Three years after Dee and Jimmy Haslam bought the Cleveland Browns, they pledged $10 million to Breakthrough Schools. It was the charter school network’s largest single gift, the team said at the time.
The donation was an early sign for Clevelanders that the Tennessee billionaire family hoped to make a mark in the classroom.
Since becoming the Browns’ owners in 2012, they have spent tens of millions of dollars on educational efforts, supporting charter schools and school choice, youth programs, higher education and a campaign to boost school attendance.
They have said that their philanthropy is driven by the belief that “families in underserved communities should have choices and opportunities.” They’ve also backed “policy and systems reforms in public education,” according to their family foundation’s website.
Dee and Jimmy Haslam have held board seats on — and given millions to — national organizations that back school choice, an educational movement to expand school options through such policies as charter schools and vouchers. (Charters typically receive taxpayer dollars but aren’t directly managed by school districts, while vouchers are state scholarships students can use to attend private schools.)
One national think tank founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush credited the Haslams with helping to “fuel our mission to transform education across the country.”
The Haslams have also aided traditional public schools through the Cleveland Browns Foundation. Perhaps the team’s most prominent education initiative is the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network, an effort to boost school attendance. They have helped renovate school playing fields and donated $30,000 to Cleveland’s 2024 school levy campaign.
Now they have offered a hand, although not direct financial aid, to a relatively new nonprofit called Future Ready Cleveland. The nonprofit has recruited new charter schools to the city and aims to work with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, too.
Future Ready CEO Holly Trifiro previously served as Mayor Justin Bibb’s education advisor and consulted for the Haslam foundation after leaving City Hall. Now at Future Ready, she said the Haslams have served as important partners, helping her make national connections in the educational world.
“There’s a good relationship there,” she said in an interview in August.
Education a major share of Haslams’ philanthropy
Dee and Jimmy Haslam’s family foundation, the Haslam 3 Foundation, gave almost $81 million to schools and other educational efforts nationwide between 2013 and 2024, a Signal Cleveland review of tax filings found.
That’s well over half of their charitable giving over that period. Of that, more than $27 million went to charter schools or organizations that support charters or the broader school choice movement.
“Education is an important focus of ours, with a simple goal: ensuring every child has access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to thrive,” Dee Haslam said in a statement provided to Signal Cleveland through a spokesperson.
She emphasized the people working on the ground on education in Cleveland — from CMSD’s involvement in Stay in the Game to Future Ready Cleveland and its supporters.
“Across everything we support, our hope is the same: more Cleveland children have access to an excellent education, while recognizing that the most meaningful and lasting work is led by Cleveland’s educators, community leaders, and families,” her statement continued.
In Ohio, the Haslams have supported such education efforts as the Global Ambassadors Language Academy charter school; Partnership Schools, which manages several Catholic schools in Cleveland; the nonprofit School Choice Ohio and Metro Schools in Columbus. The latter is a public science and math school that is independent of the school district.
The Cleveland Browns Foundation, which is distinct from the family foundation, has spent at least $4.4 million since 2015 on its campaign to increase attendance in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and other school districts across the state, tax filings show. That’s part of $8 million in the team’s educational spending from 2014 to 2024, according to a Browns impact report.
The team has donated attendance campaign materials to such districts as East Cleveland, Lorain, Maple Heights, Columbus, Dayton and Euclid, tax filings show. The Browns have also supported Cleveland’s Muny League Football program, student mentoring, Cuyahoga County’s pre-kindergarten program and renovations of 17 playing fields across the Cleveland area.
The family remains involved in education in their home state of Tennessee, giving to the University of Tennessee and the Emerald Youth Foundation, a Christian nonprofit in Knoxville that runs youth leadership, tutoring and sports programs, for instance.
The Haslams are not the biggest local givers to education among Cleveland-area philanthropists. Nicholas Howley, the founder of defense contractor TransDigm Group, and his wife, Lorie, gave out more than $30 million in 2024 alone, much of it to Catholic schools and other educational organizations, for instance.
But as the owners of one of Cleveland’s three big professional sports teams, the Haslams have a line to City Hall, which oversees the public school system. The family has also signaled that it plans to stay in Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Magazine reported.
Aiding nationwide efforts for school choice
The Haslams have given to several national organizations seeking to shape education.
One of those groups is Oregon-based City Fund, which supports local organizations nationwide focused on expanding and improving charter schools. The Haslams have given the nonprofit $1.3 million as of 2024. City Fund is a major backer of Future Ready Cleveland.
