USA Funds Helps Business-Higher Education Forum Promote Education Access
USA Funds® recently awarded a $125,000 grant to the Business-Higher Education Forum in support of initiatives to improve access to education. BHEF is an organization of Fortune 500 CEOs, prominent college and university presidents and foundation leaders working to advance innovative solutions to the nation’s education challenges to enhance the United States’ competitiveness.
“BHEF understands the strategies needed to improve college readiness and access,” says Carl Dalstrom, president and CEO, USA Funds. “BHEF is taking the steps needed to ensure corporations and their leaders understand the need for an educated nation and work force, and we are pleased to support BHEF in its initiatives.”
USA Funds’ recent grant to BHEF is part of more than $309,000 that USA Funds has provided to support the organization’s efforts during the last two years.
To further its mission, BHEF has established the College Readiness Initiative, a dynamic platform for business and higher education to work together to promote college readiness, access and success for underserved populations, particularly in science and math.
The initiative focuses on four goals:
- Address critical issues in the preschool-through-graduate school education pipeline.
- Identify practical solutions to local education concerns.
- Focus on solutions and programs that support systemic change.
- Create a platform for local and state member-led partnerships to develop strategic approaches, test them, and disseminate lessons learned.
The inititative has developed five interrelated strategies to help reach these goals. They include:
- Engagement of CEOs to raise awareness and create a network of leaders equipped to advance these goals.
- Symposia to share knowledge about these issues and to build a corporate philanthropy community of practice.
- A Web-based resource center to disseminate research and information about:
- Strategies to maximize the impact of corporate investments in college readiness, access and success.
- Independently reviewed programs to illustrate replicable models for success.
- Tools and research to assess and strengthen philanthropic investments in education.
- Support for local teams of corporate, university and foundation leaders working to improve college readiness and success; this support includes tools, information, hands-on consultation and resource sharing.
- A public awareness campaign to change public and parental attitudes about the need to improve college readiness, access and success.
StrategicEdSolutions.org
Recently, BHEF announced the online resource center, StrategicEdSolutions.org, which provides strategies, tools and successful programs to help corporations and others make strategic investments in education. The site provides the tools philanthropists need to replicate successful practices and programs, as well as an interactive forum for corporations and foundations to share best practices to maximize the impact of their education philanthropy.
“Our members — Fortune 500 CEOs, university presidents and foundation leaders — asked us to identify effective educational practices and programs that would help them and others improve the impact of their education philanthropy,” says Brian Fitzgerald, executive director of BHEF. “We know that philanthropy is a significant source of innovation to improve student achievement and college readiness. The strategies and programs featured on StrategicEdSolutions.org have a strong record of delivering results, and we are excited to shine a spotlight on these best practices so other philanthropies can learn from and replicate their success.”
BHEF advocates that the United States’ global competitiveness depends upon a skilled work force, which in turn requires that students have the skills and abilities necessary to succeed in college.
BHEF will continue to add new programs and build out other dimensions of StrategicEdSolutions.org, as the organization continues to pursue its other strategies to ensure student success.