In 2016, Greater Texas Foundation’s board of directors approved 35 new grants for a total of $5,683,125 in new funding to improve postsecondary outcomes for Texas students.

$275,000 to College for All Texans (Austin)
To support Dual Credit in Texas, an in-depth, empirically grounded research project on the effectiveness of currently delivered dual credit programs in Texas.

$183,600 to College for All Texans (Austin)
To support a Texas institution of higher education offering Texas Affordable Baccalaureates (TAB).

$500,000 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.

$583,992 to E3 Alliance (Austin)
To support Pathways of Promise 2.0 (PoP2): Scaling Promising Practices and Building Systems for High School and College Success, which will build a systematic approach for scaling "best strategies and interventions" to support broader and more equitable educational pathways leading to postsecondary credentials and meaningful careers.

$390,000 to EduGuide (Lansing, MI)
To support EduGuide Texas Persistence Network: Increasing College Persistence in the Rio Grande Valley, a program that will equip partners in the RGV Focus collective impact network to build student grit and other non-cognitive skills which research shows critically impact persistence.

$5,000 to Excelencia in Education, Inc. (Washington, DC)
To support consulting services for the Latino Student Success Funders Group.

$285,990 to Excelencia in Education, Inc. (Washington, DC)
To support Practice to Policy for Latino Student Success in Higher Education: Looking at Transfers, a project that will address the Latino transfer experience with an accelerated timeline to produce a set of informational tools, strategic engagements and policy recommendations to address Latino student success

$2,500 to FSG, Inc. (Boston, MA)
To support the Champions for Change workshop in San Antonio, Texas.

$318,000 to Intercultural Development Research Association (San Antonio)
To support Ready Texas: A Study of the Implementation of HB5 in Texas, a mixed-method study to examine district indicators of postsecondary readiness before and after implementation of HB 5.

$2,500 to Iowa State University (Ames, IA)
To support a need-based Scholarship at Iowa State University, in appreciation of the service of a GTF Fellows mentor.

$271,500 to KIPP, Inc. (Houston)
To support Phase III of United for College Success which plans to drastically increase the ability of all coalition members' students to succeed by strengthening partnerships and programs at member districts and focus colleges.

$1,000 to Sam Houston State University (Huntsville)
To provide need-based Scholarship Support.

$488,494 to Texas A&M University (College Station)
To support The Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color: Creating Institutional Capacity Building Tools and Activities, which will disseminate institutional capacity-building tools and activities (CBTA) derived directly from a three-year investigation of the best practices at Consortium institutions to create stronger pathways to and through college for male students of color.

$249,032 to Texas Community College Education Initiative (Austin)
To support the Texas Pathways: Planning and Capacity Building project, which targets transforming educational systems across three sectors, starting with the community colleges as leads with partners from public schools and four-year institutions.

$100,000 to Texas Education Agency (Austin)
To provide TEA Strategic Planning Support for the development of an agency-wide operational plan that will inform Commissioner Morath's strategic approach and serve as the foundation of a transformative effort to improve agency alignment, focus, and performance in service of improving academic outcomes for more than five million students state-wide.

$156,790.92 to Texas State University (San Marcos)
To support Sealing the Pipeline: The Impact of Developmental Integrated Reading & Writing (IRW) Instruction on Education Outcomes for Students Enrolled in Texas Community Colleges, research that will investigate the efficacy of new Integrated Reading & Writing (IRW) courses and identify evidence-based practices community colleges can implement to positively impact student success in the postsecondary education pipeline.

$200,000 to the Texas Tribune, Inc. (Austin)
To support the renewal of the Higher Ed Outcomes Explorer and ensure that all the Texas Tribune's education explorers and databases are continually updated and refreshed. (Texas Tribune, Inc.)

$51,488 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support the Annual Texas Higher Education Symposium, which will convene multiple stakeholders invested in solving higher education inequity issues.

$2,500 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support a need-based scholarship at The University of Texas at Austin, in appreciation of the service of a GTF Fellows mentor.

$150,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support Starting Right: Validation of Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), research that will document the SENSE validity, add to the field's understanding of student engagement, and help identify issues that require further attention.

$133,332 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support Texas Small and Rural Colleges Working Together, a project that will advance 15 small, rural colleges' institutional capacity to collect, analyze, and effectively use a variety of data depicting student progress; use data to target and monitor improvements in postsecondary preparation, access, persistence, and completion; and build an increasingly powerful culture of evidence.

$390,000 to The University of Texas at El Paso (El Paso)
To support the Greater Texas Foundation Accelerated ECHS Student Scholarship for Region XIX accelerated ECHS students.

$2,500 to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg)
To support need-based scholarships in the College of Education at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, in appreciation of the service of a GTF Fellows mentor.

$15,410 to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg)
To support Transitioning ECHS Graduates to Higher Education, a convening to bring together a regional team to share best practices and lessons learned in transitioning ECHS graduates to four-year institutions.

$9,000 to The University of North Texas (Denton)
To support GTF Scholars: Solidifying Regional Partnerships for ECHS Success, a regional convening focused on ensuring success for all early college graduates.

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 2016:

$89,733 to Texas A&M University-Commerce (Commerce)
To support Dr. Brittany Hott’s research, Project DREAM, which focuses on supporting teachers working with students from diverse backgrounds (non-native English speakers, students from low socio-economic backgrounds, students with math difficulty or disability) in rural East Texas.

$68,363 to The University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington)
To support Dr. Yi Zhang’s research, Transfer Pathways to Baccalaureate Degree Attainment in STEM Fields of Study: A Longitudinal Transcript Analysis in a Texas Research University, which will investigate the extent to which students' transfer pathways, early academic momentum, and course-taking patterns affect students' baccalaureate degree attainment, especially in STEM fields of study.

$90,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support Dr. David Yeager’s research, Greasing the Hinges, Reducing the Friction: A Psychological Approach to Opening Gateways to Post-Secondary Success in Texas, which will develop an integrative model of the psychological threats and experiences that affect individuals as they transition to college.

$90,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
To support Dr. Lauren Shudde’s research, Implications of Texas Transfer Policies for Community College Transfer Success, which will examine the extent to which current transfer policies in Texas higher education provide the stepping-stone to a bachelor's degree.

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

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

$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.

$2,900 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.