City Fund has worked with the Haslam foundation “to support the work of local leaders in cities across the country, and that includes Cleveland,” Kristen Forbriger, City Fund’s vice president for external engagement, told Signal Cleveland.
The Haslams have given at least $8 million to the Charter School Growth Fund since Dee Haslam joined the nonprofit’s board in 2021. Based in Denver, the organization says that its portfolio of grant recipients — which includes Breakthrough Schools — is “the primary engine of new public charter school growth in the country.”
In a statement to Signal Cleveland, Charter School Growth Fund CEO Kevin Hall thanked Dee Haslam for dedicating “her time and resources to expanding the impact of high performing public charter schools across the country that are helping students achieve excellent outcomes.”
In 2017, Dee Haslam joined the board of ExcelinEd, an education think tank founded by Bush, the former Florida governor. The Haslams have given the group $2.1 million as of 2024.
The group has weighed in on educational policy in Ohio. In 2021, Bush and Dee Haslam issued a statement celebrating the passage of the state budget, which expanded funding for charter schools and the voucher program, known as EdChoice. The organization has sharply criticized a lawsuit brought by public school districts challenging EdChoice.
Patricia Levesque, ExcelinEd’s CEO, credited the Haslams with helping to “advance proven, student-centered solutions” on literacy, math and school funding.
They’ve given at least $1.1 million to the American Federation for Children Growth Fund, which has made grants to such organizations as Columbus-based School Choice Ohio. Jimmy Haslam previously served on the growth fund’s board. He and Dee have also contributed to the American Federation for Children Action Fund, a related advocacy and political group.
In a statement, AFC CEO Tommy Schultz wrote that the Haslams “share our mission of giving all families, particularly lower income families, the freedom to choose the best K-12 education for their children.”
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‘Not about choosing sides in a debate over school types’
Years before the Browns’ battle with Bibb over a new stadium in Brook Park hit the headlines, the Haslams aided a city effort to hear what residents wanted out of Cleveland schools. In the summer of Bibb’s first year as mayor, the family supported his listening tour to collect opinions from students, parents and teachers.
The Haslams’ foundation and the Cleveland Foundation split the costs of the tour, Ideastream Public Media reported in 2022. Jamie Woodson, a former Tennessee lawmaker who serves as a senior advisor to the Haslam 3 Foundation, was part of the tour’s advisory group.
Third Space Action Lab, a local research and design nonprofit, facilitated the tour’s conversations with Clevelanders. They had help from SCORE, a Tennessee-based educational nonprofit, according to a letter obtained by Signal Cleveland through a public records request. Woodson previously led the group, and the Haslams have donated to it over the years.
One of the listening tour’s takeaways was that Cleveland families enjoy being able to choose where their kids learn but that there are barriers to enrolling in high-quality schools. Researching the choices can be a burden. Exceptional options are unevenly distributed across the city.
The listening tour report mentions charter schools only in passing. In a 2022 interview with Signal Cleveland, Bibb said he was “completely against” for-profit charter operators, but suggested that he was more comfortable with other charters, such as Breakthrough Schools, that are already CMSD partners.
More recently, Cleveland and CMSD have consolidated and closed schools as the district contends with a budget hole and fewer students.
Future Ready Cleveland has taken up the idea that all neighborhoods need high-quality schools. While the group has brought new charters to Cleveland, Trifiro wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland that she is focused on connecting families with good education options, whether through traditional public schools, charters or private schools.
“Our work is not about choosing sides in a debate over school types,” she wrote. “It is about expanding access to high-quality options and addressing the inequities that have too often made educational opportunity dependent on a family’s neighborhood or income.”
Dee Haslam on the family’s educational giving:
“Education is an important focus of ours, with a simple goal: ensuring every child has access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to thrive.
“We’re humbled and grateful to work alongside CMSD leaders and educators through Stay in the Game and our field refurbishments across Northeast Ohio. Both efforts have helped drive real, measurable improvements in school attendance — helping more students stay connected to school and opportunity.
“Future Ready Cleveland is a broader community effort focused on expanding access to high-quality learning opportunities for Cleveland families. We’re grateful for the many local leaders, educators, and community partners working toward that goal.
“Across everything we support, our hope is the same: more Cleveland children have access to an excellent education, while recognizing that the most meaningful and lasting work is led by Cleveland’s educators, community leaders, and families.”
