Program Director Stephen Allison here.
