In 2015, Greater Texas Foundation’s board of directors approved 34 new grants for a total of $4,190,481 in new funding to improve postsecondary outcomes for Texas students.

Postsecondary Education
(Preparation, Access, Persistence and Completion)

$5,000 to Texas Tribune, Inc. (Austin)
To support Higher Education Conversation, a discussion moderated by CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Evan Smith, on the most pressing education issues facing the state and questions related to where we should be five years from now.

$110,000 to Achieving the Dream, Inc. (Silver Spring, MD)
To support Community College Leadership Symposia for Institutional Change to deepen the capacity of sitting community college presidents in Texas to effectively lead reform work on their campuses to improve student preparation, access, persistence, and completion.

$50,000 to Texas Tribune, Inc. (Austin)
To support Higher Education Reporting, the Texas Tribune's ongoing coverage of higher education in Texas.

$450,000 to The Aspen Institute, Inc. (Washington, DC)
To support Strengthening the Texas Community College Presidency by enhancing both presidential hiring and professional development.

$2,000 to Excelencia in Education, Inc. (Washington, DC)
To support a consultant to plan and facilitate a policy workshop for the GTF Faculty Fellows at their annual study meeting.

$10,000 to Grantmakers for Education (Portland, OR)
To support Grantmakers for Education's Data and Innovation in Education Philanthropy meeting in Dallas, Texas.

$5,000 to Austin Community Foundation for the Capital Area (Austin)
To support the Texas Education Grantmakers Advocacy Consortium designed to be a forum for organizing philanthropic efforts to promote, protect, and improve public education.

$294,810 to Sul Ross State University (Alpine)
To support the College Forward Partnership to implement a mentoring program that will build stronger regional collaborations to strengthen educational attainment.

$30,000 to Jobs for the Future, Inc. (Boston, MA)
To support Next Generation Early College: Solving the Problem of the 61st Hour in Texas, research that will document the solutions to the 61st credit problem as worked out in El Paso.

$352,520 to Pharr – San Juan – Alamo Independent School District (Pharr)
To support the College for All Initiative which will allow PSJA ISD to continue sharing strategies and progress on key initiatives by serving as a demonstration site, providing teaching and learning experiences, enhancing faculty, staff and teacher effectiveness throughout the state, and enriching the quality of instruction and college opportunities for Texas students.

$4,050 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support Mathematics Trajectories from Preschool to Postsecondary, a synthesis of longitudinal research related to mathematics to help the field understand the longitudinal effects of mathematics performance and the necessity for adequate mathematics instruction across school settings.

$34,500 to Texas A&M University – Central Texas (Killeen)
To create the Removing Educational Barriers scholarship endowment for need-based scholarships at Texas A&M University-Central Texas.

$160,000 to Texas A&M University (College Station)
To support the GTF-TAMU Advising Corps which provides for a full-time college adviser at each of the two Bryan high schools for two years.

$847,100 to Lee College Foundation, Inc. (Baytown)
To support the development of the Lee College Dual Credit Institute, which will allow high school students to access and complete a postsecondary credential prior to high school graduation.

$527,731 to Texas Community College Education Initiative (Austin)
To support the Board Training for Student Success project to plan and implement a Board of Trustees Institute that will engage the leaders of 26 Texas colleges over three years (2015-2017) in activities designed to promote student access, success, and equity (closing achievement gaps) in Texas community colleges.

$1,000 to Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc. (Dallas)
To support the Alma Garcia Early College Scholarship Fund at the Communities Foundation of Texas.

$218,614 to Teacher’s College, Columbia University (New York, NY)
To support Strengthening Two- to Four-Year College Transfer Pathways in Texas, research that will identify potential policy levers to help improve the rate and cost-effectiveness of baccalaureate attainment among Texas community college students.

