A quarter century of budget slashing resulted in the acute deterioration of physical education and sports facilities at New York City's public high schools across the five boroughs. Take the Field was launched with initial grants from the Heckscher Foundation and the Greve Foundation. Take the Field built a public-private partnership which achieved the unimaginable: it developed the concept of providing naming rights to the fields, convincing the City to match every $1 in private donations with $3 in government funding. Our initial grant led other funders to support the concept and eventually raised $36 million in private sector funding and $97 million in public sector funds to rebuild 43 state-of-the-art outdoor athletic facilities. 2008 saw the successful conclusion of the project, which includes facilities at John Dewey High School named for the Foundation.
