SVP Austin Case Study: College Forward / Possible

Changing lives by many degrees 

College Forward (now College Possible Texas) creates better futures by improving college graduation rates for under-resourced  Central Texas students. 

Challenges

• 100% dependence on grants and donations

• Insufficient resources to create new programming

• Inefficient outcomes tracking 

Solution

• Work with SVP Austin to identify new funding opportunities

• Develop a software solution to track milestones

• Build out a mentoring program to deliver more support

Results

• Raised $2.5 million from institutions of higher education

• Earned $1 million in additional revenue from software subscriptions

• Improved graduation rates from 8% to 55%

Driving leadership, advocacy and innovation

College Forward (CoFo) was founded in 2003 to improve futures for low-income Central Texas students. Only 8% of college-goers from lower-income families graduated, 10 times fewer than upper-income classmates. To improve the odds, CoFo matched students from underserved communities with recent college graduates to help them navigate school and university life. The organization also developed a set of success metrics to help students track progress. The organization partnered with SVP to design a mentoring program to complement the matching initiative, secure funding from Texas colleges and universities, and develop a licensable software solution for other organizations doing similar work. These developments enabled CoFo to merge with College Possible in 2021  to increase scale and deepen impact. To date, CoFo (now called College Possible Texas) has empowered more than XX students from underrepresented communities to earn college degrees.

Securing additional funding

Entirely dependent on grants and donations, CoFo was struggling to expand its reach and develop new programming to further support students. Working with SVP, they identified two new sources of funding: 

• Institutions of higher education

• College access and success organizations

Colleges and universities with a mission to increase enrollment among low-income students. They created a case illustrating that funding CoFo was a win-win for the institutions and their students. The agreements led to $1 million+ in additional annual support. 

SVP also helped the organization develop a software solution that leveraged the 109 metrics it had developed to track student success. CoPilot, launched in 2014, is a student information system built on the Salesforce platform that empowers organizations to analyze critical student data and design targeted interventions that help to ensure college completion. CoPilot subscriptions generate more than $1 million in annual revenue for CoFo. 

Building out a mentoring program

Working with Social Venture Partners Austin, CoFo was able to create an additional layer of support: a powerful mentoring program. Mentors provide scaffolding beyond graduate matches, including tech-enabled virtual coaching to buttress school districts’  in-person support services. The combination of matching and mentoring dramatically improved graduation rates from 8% to 55%.

“Through our merger with College Possible, we're poised to leverage our shared expertise and resources to build on the critical progress Texas has made toward boosting college access, completion and career readiness for underserved students. As part of the national organization, we can unlock the college-going aspirations of more students across Texas and ensure they have the support to achieve not just their educational goals, but long-term social and economic mobility."

Jesse Hendrix, executive director of College Possible Texas