TG Public Benefit Grant Program
Grants Awarded for Academic Year 2010-2011
View 2010-11 Public Benefit Grants in a larger map
Grantee: Abilene Independent School District
Location: Abilene, TX
Project Title: College and Workforce Readiness Project 2011
Amount Funded: $151,572
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This project serves 250 Abilene ISD students through dual credit and certification courses that prepare them for success in higher education and/or high-demand, high-wage careers. TG funding will be applied to tuition and fees for AISD students to earn college credit through one of four participating higher education institutions. A special emphasis is placed on recruiting first-generation college students and students from underrepresented populations.
Grantee: ACCESS
Location: Boston, MA
Project Title: High School Advising Program
Amount Funded: $100,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
ACCESS's program places trained financial aid advisors in 40 Boston high schools. The advisors work one-on-one with students throughout the year, explaining the financial aid process, providing scholarship search guidance, assisting with financial aid forms and analyzing awards. Grant funds will help the program expand from its previous focus on seniors to include workshops and individual sessions with students in grades 9-12.
Grantee: Admission Possible
Location: St. Paul, MN
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $294.450
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
Funding will help Admission Possible enhance staff development and create new centralized services and tools including multi-site systems for billing and expenses, staff time tracking and allocation. Enhancements include leadership training, development consulting, and cultivation of local site stakeholders.
Grantee: Ann Richards School Foundation
Location: Austin, TX
Project Title: College Bound Program
Amount Funded: $64,349
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
The College Bound program offers students and families academic guidance and support; college awareness activities including visits to campus; career exploration opportunities including internships and field experiences; personalized guidance in the college selection, application and enrollment processes; and comprehensive application, financial aid, and enrollment support. During the 2010-11 year, approximately 560 young women and their families will benefit from the program.
Grantee: Bottom Line
Location: Jamaica Plain, MA
Project Title: College Access and College Success Programs
Amount Funded: $100,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program will help 625 low-income and first-generation high school seniors in the Boston and Worcester, MA, region to receive one-on-one advising as they navigate the college application process and 950 college students will receive personalized guidance as they work to earn a degree on regional campuses. This assistance includes support with monitoring progress toward degrees, completing financial aid renewal, and connecting with tutoring and mentoring resources.
Grantee: College Bound
Location: St. Louis, MO
Project Title: Complete U Persistence Program
Amount Funded: $93,500
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
College Bound equips first generation students from the lowest economic quartile with the cognitive and non-cognitive levers to succeed in best-fit, selective colleges and universities. Funding from TG will support 260 high school students, 120 college students who graduated from the CB high school program, and a pilot group of 10-15 college freshmen from partner organizations (whom otherwise would not receive persistence support).
Grantee: College Crusade of Rhode Island
Location: Providence, RI
Project Title: RI Gear Up
Amount Funded: $106,868
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program addresses the low academic achievement and college-going rates of low-income, predominantly first-generation urban students at 30 schools (grades 6-12) in Rhode Island. In particular, TG funding will support a summer program for middle school students to develop problem-solving, goal-setting, and decision-making skills that lead to greater academic success; a literacy program for sixth-grade students; and SAT preparation for high school juniors.
Grantee: College Forward
Location: Austin, TX
Project Title: AmeriCorps for College Access and Success
Amount Funded: $124,500
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program will serve more than 1,900 students in Texas through after-school coaching, college tours, college-knowledge workshops for students and parents, and persistence services for college students. Participants in College Forward's programming are predominantly low-income, first-generation students, and 65% are Latino.
Grantee: CollegeTracks
Location: Bethesda, MD
Project Title: College Access and Success Program
Amount Funded: $150,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program will provide college access services to more than 650 underrepresented high school juniors and seniors in two Montgomery County, MD, high schools, including assistance with the college exploration, application and enrollment processes. TG funding will also establish a pilot program focusing on retention services for CollegeTracks' 2011 graduates who are now attending higher education institutions. Support for these students will include financial aid advising, mentoring, and need-based emergency aid.
Grantee: Comer Science & Education Foundation
Location: Chicago, IL
Project Title: College Readiness Programs: Leaps and Bounds/College Bound
Amount Funded: $100,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program will serve 150 low-income students by providing college-readiness activities and guidance. In particular, TG funds will be used to pilot new programming for 50 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students, to include academic enrichment in math, science, and writing; mentoring; career exploration, and cultural activities.
