In support of the Time to Succeed Coalition, the Ford Foundation recently announced the collaboration of more than 100 education, public and policy leaders to help children in underserved urban communities.

"The Ford Foundation has committed $50 million over three years to this initiative because it completely embodies our mission - to give all people the opportunity to reach their full potential," said Ford Foundation president Luis Ubinas. "We should all be embracing a longer, more smartly designed school day for our children."

The Time to Succeed Coalition plans to the restructure the school day to represent today's society. It believes the current school system is not meeting the needs of today's students because it's based on a farm and factory structure that no longer applies. Instead, the organization plans to extend the length of school days and duration of the year, pointing to studies by Roland Fryer, an economist at Harvard University, which found that achievement is directly correlated to more learning time.

Already, 460,000 students in 1,000 schools have benefited from longer school days through these educational initiatives, and the coalition aims to double its efforts over the next two years.

Schools that receive a portion of this pledge could benefit from fund accounting software to track their efforts and identify opportunities for additional support.