Committed partners, working to help all students succeed

The Transformational Partnerships Fund was established by ECMC Foundation, and SeaChange, with additional support from Ascendium Education Group, The Kresge Foundation, and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.


Based in Los Angeles, ECMC Foundation is a national foundation working to facilitate improvements that affect post-secondary educational outcomes — especially among underserved populations — through evidence-based innovation. It is one of several affiliates under the ECMC Group enterprise based in Minneapolis, which together work to help students succeed. The Foundation invests in College Success and Career Readiness (CTE); and uses a spectrum of funding structures, including strategic grantmaking and program-related investments, to fund both nonprofit and for-profit ventures.

Visit the ECMC Foundation website to learn more.


Ascendium Education Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to helping people reach the education and career goals that matter to them. Ascendium invests in initiatives designed to increase the number of students from low-income backgrounds who complete postsecondary degrees, certificates and workforce training programs, with an emphasis on first-generation students, incarcerated adults, rural community members, students of color and veterans. Ascendium’s work identifies, validates and expands best practices to promote large-scale change at the institutional, system and state levels, with the intention of elevating opportunity for all.

Visit the Ascendium website to learn more.


Established in 1924, The Kresge Foundation is a private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America’s cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development, nationally and in Detroit, Memphis and New Orleans. In collaboration with its partners, Kresge helps build and strengthen pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Its education work focuses on postsecondary access and success for first-generation, under-represented and low-income students.

Visit The Kresge Foundation website to learn more.


The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of children living in urban poverty across the world. Headquartered in Austin, TX  with additional offices in New Delhi, India, and Cape Town, South Africa, the Dell Foundation funds programs that foster high-quality public education and childhood wellness and improve the economic stability of families living in poverty. Visit the Dell Foundation website to learn more.


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