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Ascendium Education Philanthropy is a division of Ascendium Education Group.

Awarded Grants

The grants we award advance our core strategies to Expand Opportunity, Support Learner Success, and Connect and Align Systems. They also promote field support and development efforts across strategies.

Strategies

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Expanding Substate Employment Projections to Improve Decision-Making and Workforce Planning

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Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness|$3,000,000|11/2025 - 10/2028
This grant supports the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness to work with two cohorts of states to improve the use of publicly available labor market information at the local and regional level, to better align education and training programs to relevant labor market demand.

Strategic Evidence Planning Cohort

Field Development
Project Evident Inc|$1,150,200|11/2025 - 10/2026
This grant supports Project Evident in engaging with six Ascendium-funded partners to develop roadmaps for generating the data and evidence needed for internal learning, program improvement, and communication of impact.

Formalizing the North Carolina Prison Education Consortium

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North Carolina Prison Education Consortium|$750,000|10/2025 - 9/2028
This grant supports North Carolina Prison Education Consortium in launching state-level communications, best-in-class program design, data-sharing practices, and codified processes for colleges utilizing Pell grants for students with a history of incarceration in North Carolina.

IAF Affiliate Benchmarking Project

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Economic Mobility Corporation|$475,000|10/2025 - 9/2028
This grant supports Economic Mobility Corporation in partnering with five sectoral workforce training organizations in Texas to develop standardized performance metrics in order to assess fidelity of program implementation, improve service delivery, and share best practices.

Strive to Thrive: Supporting Student Success Coaching in Emerging HSIs

Support
Strada Collaborative LLC|$707,825|10/2025 - 6/2028
This grant supports InsideTrack to support three emerging Hispanic Serving Institutions in using InsideTrack’s evidence-based success coaching program to improve retention, academic success, and completion rates. InsideTrack will also provide training to institutional staff to create sustainable in-house coaching programs.

National Reporting by Hechinger Report on Postsecondary Education and Workforce Training

Field Development
Teachers College, Columbia University|$450,000|10/2025 - 9/2027
This grant supports The Hechinger Report, a publication of the Teachers College at Columbia University, in producing high-quality reporting on emerging trends, challenges, and promising solutions in postsecondary education and workforce training.

Revising Higher Education Funding to Promote Credential Attainment and Economic Mobility

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Partnership for Learning|$500,000|10/2025 - 9/2027
This grant supports Partnership for Learning in leading a state-wide effort to revise higher education funding for public institutions to better promote credential attainment and economic mobility.

Launching the Center for Research on Education, Justice and Opportunity

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University of Utah|$8,000,000|9/2025 - 8/2029
This grant supports the University of Utah in launching a research center focused on postsecondary education in prisons. The proposed center will serve as a national hub for advancing research to inform the design, evaluation, and improvement of those programs.

RENEW – Reinvesting in Nursing Education and Workforce

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WGU Corporation|$2,381,300|9/2025 - 8/2029
This grant supports Western Governors University (WGU) and Social Finance in building the infrastructure to implement, track, and evaluate the efficacy of the ReNEW Fund – a zero-interest loan program designed to increase the access and completion of learners from low-income and rural backgrounds in WGU's competency-based pre-licensure BSN degree program.

Decreasing Time to Degree Through Student-Centered Course Scheduling

Support
American Association of State Colleges and Universities|$2,433,800|9/2025 - 12/2027
This grant supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in leading a cohort of 20 regional public universities in making changes to course schedules that improve on-time completion of credentials.