By Trish Landeg and Jay Bakhru
In the past few months, we’ve heard the same question from dozens of nonprofit leaders:
“Are districts even buying right now?”
It’s a fair question. The landscape feels unfamiliar. Federal ESSER funding has ended. Enrollment is shifting. Funders are tightening requirements. Districts are operating with fewer personnel, smaller budgets, and increasing pressure to deliver results.
When the map changes, it’s easy to feel disoriented. But that’s when the market becomes your North Star.
From Confusion to Focus
In more generous times, the education market can reward enthusiasm without precision. A pilot here, a conversation there, a promising conference connection—and something takes off.
In today’s climate, those paths are harder to find. What moves now are ideas that are grounded in real need and structured for implementation.
- Does this solve a current, visible priority?
- Can it be implemented with limited staff?
- Is it aligned to funding streams that districts are using right now?
- Is it easy to explain to a school board or a parent group?
These are the questions district and system leaders are asking, and they are the questions providers must be ready to answer.
This moment calls for focus, not retreat. It is about aligning your efforts to where demand is real and momentum is possible.
The Market Doesn’t Disappear. It Sharpens.
After the 2008 crash, many believed there would be no room for new education investments at all. The shift from print to digital brought similar doubts. And during the pandemic, many expected systems to pause. What happened instead was more complicated.
Some doors closed. Others opened. Organizations had to move differently—riding the wave where they could, pausing when needed, and making sharper moves when opportunities emerged.
The education market did not vanish. It adjusted. It focused on what mattered most, and innovation still happened, especially among teams that stayed attuned to what systems truly needed.
Districts prioritized immediate needs like literacy, math, connectivity, and student well-being. They also adopted new tools, experimented with different approaches, and responded to the moment with urgency and creativity.
At EdSolutions, our leadership team has worked across the education market at startups, nonprofits, large publishers, and everything in between. We have seen growth at every stage and in every kind of organization. What we have learned is simple: strategy matters most when conditions are tight.
When systems are under pressure, they still buy. But they buy more deliberately. They anchor decisions in what is feasible, aligned, and fundable. The bar rises. The window narrows. But there is still movement.
What Growth Looks Like Now
Growth is still happening. But it’s more targeted, more tactical, and more tied to timing.
The organizations gaining traction today are not just compelling. They are positioned. They know which districts are most ready. They understand what signals to watch. They’ve structured their offerings in ways that fit current constraints without losing their core.
They’ve done the work to clarify not only what they do, but why it matters right now.
The challenge is that many mission-driven teams know their purpose, but not their market position. They sense what they want to build, but haven’t defined how it fits into what systems need in this moment.
That’s where sharper strategy makes all the difference. Knowing how to interpret market signals, identify demand drivers, and structure offerings accordingly is no longer optional. It’s foundational.
Your product reflects what you know.
Your offering reflects what the market understands.
When the map changes, the market is the North Star.
Ready to reframe your strategy for this moment?
We’re helping mission-driven teams navigate uncertainty with clarity, precision, and purpose.
Schedule a 30-minute strategy call
Learn more at edsolutions.com