Grantmaking - Ascendium Education Group, Inc.
Grantmaking - Ascendium Education Group, Inc. supports organizations improving postsecondary education and workforce training so learners from low-income backgrounds can succeed and achieve upward mobility.
Funder: Ascendium Education Group, Inc.
Due Dates: By invitation (Most opportunities) | Occasional open requests for proposals (Specific initiatives)
Funding Amounts: Over $100 million annually in Ascendium’s strategic grantmaking
Summary: Supports solutions that help learners from low-income backgrounds succeed in postsecondary education and workforce training as a path to upward mobility.
Key Information: Most opportunities are invitation-only; Ascendium does not typically accept unsolicited proposals.
Description
Ascendium Education Philanthropy, a division of Ascendium Education Group, supports organizations improving postsecondary education and workforce training systems for learners from low-income backgrounds. Its three strategies—Expand Opportunity, Support Learner Success, and Connect and Align Systems—address limited access to high-quality programs, barriers to participation and completion, and disconnected systems that waste learners’ time and money.
The program funds innovations, promising practices, and evidence-based models with potential to grow, alongside organizational capacity, improved data availability, and stronger connections across systems. It prioritizes data-driven innovation and evidence building to understand what works, for whom, and under what conditions, with attention to race, rurality, and incarceration. Grants can support direct improvements in learner outcomes or upstream changes in policies and systems. Ascendium also works with nonprofit media organizations and field leaders to share learner barriers, solutions, and lessons from funded work.
