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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 Business Education and Employment Opportunity in Postsecondary Education in Prison Programs

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Resilience Education|$2,888,700|5/2023 - 5/2026
This grant supports Resilience Education in expanding a consortium of leading business and law schools delivering credit-bearing business and financial skills courses in prisons. Resilience will develop new curriculum, build partnerships with additional professional schools and corrections facilities and create new employer partnerships to increase the number of learners gaining professional skills and finding employment after release.

Sustaining and Scaling Supportive Educational Practices

Support
Tennessee Board of Regents-The College System of Tennessee |$1,456,400|5/2023 - 4/2026
This grant supports the Tennessee Board of Regents, the governing body for the College System of Tennessee, in scaling high impact practices and applying learning mindset research to create more supportive classrooms throughout the system.

Reducing Student Loss from Enrollment to Census: Improving Student Connectedness

Support
Institute for Evidence-Based Change|$847,521|5/2023 - 12/2025
This grant supports the Institute for Evidence-Based Change in partnering with Alamo Colleges District to address early student attrition. The partners will engage faculty and staff to examine institutional data and student experiences to identify campus-level practices that may help retain students at risk of leaving prior to colleges' official enrollment count.

Transfer Funders Group Facilitation & Planning

Field Development
Sova Solutions|$51,500|5/2023 - 4/2024
This grant supports Sova Solutions in facilitating a planning process for the transfer funders group created informally by Ascendium and other postsecondary education funders in 2020. This process will explore the continued role of the network, including the potential for funding collaboration in support of shared grantmaking priorities related to transfer and credit mobility.

Support for EWA Training on Postsecondary Education Topics

Field Development
Education Writers Association|$150,000|5/2023 - 12/2023
This grant supports the Education Writers Association in strengthening the quality of national postsecondary education media coverage. The grant supports a mix of programming that focuses on removing structural barriers to postsecondary education success for learners from low-income backgrounds.

Preparing for Pell Grant Eligibility for Incarcerated Learners

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National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators|$620,125|4/2023 - 7/2025
This grant supports the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in providing technical support to financial aid offices preparing for the return of Pell grant eligibility for incarcerated learners.

Seeding Innovation in Restorative Justice Curriculum

Field Development
University of North Alabama|$50,000|4/2023 - 5/2024
This grant supports the Restorative Justice Lab at the University of North Alabama in developing an applied learning complement to its 18-hour credit-bearing Certificate in Restorative Justice for incarcerated learners and laying the groundwork for evaluation contextualized to in-prison program delivery.

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Support
The Urban Institute |$500,000|3/2023 - 4/2026
This grant supports the Urban Institute in refining and testing the Family Friendly Campus Toolkit, which helps institutions better serve parenting students.

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Support
Georgia State University Research Foundation Inc|$500,000|3/2023 - 2/2026
This grant supports Georgia State University in evaluating the impact of a statewide online instruction initiative on the enrollment, completion and employment outcomes of rural learners.

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Support
North Carolina State University|$490,200|3/2023 - 2/2026
This grant supports North Carolina State University in investigating the effectiveness of its statewide Rural College Leaders Program in contributing to student success reforms.