Founded in 1939, Heart of Florida United Way is Central Florida’s largest human services agency. It also operates the United Way 2-1-1 Information and Assistance helpline, EITC tax credit initiative, Destination Graduation, and Emergency and Homelessness Services. HFUW is focused Investing in Results.

When the opportunity presented itself to contribute to advancing college completion and contributing to our talent pipeline, HFUW committed to creating a program that helps support our students. United Way contributed to building Destination Graduation with: the vast information in their 2-1-1 database and an on-site specialist, a case manager, and their top tier expertise on delivering social services effectively.

Established in 2008, the SunTrust Foundation has proudly provided grants totaling more than $112 million throughout the United States. The SunTrust Foundation is committed to SunTrust Bank’s purpose of Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being by engaging with local and national organizations to advance financial confidence. Grants and activities focus primarily on financial education, financial counseling, career readiness and small business/entrepreneurship, in addition to local community grants.

The SunTrust Foundation has contributed to Destination Graduation’s continuity by awarding Heart of Florida United Way a $380,000.00 grant. Part of that grant ensured the creation of this toolkit to help replicate this program and its results in other communities.

Founded in 2000, Lumina Foundation is the largest philanthropy in the United States focused on increasing the proportion of Americans who access higher education. Lumina is committed to creating opportunities to make this happen, working toward the goal of having 60 percent of working age people in the United States with college degrees, certificates, and other quality credentials by 2025.

Lumina Foundation provided the initial grant to pilot Destination Graduation and gave Heart of Florida United Way the flexibility and trust needed to allow them to develop, design, learn, and re-design the program model until they found the model that works. Lumina also provided guidance on measuring metrics and formatting reports. In 2018, Destination Graduation was featured as a best practice in Lumina’s Beyond Financial Aid Toolkit.

Created in 2013, the Central Florida College Access Network (CFCAN) leads the effort to address barriers to college and career access, persistence, and attainment in Central Florida. They do this through multi-sectorial work to bring together the stakeholders of our economic development and leveraging their strengths and resources to remove barriers to our talent supply.

CFCAN has contributed to Destination Graduation with technical support and professional development of the staff serving students and handling our data. This support includes guidance on metrics, sustainability, ongoing and new partnerships.

Seminole State College of Florida, established in 1965, serves nearly 30,000 students across six sites in Central Florida. A comprehensive college, Seminole State has awarded nearly 100,000 credentials, from bachelor's degrees to high school diplomas, and offers more than 200 degrees, certificates and programs.

Seminole State College of Florida has been vital to the development of Destination Graduation, providing HFUW with a pilot site and a strong collaborative partnership. As the partnership has evolved, Seminole State has committed a working space to Destination Graduation staff in their Student Services building, expanded our operations to other campuses, provided funding for Destination Graduation intervention dollars, and jointly opened and operates a food pantry on-site.