By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
The Truth Contributor
A dream deferred is a dream denied. – Langston Hughes
Like the dreams the late poet-activist-playwright Langston Hughes once wrote about, a promise starved doesn’t just fade—it festers, sags and, in the end, it may explode.
HOPE Toledo may have been more aspirational than achievable. Still, it is one of the boldest educational and social justice initiatives this city has ever attempted. Its mission—to support and ensure high-quality education, from preschool to post-secondary and trade school, for every young person in Toledo — is certainly visionary, and it is necessary.
Within that broader mission lives its most public and ambitious program: the HOPE Toledo Promise Initiative. The Promise is more than a scholarship; it aspires to break generational cycles of poverty by offering free tuition, room and board, and fees to high school graduates—and their parents. Hailed as the first fully funded two-generation scholarship program in the nation, in addition to degrees, it promised individuals and families long neglected by policy and philanthropy: “You matter.”
From the beginning, Rev. John C. Jones has been Hope Toledo’s staunchest advocate. Inserted into the leadership position by philanthropic institutional giants such as ProMedica, Jones wasn’t some parachuting nonprofit executive. He is ours, a trusted native son deeply rooted in youth and community work who brought gravitas and credibility to the vision. Under his leadership, the vision caught fire, sparking national attention and inspiring similar efforts, including the highly capitalized HOPE Chicago.
But, five years later, that hope appears to be starving to death and now on life support.
Institutional leaders familiar with HOPE Toledo’s internal operations “think it’s over,” doubtful that an unnamed out-of-town foundation will come through with desperately needed funding to sustain the program. If the funder does, “it’s likely to be just enough to pay the bills through June—and then it’s done.”
Who Is to Blame?
HOPE Toledo’s 2019 founder, Pete Kadens, CEO of Green Thumb Industries, a publicly traded cannabis company valued in the billions, and the Kaden Family Foundation, is certainly not the cause of the program’s failure. Kadens kept his commitment to fund the post-secondary education for the Scott High School class of 2020.
Rev. Jones’ name has also been unfairly dragged through the mud without acknowledging the unfulfilled, bold commitments from local institutions that ultimately cut the legs from both him and HOPE Toledo, causing Jones to shift to a “rob Peter to pay Paul” survival mode in an attempt to survive.
The warning signs have been there.
In 2020, an ill-designed City-sponsored ballot initiative attempted to tie universal pre-K access to road repairs and infrastructure investment. That measure failed miserably at the polls, likely because it tried to do too much at once, and Toledo voters may have also sensed the process was manipulating them.
Since then, Jones and others have used heavy lobbying to attempt to put together a standalone countywide Pre-K levy on the November 2025 ballot. Yet even that effort is facing headwinds: the Ohio General Assembly has thus far refused to authorize the inclusion of Pre-K language on the ballot, blocking a clear path to public funding.
It’s also important to reiterate that Rev. Jones did not act alone in building the Promise. Major local institutions, including ProMedica, were initially among HOPE Toledo’s strongest backers. Yet financial headwinds hit—particularly in 2022, as ProMedica faced mounting losses totaling in the tens of millions of dollars, executive shakeups, and a system-wide reorganization—their commitment quietly evaporated. While ProMedica focused on righting its own financial ship, it left this critical community initiative underfunded.
HOPE Toledo, then, faltered not because of one man’s leadership but because the pillars that were supposed to hold it up stepped back and withdrew.
There is some good news, however. The University of Toledo has recently committed to ensuring that students from the high school classes of 2021 and 2022, who were promised scholarship coverage after the initial 2020 cohort, will receive scholarships and PELL grants, including all the necessary pieces so that they don’t get left behind. Lourdes University will probably follow suit, raising at least $98,000 to guarantee the promises made to students who enrolled there.
Where Do We Go from Here?
The real tragedy of HOPE Toledo isn’t that we dreamed too big. It’s that we didn’t build big enough to hold the dream.
However, we must remember that Toledo isn’t Chicago. We don’t have an army of Fortune 500 backers or billionaire foundations. That means we have to build smarter. We need leaders with fundraising and development experience who can secure multi-year, diversified funding streams—not rely on one-time gifts or handshake assumptions.
We also need educational experts who understand how to navigate complex systems, build partnerships, and measure impact in ways that inspire public confidence and institutional buy-in. And then, we must have governance models that ensure financial transparency, strategic clarity, and accountable stewardship, not dependence on charisma or emergency rescue plans.
Let’s not allow this moment to become just another cautionary tale in a city already too familiar with disappointment.
Let’s fulfill and keep the promises made by building what lasts.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@enterofhopebaptist.org