Cambridge, MA – Today New Profit Inc. announced new grants to three organizations through the Pathways Fund, an initiative focused on helping at risk young people make successful transitions from high school to lifelong professional and educational success and self-sufficiency. These organizations complete a portfolio that offers a spectrum of solutions, from increasing attainment of living wage jobs to improving access to and completion at two and four year colleges.

After carrying out a rigorous selection process, the Pathways Fund has added National College Advising Corps, Single Stop USA, and YouthBuild USA, organizations with track records of success in offering critical interventions for young people. The Pathways portfolio, which also includes College Summit, iMentor, and Year Up, is made possible through a public-private partnership with the Social Innovation Fund at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

"Through the Pathways Fund, New Profit is demonstrating how talented leaders and innovative programs can deliver powerful results for communities across the country," said Doug Borchard, Managing Partner at New Profit. "Because of these investments, more at-risk young people will enter adulthood on the path to a successful and productive life."

The goal of the Pathways Fund is to address the challenges facing our country’s young people with innovative, effective, and scalable solutions. A significant number of young Americans fail to emerge from high school prepared for a successful future. Nationwide, only 69 percent of high school students graduate on time with a diploma, a percentage even lower among minority and low-income students. In addition, 93 million adults over the age of 16 lack literacy at a level needed to enroll in the postsecondary education or job training that current and future jobs require. For those who do enroll in college, the graduation rates for students from low-income communities remain unacceptably low.

The Pathways Fund represents a new approach to funding and growing nonprofit organizations. It is a public-private partnership that leverages each dollar contributed through the Social Innovation Fund at the Corporation for National and Community Service with three private dollars—tripling the impact of the federal investment. Led by New Profit Inc. in collaboration with Blue Ridge Foundation New York, JPMorgan Chase, Open Society Foundations, Robin Hood, and SeaChange Capital Partners, the Pathways Fund provides funding and strategic support to help grow the impact of innovative nonprofits that have proven track records of results.

The following nonprofits selected as Pathways Fund portfolio organizations bring innovative, effective, and results-based approaches to helping low income youth chart a path toward self-sufficiency:

NATIONAL COLLEGE ADVISING CORPS – 2 and 4 year College Access; $1,500,000 grant
The National College Advising Corps aims to increase the number of low-income, first generation, and underrepresented students entering and completing higher education. The program hires and trains recent college graduates to serve as full-time college advisers in underserved high schools where they help students with the college admissions process. Too many highly motivated, talented high school students in at-risk communities end up without the skills necessary to get a good job because they didn’t have the guidance to complete the college application process. Advising Corps is changing that, giving these students a shot at the American dream through access to college. The program demonstrates an 8-12 percent increase in college matriculation rates in the schools that it serves. Through the Pathways grant, the Advising Corps will add 50 advisers to its programs throughout the US who will guide an additional 15,000 students on the path to college success.

SINGLE STOP USA – Two Year College Completion; $1,100,000 grant
Single Stop is designed to help low-income students stay in college and gain the skills they need to independently support themselves and their families. The program provides at-risk students with access to financial resources and additional services, helping lessen the burden of non-academic pressures like lack of adequate housing, childcare, or health insurance. Single Stop offices are embedded in the financial aid and student services centers of community college systems, enabling easy access to its program. Single Stop's Community College Initiative aims to keep students enrolled in school, increase college credit accumulation, and ultimately improve their lifetime earnings. Single Stop's services have shown to substantially lower the drop out rate from community colleges. For example, Single Stop participants in New Jersey have a 36 percent drop out rate as compared to a 62 percent and 52 percent dropout rate for other part-time and full-time students, respectively. Through the Pathways grant, Single Stop will enable at least 3,000 additional students to get the resources they need to complete college.

