In 2017, Greater Texas Foundation’s board of directors approved 55 new grants for a total of $22,432,787 in new funding to improve postsecondary outcomes for Texas students.

POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION
(Preparation, Access, Persistence, and Completion)


$175,000 to The Aspen Institute, Inc. (Washington, DC)
To support the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund to 1) build strong evidence of success for utilizing the collective impact community collaboration strategy to build and deepen pathways that achieve better outcomes in education and employment for Opportunity Youth, and 2) make the case for increased adoption of collective impact and community collaboration as an effective model for community change.

$5,000 to Council for the Study of Community Colleges (Austin)
To support the Council for the Study of Community Colleges 2018 Conference as well as provide scholarships.

$250,000 to College Forward (Austin)
To support Success Partnerships for Systems Change, which helps institutions of higher education develop the capacity to effectively support their most vulnerable students.

$480,000 to Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc./Educate Texas (Dallas)
To support the El Paso Collective Impact Initiative, a foundational strategy for aligning the community, utilizing data to inform strategies, and accelerating efforts to increase student success.

$1,275,800 to Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc./Educate Texas (Dallas)
To support the Texas College Access Network (TxCAN), whose mission is to increase postsecondary access for all students by building statewide partnerships, strengthening local college access networks, and scaling best practices.

$25,000 to The Dallas Foundation (Dallas)
To support Texas 2036 in the creation of a deep-dive, fact-based set of strategies for rural communities in Texas.

$60,000 to E3 Alliance (Austin)
To support Emergency Bridge Funding, which provides "last dollar" assistance to students who are receiving federal/state aid emergency funding to ensure their persistence and success in higher education.

$135,000 to Jobs for the Future, Inc. (Washington, DC)
To support Back on Track to College, a due diligence process for the selection of schools and programs serving off-track and out-of-school youth that are poised to build out bridges to postsecondary credentials, so that all formerly disconnected youth not only graduate with a high school credential but transition to a postsecondary program of study with the academic and persistence skills to persevere to a credential.

$40,000 to PelotonU (Austin)
To support New College Pathways for Working Students to assist PelotonU in designing a framework to scale blended higher ed in Texas.

$89,766 TO SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY (HUNTSVILLE)
To support Designing Accessible Approaches for Student Success: An Online First-Year Seminar for Students Enrolled in Developmental Mathematics, research which will develop a special section of the first-year seminar with the purpose of enhancing the academic performance of students enrolled in developmental mathematics.

$35,962.30 to Texas A&M Foundation (College Station)
To support A Planning Grant to Develop the Rural Texas College Access Project, a series of site visits to rural counties in several regions of the state to engage local stakeholders to determine the need for supplemental college access services in their counties and willingness to participate in a 3–5-year demonstration project.

$3,173,648 to Texas A&M Foundation (College Station)
To support the AgriLife Extension Rural Student Success Initiative to increase the number of rural students enrolling in and completing a postsecondary certificate or degree program.

$25,000 to Texas A&M Foundation (College Station)
To support the Greater Texas Foundation Southerland Aggie Leader Scholarship at Texas A&M University.

$1,354,000 to Texas A&M University (College Station)
To support Greater Texas Foundation Aggie Scholars 2.0, which will help to increase the number of Texas early college high school graduates who successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree.

$160,000 to Texas A&M University (College Station)
To support the GTF TAMU Advising Corps, which places two recent A&M graduates at two Bryan ISD high schools to serve as college advisers.

$1,440,000 to Texas A&M University-San Antonio (San Antonio)
To support the A&M-San Antonio Greater Texas Foundation Scholars Program, which will increase the number of Texas early college high school (ECHS) graduates who successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree.

$2,000,000 to Texas Community College Education Initiative (Austin)
To support Texas Pathways: 5 Year Implementation, an integrated, system-wide approach to student success based on intentionally designed, clear, coherent, and structured educational experiences, informed by available evidence, that guide students from the selection of their high school degree program (HB5 endorsement) to postsecondary entry to attainment of high-quality credentials and careers with value in the labor market.

$87,957 to Texas State University (San Marcos)
To support Can’t Buy Me College: The Role of College Support Nonprofits in an Era of Rising Costs: A study of the financial barrier students face in an era of rising tuition costs and state disinvestment in public higher education.

$2,500 to Texas State University — San Marcos Development Foundation (San Marcos)
To provide scholarships through the Karen Brown Endowed Scholarship Fund, a need-based scholarship for social work students interested in public policy, in appreciation of the service of a GTF Fellows mentor.

$90,000 to Texas Tech University (Lubbock)
To support Demystifying the College-Going Culture: A Qualitative Approach for Understanding the Impact of Dual Credit Participation on Low-Income, First-Generation Students of Color from Urban and Rural Communities, a study examining the influence of dual enrollment participation on working-class, first-generation, students of color from urban and rural setting on college matriculation, transition, and persistence.

$64,936.69 to University of Houston (Houston)
To support The Quest for College Readiness for all Students in Mathematics Begins with Elementary Teacher Preparation, research that studies the effectiveness of the University of Houston's teacher preparation program and examines the impact on career readiness by studying (and supporting) recent graduates into their first two years of teaching.

$1,440,000 to University of Houston—Downtown (Houston)
To support University of Houston-Downtown Greater Texas Foundation Scholars, which will increase the number of Texas early college high school (ECHS) graduates who successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree.

