Explore Ascendium’s Refreshed Grantmaking Approach 
Streamlined focus. Stronger impact. Discover how our refreshed approach will guide our grantmaking to create opportunity for learners from low-income backgrounds, and join us for a webinar on Tuesday, April 1, to learn more.
Our North Star
Learning after high school, whether through postsecondary education or workforce training, provides the surest path to a well-paying and rewarding career. But that path isn’t always clear for those who need it most.
We envision a world where more low-income learners succeed in postsecondary education and workforce training as a path to upward mobility, regardless of race, rurality, history of incarceration, or other factors.We call this vision our North Star. It guides our grantmaking and directs our focus on removing the systemic barriers that disproportionately impact learners from low-income backgrounds.
Our Strategies
Our grantmaking is driven by three core strategies that aim to transform postsecondary education and workforce systems to better serve learners from low-income backgrounds.
News and Insights
Honoring Amy Kerwin
With profound sadness, we share the news of the passing of Amy Kerwin. Her legacy at Ascendium will continue to live on in her absence. One of her greatest contributions was creating Ascendium’s education philanthropy program, which started as a small regional giving program and grew to a national one.
