Friends and Colleagues:
Greater Texas Foundation recently completed a six-month planning process, under the guidance of FSG Social Impact Advisors, in which the foundation examined current and projected educational needs in Texas and how the foundation’s efforts might be best aligned to address them. Through this process, we learned a great deal about the challenges Texas students face on the road to post-secondary completion and how we can focus our efforts to help students overcome these challenges.
The resulting strategic plan is not a departure, but an evolution, from where the foundation began. The foundation will continue its commitment to improving educational outcomes for Texas students; however, in order to have a greater impact on the tough and persistent challenges facing education in Texas, we are making a shift toward being more focused in our funding. By targeting specific points in the education pipeline, we will work toward increasing post-secondary access and persistence and improving math and science education, with a focus on increasing the number of students who are prepared to succeed in post-secondary education.
Going forward, we will allocate a significant portion of our grants toward strategic initiatives, efforts that focus our resources on pressing education needs related to post-secondary preparation, access, persistence, and completion. In addition, we will focus strongly on convening partners to exercise leadership in education and work toward specific, common goals.
Through its philanthropy, the foundation intends to impact students across the state of Texas and has a strong desire to focus on measurable, research-based, and outcomes-driven work. The foundation also wishes to capitalize on its strength in partnering with other organizations, including other funders, governmental agencies and educational institutions. By following its strategic plan, Greater Texas Foundation aims to bring greater clarity and coherence to its philanthropy, with the goal of creating greater impact on the educational success of Texas students.
Research Brief: As part of our process, FSG Social Impact Advisors conducted extensive secondary research. This document addresses areas relevant to the foundation as well as provides the rationale and reasoning behind our final decisions.
Summary Slides: This document is a summary of the recently board-adopted strategic plan and provides a high level overview of the foundation’s future strategic direction.
**Expanded Research Brief: While this document has many similarities to the one above, the scope is wider and contains interesting and important information not directly related to strategic areas pursued by Greater Texas Foundation.
**THECB 1995 7th Grade Cohort Data: This chart by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which summarizes from 2006 the educational progress of Texas students who were 7th graders in 1995, was key to our strategic planning research. For example, as described in detail in the research brief and summary slides, the 1995 7th grade cohort data indicates only one in five Texas youth who entered high school completed a post-secondary degree or credential. Additionally, of the 126,000 students who enrolled in post-secondary education, 74,000 did not earn a degree or credential.
