Above & Beyond Teaching Formerly - Carlston Family Foundation
ActiveEducationFunds Individuals
About Above & Beyond Teaching Formerly - Carlston Family Foundation
This foundation primarily makes direct cash awards to individual K–12 teachers through an annual “Outstanding Teachers of America” recognition program. Grants are uniform in purpose and size and are intended as personal recognition/support for exemplary classroom teachers rather than institutional program funding. The giving is mission-focused on teacher excellence and morale rather than broad education system reform.
Focus Areas
Outstanding Teachers of America cash awards to individual K–12 teachersTeacher recognition and direct financial support for classroom educatorsAnnual cohort-based educator award program (2022–2023 cohorts)
Who They Fund
K-12 teachersaward finalists/runners-upclassroom educators
Giving Approach
Concentrated, cohort-style giving: many small-to-midsize individual awards each year to teachers in a recurring recognition program. Funds are distributed directly to individuals rather than to nonprofits, with consistent grant sizes ($10k–$15k) and repeated annual rounds.
Funding Style
About Above & Beyond Teaching Formerly - Carlston Family Foundation
Above & Beyond Teaching formerly - Carlston Family Foundation centers its giving on California public high school teachers, combining personal awards for educators with school-level cash awards through its annual Outstanding Teachers of America program. The structure is unusually direct: individual honorees receive a $10,000 personal award, and their schools receive $2,000 to use at the school’s discretion. Recent grants show the pattern clearly, with awards going to teachers such as Quang Luong, Deborah Ann Andrus, Andrew Kordik, and Wendy Lynn Umekubo Takahashi, all listed in San Rafael, CA in the grants record. The foundation also appears to recognize finalists and runners-up, including a $1,000 award to Michelle Diane Suarez as a runner-up and additional smaller awards to other educators. Its stated focus is on teachers working in disadvantaged urban and rural communities, with an emphasis on classroom excellence, retention, and professional recognition rather than institutional program funding. The recurring annual award format makes the foundation’s giving highly standardized and educator-specific.
What Above & Beyond Teaching Formerly - Carlston Family Foundation Funds
Teacher recognition is the core of this foundation’s work. In 2025, it gave $10,000 to Noah Lippe-Klein, Michael Andrew Tinoco, Huy Pham, and Leanne Linares through the Outstanding Teachers of America Award. Earlier awards show the same structure in 2024, including $10,000 grants to Tracey Lynn Williams-Anderson, Michelle Diane Suarez, Daniel Buccieri, and Catherine Lea Borek. The school component is also consistent: Valley Center High School received $5,000 in 2023 and again in 2025, while Westminster High School and Diego Rivera Learning Complex received $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, in 2025. The grants are aimed at California public high school educators, especially those in disadvantaged urban and rural communities.
How Above & Beyond Teaching Formerly - Carlston Family Foundation Gives
Typical grant sizes cluster at $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000, with a p25 of $1,000, median of $5,000, and p75 of $10,000. The recent record shows a repeated annual award cycle rather than one-off discretionary grantmaking, and some recipients appear more than once across years, including Michelle Diane Suarez and Valley Center High School. The foundation makes program-related investments: False. It also funds individuals directly, which is reflected in the educator awards and runner-up recognition awards.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$50K
Total Assets
$1.9M
Total Revenue
$426K
Total Expenses
$408K
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $1K and $10K, with a median of $5K.
25th Percentile
$1K
Median
$5K
75th Percentile
$10K
Geographic Reach
Local1 state funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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