We are proud to announce an unprecedented $1 million investment in a single grantee, Aspire Public Schools. Aspire is California’s highest performing large school district serving at least two-thirds low-income students. The organization operates 35 high-performing schools in California including ten in the Bay Area. Aspire schools serve 13,500 students from K-12, including 3,600 in the Bay Area.

“Someone who graduates from college doubles their lifetime earnings, and that fights poverty,” said Daniel Lurie, Tipping Point’s CEO + Founder. “Aspire’s work is desperately needed here in California, where we rank 49th in the country in per-student spending and 46th in performance. The organization is changing the lives of thousands of students in our community.”

In the Bay Area neighborhoods where Aspire operates schools, fewer than 35% of students graduate from high school and attend college. Under the leadership of CEO James Willcox, Aspire’s goal is to change the “opportunity equation,” by preparing every student to become college-bound and college-ready. And it’s working. For the last four consecutive years, 100% of Aspire’s high school graduates have been accepted into four-year universities.

The $1 million general operating grant from Tipping Point will help ensure Aspire’s continued excellence by expanding its groundbreaking work in teacher and principal development and continuing to grow its efforts to prepare students from low-income communities for college.

“The success of our students is thanks to the hard work and dedication of our educators and our team, and the support from our community,” said Willcox. “We could not have a better partner in our work to ensure College for Certain for low-income students than Tipping Point.”

Tipping Point invests about 40% of all dollars raised in education programs, and has granted over $4 million to Aspire Public Schools to date. Click here for more details about the partnership and here to learn how you can get involved in the fight against poverty.