President’s Message Refining Our Philanthropy for Lasting Change

The theme of our 2024 report, Shaping Our Future, reflects our commitment to contributing to a better future for the individual learners who are at the center of all we do, as well as for their families, their communities, and our national economy and society. When we remove barriers to postsecondary education and workforce training for learners from low-income backgrounds and ensure there are viable paths to upward mobility, everybody wins.

In 2024, we made over $160 million in grants to partners who share that commitment. We are immensely proud of and inspired by the work our partners accomplished throughout the year. We are also grateful for what we have learned from them.

But there is much more to do and learn. Too many people remain stuck in low-wage jobs with no clear alternative in sight. Some look at the costs and rigid structures of postsecondary education and workforce training and conclude that they are not worth doing. For those learners who do invest time and money to build a better future, the current systems create barrier after barrier to their success.

We, as a country, can do better. The promise that education beyond high school will lead to a better life has — for too many learners — not been kept. Those committed to the promise of education and training, including us, must continue to learn how to reshape and align the systems meant to deliver on it.

That is why, throughout 2024, we reviewed and refined our strategy. Seeking greater clarity about what we hope to achieve and how, we asked: How can we maximize our grantmaking’s impact to meet the scale of our aspirations? With our access to evidence and insight, how can we better position ourselves to aggregate and share that information? How can we best support our partners as they remain steadfast in their commitment to our shared goals?

As we move ahead with this renewed focus, we remain committed to stewarding Ascendium’s resources with a sense of urgency for renewing the promise of postsecondary education and workforce training for those who need it most.

Thank you for joining us in shaping a better future.