Camden Education Fund

The RISE Award

The RISE Award was launched in 2020 by the Camden Education Fund to honor Camden’s Resilient, Inspirational, Solutions-oriented Educators.

The RISE Awards will recognize and reward up to six (6)
teachers citywide for their extraordinary efforts. Teachers will receive recognition and a $5,000 cash prize.

The Process

Every Fall, Camden Education Fund begins accepting nominations from Principals for the RISE Award for Excellence in Teaching. Principals can nominate up to 3 teachers from their school.

Nominated teachers are asked to submit an official application by January 31. Of those nominated, up to 12 will be chosen as finalists and will be observed by the RISE Award Selection Committee in the Spring.

The nominations for the 2026 RISE Awards are now closed. Stay tuned for the winner announcement in May 2026!

We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis. George’s story is the story of too many Black Americans – Ahmaud Arbery, Breona Taylor, Trayvon Martin, and so many more, named and unnamed by the media— brutally and senselessly killed.

This loss of Black life and our persistent failure to bring those responsible to account expose the most grotesque, painful truth about our nation: the enduring legacy of white supremacy.

We will not heal until things change.

Camden Education Fund stands in solidarity with the Black community.

We remain deeply committed to bringing resources to support our public schools and the extraordinary youth-serving organizations in Camden, as we believe these are the institutions with the greatest potential to show our children, daily, that their lives and dreams matter.

The reality is that all organizations – ours included – have so much more work to do. We will hold ourselves accountable to building an organization that advances equity, promotes understanding, and dismantles racist structures.