The New School Foundation was not born from a commission, legislative mandate, research project, think tank, or even the mind of a leading education scholar. One of Washington state's pioneering PreK-3rd initiatives began as the brainchild of a wealthy Seattle businessman, Stuart Sloan, 20 years ago. The New School Foundation and its ideas were far from an overnight success. Initially, community members resisted the Foundation's program. Its unprecedented partnership with the Seattle Public Schools strained and still strains at times. Change and success took far longer than many hoped. Ultimately, however, the Foundation succeeded. Student test scores rose, communities and families became engaged, and the idea of a more integrated PreK-3rd continuum spread. These struggles and successes hold lessons for foundations considering the next generation of investments that could expand this work around the country. One of the central lessons is that the New School Foundation succeeded because it never gave up. The Foundation spent two decades in an arena--public elementary education reform--where change often moves at a glacial pace, and foundations typically commit no more than a few years to a strategy. The New School Foundation learned, sometimes painfully, that it can take many years to make measurable change, even with substantial private investment. In fact, Sloan and his team spent six years opening their first school at T.T. Minor. Appended are: (1) The Foundation of PreK-3rd; and (2) Funding: Per Student Costs. (Contains 4 footnotes.)