College Futures Foundation: Grants for College Readiness

 OVERVIEW: The College Futures Foundation aims to increase the number of student who graduate from college in the state of California.

IP TAKE:  The College Futures Foundation is a funder that centers “learners and their aspirations and needs on the path to achieving their educational goals.” It supports college readiness in California through its pipeline to degree program. This transparent funder partners with research institutes, educational consultants, school districts, community colleges and other postsecondary institutions, and maintains a searchable database of previous grantees. While it invites college readiness groups to reach out with questions or general inquiries, the Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.

PROFILE: Based in San Francisco, California the College Futures Foundation was established in 2005 upon the sale of CHELA, a nonprofit student loan company. It seeks to “increase postsecondary completion for learners who are underserved.” It has an endowment of $500 million and awards more than $20 million in grants annually. The foundation aims to affect a significant increase in the number of students who complete four-year college degrees in California. Its stated initiatives are student-centric practices, leadership and higher education finance reform.

Grants for College Readiness

The College Futures Foundation supports college readiness mainly through its student-centric practices program. It makes grants through the Dual Enrollment initiative, which seeks to enable students to take college-level coursework while in high school. The foundation supports organizations “focused on designing dual enrollment programs to ensure that the courses students take are credit-bearing, transferrable, and relevant to their postsecondary ambitions, and to enable those who have historically not had access—including Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other students underrepresented in higher education—to be better served and supported.”

One past grantee, Harder+Company Community Research, designed and implemented mathematics and statistics courses designed to help high school students in Los Angeles transition to college level math. Another past grantee, the Sacramento City Unified School District, used funding to implement a program aimed at increasing high school students' preparation for and enrollment in postsecondary programs of study.

Important Grant Details

College Futures Foundation grants range from $20,000 to about $3 million, with an average grant amount of about $100,000 and is limited to organizations operating in the state of California. A grants database is available on the foundation's website.

This funder accepts proposals by invitation only.

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