Grantee: Con mi madre...Mothers and Daughters Raising Expectations
Location: Austin, TX
Project Title: Con mi MADRE...Mothers and Daughters Raising Expectations
Amount Funded: $76,476
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
Con mi MADRE will serve 700 mother-daughter teams through programming that emphasizes academic success and higher education attainment. Program components include college tours, workshops, mentoring, assistance with entrance exam or application fees, parent support group sessions, and twice-monthly meetings on public school campuses.
Grantee: Deaconess Foundation/St. Louis Regional College Access Pipeline
Location: St. Louis, MO
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $90,000
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
This project aims to strengthen St. Louis' regional capacity to deliver coordinated, effective programs to the 25,000 low-income students who need them. The region's only college access network, CAP will benefit from creating a regional college access and persistence strategy and developing a communications plan and platform to keep all stakeholders engaged and informed.
Grantee: Denver Scholarship Foundation
Location: Denver, CO
Project Title: College Access: Four Latino-Serving Denver High Schools
Amount Funded: $130,800
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program will continue the success of last year's TG-funded program and expand it to Manual and Bruce Randolph High Schools. The program will provide vital college access services to 783 9th grade and 597 12th grade students and their parents. Programming will include college planning, college visits, assistance with applications, financial aid workshops, and college tours.
Grantee: Dynamy
Location: Worcester, MA
Project Title: Youth Academy
Amount Funded: $65,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
The Youth Academy program serves 75 students in grades 9 through first-year of college. Major program elements include mentoring, internships, academic enrichment, tutoring, college readiness, community services, and leadership/character development. All students are low-income and first-generation, more than half are from emergent immigrant populations, and more than 75% are students of color.
Grantee: Education Equals Economics Alliance
Location: Austin, TX
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $113,489
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
This program would enhance the collaboration of participating organizations in the Austin College Access Network to improve college persistence for the region's low-income and first-generation students at several area colleges and universities. In particular, the program will help establish data tracking capabilities and provide resources for engaging higher education partners to develop shared programming to improve retention.
Grantee: Education is Freedom
Location: Dallas, TX
Project Title: College and Scholarship Application Support
Amount Funded: $170,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
Central to the EIF Dallas program are efforts to guide and assist students through the college application process in terms of early preparation, SAT/ACT registration, college selection, essay writing, college application completion and applications for private and public financial aid. The majority of students serve are low-income, first-generation students who need guidance and support in matriculating to college. The program serves 5,200 students in total within Dallas Independent School District, and this project would focus on the 2,300 high school seniors served.
Grantee: Educational Policy Institute
Location: Arlington, VA
Project Title: The Role of College Access Programs in College Completion
Amount Funded: $118,110
Category: Educational Research
Award Year: 2010-11
This study will explore the evolving and critical role college access organizations play in college completion, and the ways in which they are partnering with higher education institutions to keep students in college. The goal is to expand the vision of who can impact college completion rates, and identify ways that higher education institutions can partner with college access programs to increase the number and accelerate the pace at which students are attaining college degrees.
Grantee: Florida State College at Jacksonville
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Project Title: Minority Male Success Initiative
Amount Funded: $122,873
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program takes a holistic approach to help participants foster positive relationships with each other, the college community and their families to sustain their educational journey and help improve their options in life. Particular program components include intensive advising, career planning, life skill training, tutoring, mentoring, scholarships, financial literacy, assistance with transportation expenses, service learning, and cultural enrichment activities. Forty students will participate in this pilot project in 2010-11.
Grantee: Fort Worth Chamber Development Foundation
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Project Title: Opening Doors: Cradle to Career
Amount Funded: $102,997
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program represents a joint effort between the Ft. Worth Chamber, Ft. Worth ISD, Go Centers in Fort Worth and Tarrant Counties, and the nonprofit organization Abriendo Puertas to ensure a quality education and strong work ethic for youth, together with parental involvement and support. Program components will include enhanced mentoring to be made available through existing Go Centers, strengthening relationships with employers to encourage supportive behaviors to help students create balance between school and work; and to train 25 new parent volunteers through the Abriendo Puertas model to increase advocacy skills.
Grantee: Franklin & Marshall College
Location: Lancaster, PA
Project Title: Planning for our Future: Expanding and Sustaining the National College Advising Corps, Keystone Region
Amount Funded: $115,571
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
The National College Advising Corps places near-peer college advisers in high schools to assist more than 5,700 students specifically regarding college planning, application, and enrollment. For 2010-11, the second year for TG support of the program, funding will expand the reach to two additional high schools in the Keystone Region.