$37,006 to Intercultural Development Research Association (San Antonio)
To support the Ready Texas: Stakeholder Convening which will bring together policymakers, education, community, business and family leaders in Austin, Texas to discuss the current status of HB5 implementation, gather input on key questions about implementation to inform the design of a subsequent comprehensive study, and connect researchers who are studying facets of implementation.

$600,000 to Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc./Educate Texas (Dallas)
To support the Texas Regional STEM Degree Accelerator Phase II project to empower local institutions of higher education (two-year, four-year, and technical schools) to collaborate and design strategies that accelerate the number of students who graduate with STEM degrees within their own regions and across Texas. Greater Texas Foundation's support is for activities related to the West Texas rural partnership.

$60,000 to Altarum Institute (Ann Arbor, MI)
To produce An Issue Brief on Texas highlighting gaps in opportunity and life outcomes among racial and ethnic groups in Texas, and the importance to the business community and the state's economy of reducing these gaps.

$2,500 to Jobs for the Future, Inc. (Boston, MA)
To support the report production, blog/op-ed writing, social media, and email blast for Solving the Problem of the 61st Hour in Texas documenting the 61st credit problem as worked out in El Paso.

$35,000 to Grantmakers for Education (Portland, OR)
To support the development of a case study for the 2016 Education Grantmakers Institute: Rethinking Accountability in Education within the Context of Decentralization to explore the unique role of philanthropy in driving systemic change by leveraging public policy.

GTF Faculty Fellows Program Initiative

The Purpose of GTF Faculty Fellows is to build research and teaching capacity for Texas faculty working in areas related to the foundation’s mission and strategy.  The following four research grants were awarded in 2015:

$90,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support Dr. Huriya Jabbar’s research titled Exploring the Choice Sets and Decision-Making Processes of Texas Community College Students Intending to Transfer to Four-Year Institutions that will examine where community college students in Texas – focusing on those who are first-generation college-goers, low-income, or students of color – decide to pursue postsecondary education.

$49,568 to The University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington)
To support Dr. Taryn Allen’s research titled Engineering their Career: The Academic and Professional Experiences of Latino Engineering Students Who Enroll in an HSI with Dual Credits that examines the academic and social experiences of Latino students enrolled in engineering programs who enter a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with dual credits.

$89,931 to University of Houston (Houston)
To support Dr. Imani Goffney’s research titled The Quest for College Readiness for All Students in Mathematics Begins with Elementary Teacher Preparation that will focus on evaluating the effects and impact of the University of Houston's EC-6 teacher preparation program with an eye toward revising the elementary mathematics methods courses and corresponding student teaching experiences.

$90,000 to The University of Texas at El Paso (El Paso)
To support Dr. Amy Bach’s research titled English Language Learners on the Texas-Mexico Border: An Ethnographic Study Examining State Education Accountability Policies, a three-year ethnographic study in public high schools along the U.S./Mexico border to examine how state education accountability policies in the form of standardized testing affect English Language Learners (ELLs).

GTF Educational 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.

$10,000 to Texas A&M Foundation (College Station)
To support need-based scholarships at Texas A&M University.

$200 to Texas A&M University – Commerce Foundation (Commerce)
To support need-based scholarships at Texas A&M University – Commerce.

$10,000 to Tyler Junior College Foundation (Tyler)
To support need-based scholarships at Tyler Junior College.

$5,000 to Tyler Junior College Foundation (Tyler)
To support need-based scholarships at Tyler Junior College.

$5,000 to Baylor University (Waco)
To support need-based scholarships at Baylor Law School.

$200 to Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc. (Dallas)
To support Early College High School scholarships.

Membership Organizations

$1,750 to Grantmakers for Education (Portland, OR)
To support a membership organization of education grantmakers working to improve outcomes and expand opportunities for all learners across the education spectrum.

$2,000 to Grants Managers Network, Inc. (Washington, DC)
To support a membership organization with a mission to improve grantmaking by advancing the knowledge, skills, and abilities of grants management professionals and leading grantmakers to adopt and incorporate effective practices that benefit the philanthropic community.