YOUTHBUILD USA – Two and Four Year College Access; $1,1,00,000 grant
YouthBuild USA’s postsecondary education initiative (PSE) supports low-income youth during the transition from high school to and through college to productive employment. This new initiative builds on the innovative culture and programs that have made YouthBuild USA a leader in working with low-income youth for over two decades. Through the PSE Initiative, local YouthBuild programs partner with colleges to support YouthBuild students, helping them apply, enroll, and complete two- and four-year degrees. By building a creative program to work with students and higher education institutions, YouthBuild USA is making sure that students have the support systems and financial resources they need to stay in school, the habits that will make them successful in the classroom, and the curricula that will teach them what they need to know to succeed when they graduate. YouthBuild USA's PSE initiative has shown increases in college enrollment rates, with increases demonstrated in the college enrollment rates from 20 percent to 29 percent in year one to 38 percent in year two. All told, through the Pathways grant, YouthBuild USA will help 480 students annually to access and complete postsecondary education.

These three portfolio organizations join other nonprofits competitively pre-selected by the Pathways Fund, including:

College Summit (two and four year college access; $1,750,000 grant) partners with low-income school districts to create a culture where students see going to college as an attainable alternative to dropping out of high school. The program trains teachers and staff to help students successfully work through the college admission process, identifies influential students to generate excitement about going to college, and provides immediate feedback on student performance through rigorous data collection and analysis. A recent evaluation study found that the college enrollment rate of students participating in the College Summit program is 20 percent higher, on average, than the baseline rate of their peers. Through the Pathways grant, College Summit will help 2,500 more students matriculate to college.

iMentor (two and four year college access; $1,100,000 grant) improves the lives of young people from underserved communities through innovative, technology-based approaches to mentoring. iMentor consists of two programs: iMentor NYC and iMentor Interactive. iMentor NYC is a direct service, high school-based mentoring program serving 1,700 pairs. iMentor NYC matches mentors—100 percent of whom hold bachelor’s degrees—with young people who are most in need of role models. By facilitating personal, career, and academic development, relationships with mentors are effectively changing the trajectory of mentees’ lives. Utilizing knowledge gained through the New York program, iMentor also runs a social enterprise called iMentor Interactive to assist other organizations looking to start or improve their mentoring program. Through the Pathways grant, iMentor will help drive the development of 1,000 more students towards high school graduation and college enrollment.

Year Up (living wage job training; $2,250,000 grant) targets the 4.3 million 18 to 24 year olds that don’t have a job and are not in college, putting them instead on a path to economic independence and professional success. Year Up is an intensive, one year training program that provides education, experience, support, and guidance to improve job readiness and higher education credentials. The program not only fosters communications, teamwork, problem solving, and leadership skills, but also places participants in internships that provide real world professional experience while building up participant resumes. Upon graduation from the program, participants have completed the equivalent of five college classes. The program is remarkably successful, with 85 percent of participants finding work that leads to independence within four months of graduation and nearly half of graduates going on to college. Through the Pathways grant, Year Up will increase economic opportunity for 1,288 more young adults.

To learn more about the Pathways Fund, please visit www.newprofit.com/pathways.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Kelly Shearon
T: 617-252-3232
E: kelly_shearon@newprofit.com

About New Profit:
New Profit exists to help innovative social entrepreneurs and their organizations dramatically improve opportunities for children, families, and communities. Since 1998, with the support of individual investors and its signature partner, Monitor Group, New Profit has helped a portfolio of social entrepreneurs build their organizations and scale their social impact. New Profit also pursues a range of strategies designed to help build an environment in which all innovative organizations may achieve significantly greater impact on the problems they aspire to solve. Learn more at www.newprofit.com.

About the Corporation for National and Community Service:
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service each year through its core programs, Senior Corps, AmeriCorps,and Learn and Serve America, and leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information about the Corporation, visit www.nationalservice.gov.

About the Social Innovation Fund:
The Social Innovation Fund is an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service that improves the lives of people in low-income U.S. communities. Through an innovative public-private partnership, the Social Innovation Fund and selected local and national grantmakers co-invest in programs that increase the scale of community-based solutions that have evidence of real impact in the areas of youth development, economic opportunity or healthy futures. Every Federal dollar invested is matched with private funds, and all programs are rigorously evaluated. As a result, the most effective approaches can be expanded to reach more people in need and key lessons can be captured and broadly shared. To learn more visit www.NationalService.gov/Innovation.