Grantee: Fulfillment Fund
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Project Title: College Access & Success Model
Amount Funded: $100,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program leverages intense resources for 480 low-income, underrepresented students in their junior and senior years of high school. Half of TG's funding will support programming that includes one-on-one college advising, college tours, financial aid assistance, and college fairs. The remaining funds will be awarded as need-based aid for 26 students.
Grantee: Graduate Philadelphia
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $97,325
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
This project will create a framework and protocols for analyzing data on more than 1,600 adult students returning to college complete a 2 or 4-year degree. Findings will feed back into current programming practices, be shared with partners in order to stimulate evaluation of existing practices at 18 partner colleges, and will be published and disseminated more widely.
Grantee: Hispanic Scholarship Consortium (HSC)
Location: Austin, TX
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $10,500
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
Funding would be used for professional program evaluation, strategic planning, and board/staff development. This process will allow HSC to determine areas of strength and opportunity and plan for the future. Ultimately, the organization aims to serve even more first-generation, underrepresented students from low-income families.
Grantee: Housing Authority of the City of Austin
Location: Austin, TX
Project Title: Y.E.S. to College
Amount Funded: $140,500
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
Y.E.S. to College will provide college access and success services to three populations of low-income housing residents: 65 middle school youth, 15 high school juniors and seniors, and 30 adult learners. TG funding will support college exploration and visits, summer learning experiences with parents, mentoring, academic assessment, remedial assistance and tutoring for adult learners, and career exploration.
Grantee: Houston A+ Challenge
Location: Houston, TX
Project Title: Preparing to Dream: Expanding College Access for Low-Income Students through Better Information, Preparation, and Support
Amount Funded: $90,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
Houston A+ Challenge has worked with eight Houston-area school districts, students, and families to positively impact the college-going culture in schools. This project will expand college visit opportunities, provide more resources in Spanish, and offer workshops on financial aid to low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students and families (approximately 2,000 for 2010-11) in Houston.
Grantee: I Know I Can
Location: Columbus, OH
Project Title: I Know I Can Make the Most of the Community College Experience
Amount Funded: $119,630
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This pilot project focuses on improving student persistence and transfer rates for 100 students enrolled at Columbus State Community College by providing a pre-enrollment program, individualized educational tracking and planning, retention specialist services, near-peer mentoring, workshops, financial support for tutoring services for students in developmental education, and an outreach program to promote re-enrollment among students who do not persist.
Grantee: Marin Education Fund
Location: San Rafael, CA
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $49,505
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
This program aims to better document impact and effectiveness and promote continuous program improvement through a comprehensive evaluation of all of its college access and scholarship programs. The project will include evaluation planning, data collection, analysis and reporting. As Marin Education Fund serves 100% low-income students, these students will benefit from the initial and ongoing program improvements resulting from the evaluation activities.
Grantee: National College Access Network Inc.
Location: Washington, DC
Project Title: Supporting Best Practices in Student Success
Amount Funded: $184,925
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This project will explore and assist four NCAN member programs that are in the process of creating, enhancing or expanding their persistence/retention programs. Experienced staff members from NCAN and its research partner (Institute for Higher Education Policy) will provide technical assistance, evaluation, and ultimately develop a report that will be shared throughout the college access and success community. The report will serve as a practitioner-focused, implementation guide for other programs to develop and strengthen their own student success programs.
Grantee: National College Advising Corps
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $135,000
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
This program will help build NCAC's capacity in the areas of data collection and evaluation, which are vital to the organization's ability to strengthen, scale, and sustain efforts to reach underserved populations by providing near-peer college advisors on high school campuses across the country.
Grantee: National Scholarship Providers Association
Location: Boulder, CO
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $75,000
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
This project will provide expert knowledge through a scholarship program guide for use by practitioners — especially those who cannot afford consultants and who are working with students in rural areas, first-generation students, and/or underserved populations. Among other features, the guide would include models of scholarship programs, explanation of the role of technology and database design in effective scholarship program management, marketing strategies for promoting scholarship programs, how to develop a scholarship selection process, and methods to retain students in school until graduation.
