To succeed in life, young people need to acquire a well-rounded education that builds both academic knowledge as well as nonacademic skills. High-quality college and career readiness programming can help young people develop these competencies. In addition to college and career awareness, quality programming can help students develop skills and behaviors associated with success in both educational and employment settings.

Building on our longtime support for community schools and afterschool programs, the Mott Foundation is identifying and filling key gaps for students most in need. Many of the strategies and model approaches that have emerged from our grantmaking not only provide important educational opportunities and supports that assist youth, but also strengthen schools and communities.

To this end, our grantmaking focuses on two outcomes: expanding high-quality college and career readiness programming in afterschool settings, and broadening adoption and investment in innovative strategies, particularly children’s savings accounts. Through these efforts, the Foundation seeks to ensure that more youth have opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviors to be successful in the 21st century.

Currently, our grantmaking is carried out within two objectives:

Expanding Quality Programs

Our funding supports efforts to expand quality college and career readiness programming within the afterschool infrastructure.

We make grants to:

• National nonprofit groups that provide technical assistance and/or regrant funds to state and local groups to support best practices and professional development opportunities that build the capacity of afterschool programs to implement effective college and career readiness strategies.

Advancing Innovations

Our funding seeks to advance effective models that help youth develop the behaviors, mindsets and learning strategies needed to succeed in school and life.

We make grants to:

• Nonprofit organizations operating model programs that serve as examples for emerging initiatives.
• National and state-level organizations working to incorporate and embed innovative strategies and practices into relevant networks and systems that serve young people.
• Organizations working at the state and local level to advance public policies that enable scaling and sustainability of innovative strategies and practices.