NEO Philanthropy Establishes Postsecondary Success Impact Fund
Gates Foundation Investment will Catalyze the Impact Fund to Support Organizations Working on the Forefront of a Rapidly Changing Ecosystem
NEO Philanthropy has established a new Postsecondary Success Impact Fund with a $4.3M investment from the Gates Foundation. With the speed higher education is currently being dramatically reshaped by evolving technology, and will continue to do so, this fund will provide flexible and catalytic funding to a broad diversity of organizations. The PSI Fund will support a range of efforts deemed to be the most impactful for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including Black, Latino, and Indigenous and low-income students.
The grants selected by the advisory committee will reflect a participatory decision-making and grantmaking process leveraging a combination of working expertise from professionals with more proximate lived experience.
There will be three funding cycles to provide unrestricted general operating support grants, with a funding theme to help direct funding toward a particular area of focus within the postsecondary field.
The first funding cycle focuses on Artificial Intelligence as it is rapidly remaking higher education in numerous ways with the potential to transform how institutions deliver education, engage learners, and support students toward the attainment of postsecondary credentials.
Given the acceleration of technology, this fund will endeavor to maximize opportunities within a higher education system so that student outcomes are not predicted by race, ethnicity, wealth or income, and where access, retention, and attainment increases for all students. To highlight the already-existing technology gaps before the introduction of AI, consider a 2024 report of the U.S. Census Bureau which highlighted the broadband connectivity disparity, 19%, between the American Indian and Alaska Native households on tribal land (71%) compared to the national average (90%).
”“We are abundantly aware that without intentional design and implementation, Artificial Intelligence systems risk reproducing and amplifying existing inequities. There’s also always an opportunity to better center student, community, and educator voices and experiences on issues that are paramount to equitable outcomes, and building out a participatory process in our grantmaking only further supports these goals.”
Monica Parisa Rabii, NEO Philanthropy Vice President, Strategic Partnership Programs
Key considerations for equitable AI in higher education include diversifying the talent pipeline, ensuring transparency in algorithmic decision-making, protecting student data and privacy, embedding ethics in AI design, and engaging a wide range of voices, including students, educators, holistic student support staff, and historically underserved communities, in shaping the future of AI in education. As these technologies become increasingly integrated into the fabric of colleges and universities, it is imperative to ensure that their development and implementation will improve postsecondary success outcomes for all students.