Grantee: On Point for College
Location: Syracuse, NY
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $78,870
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
This project will result in a program evaluation that examines the outcomes of OPFC's college-access efforts for students who have particular at-risk factors such as earning a GED rather than a diploma, aging out of foster care, criminal backgrounds, or refugee status. The organization has experienced increasing demand for services, and this project will document the factors contributing to the success of the program and inform potential replication.
Grantee: Oregon Student Assistance Commission
Location: Eugene, OR
Project Title: ASPIRE Challenge
Amount Funded: $119,624
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
ASPIRE is Oregon's official mentoring program. ASPIRE mentors and site coordinators provide information to help approximately 1,680 students access postsecondary education. Funds from TG will assist 30 ASPIRE sites where more than 50% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch to help students receive one-on-one mentoring, monthly podcasts, e-mentoring, workshops, and drop-in help from the college and career centers.
Grantee: Our Lady of the Lake University of San Antonio
Location: San Antonio, TX
Project Title: College Conexion: Pathways to Higher Education
Amount Funded: $174,320
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
College Conexion provides year-round academic and social support to 930 at-risk students in 6-12th grades at four San Antonio area school districts, culminating in summer college-immersion sessions for 150 students. Families also receive training to become advocates for their child's education. The majority of TG funding will be used to support the summer sessions.
Grantee: Posse Foundation
Location: New York, NY
Project Title: The Posse Program: Recruitment, Pre-Collegiate Training and Campus Support
Amount Funded: $100,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This program identifies public high school seniors with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes. The program uses its "Dynamic Assessment Process," an 8-month pre-collegiate training program, and a supportive peer-based campus program to help ensure the retention and graduation of its scholars.
Grantee: Round Rock Independent School District
Location: Round Rock, TX
Project Title: College Bound Mentor Program
Amount Funded: $96,996
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
CollegeBound will match 150 middle and high school students with mentors trained in encouraging students' college and career aspirations. The program will serve at-risk students including economically disadvantaged youth who are academically at-risk; students who will be the first in their family to go to college; and students dealing with the challenges of being homeless.
Grantee: Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, The
Location: St. Louis, MO
Project Title: Bravo Grant Program
Amount Funded: $75,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
Funding will provide need-based aid to 15 low-income, underrepresented students in the St. Louis area. These students will also receive services through the organization's student advocate and advising program, which helps them manage related issues of school choice, cost, debt burden, and personal finance management.
Grantee: Spring Hill College
Location: Mobile, AL
Project Title: Expanding College Access through ACT and FAFSA Workshops
Amount Funded: $50,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
This project aims to increase the percentage of Mobile's low-income, public school students who apply to college. Spring Hill students will work through the college's Foley Community Service Center to provide after school tutoring sessions at two of Mobile's highest-need schools. The FAFSA workshops will be tailored to low-income, first-generation students in 13 public high schools.
Grantee: St. Edward's University
Location: Austin, TX
Project Title: Bridge to College Success: Summer 2011
Amount Funded: $105,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
The newest program associated with St. Edward's University's CAMP program, the "Bridge to College Success" serves CAMP students and other financial-aid eligible, first-generation freshmen who require developmental coursework. TG funding will support 20 students with early academic intervention through six weeks of intensive instruction and tutoring in writing, reading comprehension, and math.
Grantee: Stark Education Partnership, Inc.
Location: Canton, OH
Project Title: Organizational Capacity Building
Amount Funded: $24,795
Category: Organizational Capacity
Award Year: 2010-11
This project will assist 17 public school districts in Stark County, OH, in determining the success of college preparatory curriculum and in taking early college opportunities to scale. The project involves the implementation of a student data tracking system, which will enable districts for the first time to test variables against individual student college outcomes through graduation. The project also includes funding for a symposium/conference to instruct district personnel and community representative on college outcome data.
Grantee: Sunnyside Unified School District
Location: Tucson, AZ
Project Title: Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage — Digital Scholars Preparation Initiative
Amount Funded: $157,500
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
With the broad goal of eliminating the gaps in college enrollment rates between low-income and higher-income students and between white students and underrepresented students, the Digital Advantage program specifically aims to improve the academic and social college preparation of students in high school. Funding from TG will support between 500 and 700 students through online community college enrichment classes, summer content area classes, college entrance exam opportunities, and social/motivational college activities.
