Grant Information
Trellis Foundation is a grantmaking organization focused on improving postsecondary attainment for low-income students and students of color in Texas.
Our highly collaborative approach prioritizes catalytic investments focused on improving practices, policies, and systems.
Values
Transformative Power of Education
A postsecondary credential or degree is the most reliable method of increasing social and economic mobility. Postsecondary education serves both the private and public good.
Equity
All students deserve equal educational opportunities, meaning some may need additional benefits, supports, and/or resources.
Integrity
Trellis Foundation’s grantmaking processes, priorities, and policies are transparent and easily understood.
Data-Informed Decisions
Trellis Foundation relies on quantifiable information to every extent possible.
Collaboration
In addressing complex barriers to achieving equitable educational outcomes, progress cannot be made alone. It requires significant and ongoing collective action.
Strategy
Trellis Foundation believes every student deserves an equal opportunity to earn a credential or degree beyond high school.
We accomplish this by supporting the innovation and growth of ideas and strategies that increase students’ ability to attain, afford, and complete postsecondary education. Key to our mission is the importance of centering equity in our work.
Focus Areas
Holistic Student Support
Enhancing the development, delivery, and integration of the broad set of support services that are critical to persistence and completion.
Streamlined Student Pathways
Broadening clear and easy-to-navigate paths for students into, through, and beyond postsecondary education.
Reconnection for Returning Learners
Creating opportunities and removing barriers for students with gaps in education to resume and advance in their careers successfully.
Approaches
Supporting Localized, Direct Impact
Scaling Proven & Promising Practices
Driving Structural & Policy Change
Convening & Catalyzing Collaboration
The Foundation aligns and coordinates its work using multiple approaches to realize change.
Supporting Localized, Direct Impact
Support efforts that directly serve students and are tailored to local contexts through funding programs and building capacity, particularly for organizations with historic underinvestment.
Scaling Proven & Promising Practices
Drive the expansion of programs and practices that have successfully narrowed educational disparities so they can support students at a larger scale or in new geographies.
Driving Structural & Policy Change
Inform and fund efforts that address systemic barriers to postsecondary success for the student populations of focus to enable broader change across Texas, including policy change.
Convening & Catalyzing Collaboration
By leading, funding, or participating in relevant convenings and collaborative efforts, unify cross-sector actors toward shared goals and actions that align with the Foundation’s priorities.
Catalyze shared learning among key partners working on common or complementary strategies to improve student support and narrow postsecondary disparities.