$1,627,826 to University of North Texas (Denton)
To support High School Career Connect, which will provide high school and middle school students with career guidance and will lead to greater confidence in post-graduation plans.

$890,000 to University of North Texas Foundation (Denton)
To support Greater Texas Foundation Scholars 2.0, which will increase the number of Texas early college high school graduates who successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree.

$90,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support Black Students’ Networks with Peers and Staff at Texas Higher Education Institutions: Understanding Social Connections in the Post-Fisher Era: A study investigating Black student networks at two universities to understand how they facilitate college completion, workforce readiness, and a positive college experience.

$87,337 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support Evaluating the Transition to College Mathematics Course in Texas High Schools: A study examining the effects of Transitions to College Mathematics course on post-secondary participation, performance, and persistence, relative to two distinct counter-factual conditions: participation in typical high school coursework and participation in conventional college preparatory mathematics courses.

$5,000 to The University of Texas at Austin
To support the 2017 UTeach Conference at the University of Texas at Austin, which provides three days of learning and networking with teachers, universities, and funders from across the nation.

$250,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support the Charles A. Dana Center’s Increasing Student Success in Entry-Level College Mathematics project to effect systems change by articulating high school transition mathematics courses with postsecondary mathematics pathways through regional partnerships.

$2,500 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To provide a scholarship for a deserving undergraduate student in the College of Education, in appreciation of the service of a GTF Fellows mentor.

$130,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support “Tell Me What I Need to Do”: How Texas Community College Students Experience and Interpret State Transfer Policies, research that will investigate: (1) What information do students receive regarding institutional and state transfer policies? (2) How does that information influence students' educational decisions and trajectories?

$500,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support the Guided Pathways Initiative, which will establish an innovative approach and scalable technology-based infrastructure to inform, empower, and support students by providing clear information about efficient pathways to completion of undergraduate certificates and degrees.

$10,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support the Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success) Symposium, hosted by Project MALES and co-sponsored by RISE for Boys and Men of Color, bringing together faculty and researchers with a shared research agenda focused on advancing equitable educational outcomes for male students of color.

$1,233,322 to The University of Texas at El Paso (El Paso)
To support ECHS Greater Texas Foundation Scholars 2.0, which will increase the number of Texas early college high school (ECHS) graduates who successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree.

$1,440,000 to The University of Texas of the Permian Basin (Odessa)
To support UTPB Greater Texas Foundation Scholars, which will help to increase the number of Texas early college high school (ECHS) graduates who successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree.

$207,120 to The University of Texas of the Permian Basin (Odessa)
To support the Rural Digital Early College High School Initiative, which provides blended online and face-to-face instruction through ECHS partnerships.

$1,440,000 to The University of Texas at Tyler (Tyler)
To support the UT-Tyler Greater Texas Foundation Scholars Program, which will increase the number of Texas early college high school (ECHS) graduates who successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree.

$203,296 to The University of Texas at Tyler (Tyler)
To support the Middle Math Matters project, which provides a one-year professional development program addressing the content areas of Algebraic Thinking and Proportional Reasoning to middle school mathematics teachers in rural East Texas.

$1,410,000 to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg)
To support the UTRGV Greater Texas Foundation Scholars Program, which will increase the number of Texas early college high school (ECHS) graduates who successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree.

$89,000 to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg)
To support Project ACCESS: Acquisition of Curricular Content for Exceptional Success in Science, a study addressing the need for a more inclusive science curriculum that will better prepare Latina/o students, including students whose first language is Spanish, for postsecondary success in science by focusing the study on learning in high school science classrooms.

$25,000 to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg)
To support the Wynn Rosser Endowed Scholarship at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to be given to a student enrolled in the School of Medicine who graduated from a Rio Grande Valley Early College High School. If such a candidate cannot be identified, the second preference shall be given to a student in the fields of health medicine, science, or engineering who graduated from a Rio Grande Valley Early College High School.

$299,367 to West Texas A&M University Foundation (Canyon)
To support An Assessment for Collective Impact: Rural Texas Panhandle Addresses Educational Attainment and Economic Opportunity, a landscape assessment that will help West Texas A&M University and their partners reach their goal to increase educational attainment and address economic opportunity through objective, meaningful, and targeted methodologies.

GTF Education Matching Grant Program
Distributed as part of the foundation’s Educational Matching Grant Program, whereby the foundation matches contributions to eligible grantees made by officers, board members, committee members, employees.

  • $5,000 to Baylor University (Waco)

  • $10,000 to Howard Payne University (Brownwood)

  • $5,000 to Prairie View A&M Foundation (Houston)

  • $500 to Southwestern University (Georgetown)

  • $10,000 to Texas A&M University (College Station)

  • (2) $2,400 to Texas A&M University-Commerce Foundation (Commerce)

  • $10,000 to Tyler Junior College Foundation (Tyler)

  • $10,000 to University of North Texas at Dallas Foundation (Dallas)

Membership Organizations

  • (2) $10,000 to Austin Community Foundation for the Capital Area (Austin)

  • $17,900 to Council on Foundations, Inc. (Washington, DC)

  • $1,750 to Grantmakers for Education (Portland, OR)

  • $900 to PEAK Grantmaking, Inc. (Washington, DC)