Grantee: Texas Tech Foundation
Location: Lubbock, TX
Project Title: PEGASUS First Generation College Students Learning Community Support Program
Amount Funded: $74,800
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
The PEGASUS program supports first-generation students through academic advising, mentoring, and outreach programming. One of the newest program components is the residential living learning community, created in partnership with university housing. TG funding will be used to support additional mentoring in the learning community environment with the ultimate goal of raising students' GPAs and increasing persistence. Approximately $30,000 of TG funding will also support need-based aid for 60 students participating in the program.
Grantee: United Way of El Paso County
Location: El Paso, TX
Project Title: Youth Empowered to Succeed (YES)
Amount Funded: $109,545
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
Through this project, 400 predominantly Hispanic students will be provided with pre-collegiate outreach services, including programs and activities designed to increase developmental assets and improve college preparedness through after-school programming. Implementation partners include El Paso Community College, Project Vida, Boys & Girls Clubs and the YMCA of El Paso.
Grantee: University of Florida
Location: Gainesville, FL
Project Title: Boys in Peril: Examining Latino Boys' Educational Pathways and Motivation Towards Postsecondary Education
Amount Funded: $111,148
Category: Educational Research
Award Year: 2010-11
Recent national educational data reflects a trend of disproportionate rates of educational achievement and attainment by gender, which is widening in the Latino population. The key questions guiding this mixed-methods research project include: What are the experiences related to educational pathways and motivation towards postsecondary education among Latino boys in the Florida and Texas educational systems? What resources at the high school and postsecondary levels exist to assist Latino males in successful educational attainment?
Grantee: University of Michigan
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Project Title: Reconciling Federal, State and Institutional Policies Determining Educational Access for Immigrant and Undocumented Students: Implications for Professional Practice
Amount Funded: $156,986
Category: Educational Research
Award Year: 2010-11
This study will compare policy environments with the actual practices that shape access, participation, and graduation. Rooted in an understanding of how organizations mediate conflicting pressures, the study will explore how colleges and universities negotiate laws that constrain undocumented students' educational access and reconcile them with institutional values, governance arrangements, professional norms, and local circumstances.
Grantee: University of Missouri
Location: Columbia, MO
Project Title: The Missouri College Advising Corps: Increasing College Access for Rural and Urban Missouri Students
Amount Funded: $114,810
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
MCAC places intensively trained college graduates into Missouri high schools and community colleges to serve full-time as near-peer advisors on college access for disadvantaged and first-generation students. These guides help students with college planning, test registration and preparation, scheduling campus visits, conducting campus tours, and assisting with financial aid applications. TG funding would be used to support six of the 14 guides placed across the state, serving more than 5,000 students.
Grantee: University of Southern California
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Project Title: Increasing College Access through Digital Technologies
Amount Funded: $103,281
Category: Educational Research
Award Year: 2010-11
This mixed-methods study will evaluate the effectiveness of "Pathfinder," a college access intervention designed as a card game and as an online game available as a Facebook application. Study findings will inform understanding of how technology (specifically game-based technologies) can better promote college going among low-income students and enhance the effectiveness of the Pathfinder program, consequently contributing to the development of an innovative college access tool.
Grantee: University of Texas at Austin
Location: Austin, TX
Project Title: Texas College Advising Corps
Amount Funded: $205,703
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
In this program recent college graduates are placed as advisors in high schools across Texas. They provide intensive and immediate support at the lowest performing high school by conducting one-on-one counseling, giving presentations and workshops, assisting with SAT/ACT registrations, hosting family information sessions, and other outreach activities. This year will be the first year of implementation in Texas for this nationally recognized program, and TG funding will primarily be used to support five of 14 college advisors placed in high schools in San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley.
Grantee: University of Texas at San Antonio
Location: San Antonio, TX
Project Title: Texas Prefreshman Engineering Program
Amount Funded: $100,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
TexPREP will provide students in grades 6-11 with a rigorous 7-8 week summer mathematics-based academic enrichment program. The program will be provided in 18 cities on 38 college campuses, serving 3,400 students. Funding from TG will help to support program assistant mentors (current college students), who supervise students and serve as role models for the middle and high school participants.
Grantee: Wyman Center
Location: Eureka, MO
Project Title: Wyman Prep
Amount Funded: $120,000
Category: Direct Services to Students/Families
Award Year: 2010-11
The Wyman Center serves 1,000 middle and high school students in need through multi-year teen development programs. TG funding in 2010-11 will support the integration of college access programming for approximately 700 students and parents. The majority of TG funding will be used to support specific programming for high school juniors and seniors, including college visits and tours, leadership development, and financial aid workshops.
