Foundation staff and leadership believe that improving college achievement is essential to California's future, and that college success should be an option for every student. College Futures works to remove systemic and institutional barriers to college success, enabling students to access the knowledge, financial aid, and other resources they need to earn college degrees and choose their own futures. The foundation's goal is to increase the rate of bachelor's degree completion by California students who are low-income and historically underrepresented in higher education.
To achieve its goal of increasing the rate of bachelor's degrees earned among student populations who are low-income and historically underrepresented in higher education, College Futures Foundation has adopted a strategy with three interrelated elements: Successful Transitions: Institutions ensure student readiness and effective transitions along the degree completion pathway, with special focus on transitions from secondary school to college, and from community college to four-year colleges and universities. For this strategy element, the foundation emphasizes supports offered to students, with particular interest in ways students are informed and enabled to make decisions regarding college going, enrollment, persistence, and success. Aligned Institutions: Regional partnerships align leaders, resources, and decision-making among high schools, colleges, and their partners to advance student progress toward bachelor's degrees. For this strategy element, the foundation is exploring regional partnership models by identifying successful inter-segmental approaches emerging at the local level, and helping to expand new regional structures that address longstanding obstacles to successful student transitions from K-12 through to a bachelor's degree. Improved Policy and Practice: Policymakers and practitioners address gaps between policies and practices at all levels affecting student success. For this strategy element, the foundation supports changes in state, educational, and institutional systems and policies that influence higher education structures, budgeting, finance, and governance to minimize or eliminate barriers to student success.
The College Futures Foundation typically supports grants in the following areas of interest: