Focus Areas

Modern States Education Alliance

Many students do not attain a college degree because they run out of grant funds, such as Pell and TAP grants, before acquiring enough credits to graduate. A highly effective way...

uAspire

School counselors often lack the training and capacity to provide the college affordability planning and financial aid coaching students need. uAspire is the strongest program providing students with access to...

College Completion Innovation Fund

We were an early funder of a strategic partnership which led to the creation of the College Completion Innovation Fund (CCIF) through Graduate NYC. We helped establish the CCIF to...

College Advising Corps

We have supported two strategic partnerships involving College Advising Corps (CAC) and the College Board. The first centered around the development of a learning lab in which they collaboratively tested...

College Access: Research & Action (CARA)

We have encouraged college access programs to share best practices and to expand their reach by training other organizations in what they do and how. CARA has developed and refined...

The Opportunity Network

The Opportunity Network (OppNet) is one of the most effective programs at teaching career-readiness skills to high-achieving youth through its direct-to-student Fellows program and Career Fluency Partnerships program–strategic partnerships with...

CollegePoint

We formed a strategic partnership with other funders for and helped to lead the design, incubation and scaling of CollegePoint—a coalition of nonprofit organizations helping high-achieving, low- and moderate-income students...

Student Leadership Network’s CollegeBound Initiative

We supported a collaboration between Student Leadership Network’s CollegeBound Initiative (CBI), a high-touch college guidance and access program that places highly-trained, full-time college counselors in partnering Title I New York...

College Admissions Cognitive Advisor

We were an initial funder of a strategic partnership between foundations and a technology company which led to the development of the College Admissions Cognitive Advisor, an innovative, web-based tool...

National Institute for Student Success (Georgia State University)

The National Institute for Student Success (NISS) was established as a non-profit Institute within Georgia State University (GSU) in 2020 in response to the growing demand from institutions for help...

Peer Mentoring Initiatives

Peer mentoring is a scalable and cost-effective solution to improve the retention and graduation rates of at-risk and high-needs college students. We have supported two promising models operating on CUNY...

Overgrad

Heckscher helped Overgrad develop a customized college match tool for New York City students. Overgrad is a college and career readiness platform working to make the college application process more...

America Needs You

We were one of the earliest supporters of America Needs You (ANY), an organization that has achieved success in responding to the needs of first-generation college students and has received...

SUNY Student Emergency Fund

For the majority of underserved students in New York City who wish to attend college away from home, the State University of New York (SUNY) colleges are the most accessible...

Single Stop USA

We initiated and funded the first-of-its-kind Single Stop USA Community College Initiative to expand opportunities for low-income, high-need community college students. As a result of our founding support at Kingsborough...

Posse Foundation

We helped conceive of and provided support to Posse Foundation to create Posse Consulting, which creates an earned revenue stream for the organization’s core work. Posse Consulting has worked with...

Nudge4 Solutions Lab

We spearheaded the launch of the Nudge4 Solutions Lab by Dr. Ben Castleman of the University of Virginia to pilot low-cost and high-impact behavioral solutions to address pressing social problems,...

OneGoal

We provided the initial catalytic funding to allow OneGoal to expand to New York City. OneGoal New York is now reaching, in only six years, the same level of scale...

Global Glimpse

Our catalytic support of Global Glimpse, a travel and leadership education program founded in the San Francisco Bay Area, positioned it to generate ongoing, sustainable revenue, laying the groundwork for...

College Transfer Credits

We are making a catalytic impact on the issue of transfer credits by enabling students who transfer between City University of New York (CUNY) colleges, which well over two-thirds of...

Bottom Line

We have long supported Bottom Line’s college success program in catalytic ways, which has allowed for its steady growth; it now serves over 2,500 first-generation New York City students across...

The TEAK Fellowship

The TEAK Fellowship was established in 1998 to help motivated New York City students gain admission to top public, independent, and parochial high schools, and to succeed once enrolled. TEAK...

Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA)

LEDA is the leading organization nationally to position high-achieving, under-resourced youth to gain admission to and succeed at the nation’s top colleges. LEDA boasts a network of over 2,000 LEDA...