Replicating Destination Graduation in Your Community

Identify Best Practices

Read and learn about topics such as the talent gap, college completion barriers for low-income students, hunger, and homelessness in college. Ensure you have some knowledge about these issues and what is being done to address them. We recommend visiting: The Hope Center, Helios Education Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and National College Access Network.

identify target population and stakeholders

Finding Stakeholders: Identify the higher education institution (s), non-profit organization (s), and possible funders that would be interested in forming a partnership to advance college completion and contribute to talent development for the community. Think about colleges interested in improving their performance metrics, non-profits that have education and employment as one of their areas of interest, and potential corporations that also name higher education and employment as part of their social/corporate responsibility interests.

identify funds

Identify monies for program startup costs and student emergency funds.

convene a planning committee

Define Roles: Once you have identified your stakeholders, define your roles. Collectively, identify the tasks and contributions of each organization.

Define Criteria and Goals: Define what criteria students need to qualify for funding (income, Pell Grant eligibility, grades, definition of emergency/unexpected events, bills/things you would cover on their behalf). Define what you will measure as program success (re-enrollment, fall to fall retention, semester completion, graduation).

create a sustainability workgroup

Who will be responsible for identifying possible funders and donors? Who will work collectively in applying for grants and creating fund raising campaigns?