Last Mile Education Fund: Investing in Degree Attainment for Technical Women

Equality Can't Wait Challenge
Finalist
Digital Harbor Foundation/Last Mile Education Fund

Last Mile facilitates degree attainment for low-income women in high-demand sectors of technology and engineering, increasing both women's earning power and contributions to technology innovation.

Last Updated: November 2023
Competition Participation
Equality Can't Wait Challenge
Equality Can't Wait Challenge
Subject
STEM education
  • Alabama, United States of America
  • District of Columbia, United States of America
  • Georgia, United States of America
  • North Carolina, United States of America
  • Texas, United States of America
  • Hawaii, United States of America
  • Alaskan Natives
  • American Indians
  • Economically disadvantaged people
  • Indigenous peoples
  • Low-income people
  • Multiracial people
  • Native Hawaiians
  • People of Southeast Asian descent
  • People of African descent
  • People of Asian descent
  • People of Latin American descent
  • People of South Asian descent
  • People with disabilities
  • Students
  • Women (19+)
  • Young women (19-25 yrs.)
  • 4. Quality education
  • 5. Gender equality
  • 8. Decent work and economic growth

Executive Summary

Last Mile empowers and elevates low-income women through technical degree attainment via just-in-time basic-needs support offered with an abundance-minded investment approach. Since 53% of undergraduate women live below 200% of poverty ($51,000/yr for a family of four) and less than 20% of low-income students complete a bachelor's degree within 6 years, addressing the graduation rate among aspiring technical women represents a huge opportunity for growth. Last Mile invests in striving, low-income, undergraduate technical women with 4 or less semesters to graduation, enabling women to get to the finish line and into a high-paying career more quickly or at all. We have calculated that investing in 23,000 of these high-potential students will yield a cumulative $2.15B in additional earnings by 2031, enabling social mobility and wealth building, increasing women's contributions to technology and innovation, and kickstarting an alumnae reinvestment engine enabling long-term sustainability.

Organization Details
Lead Organization

Digital Harbor Foundation/Last Mile Education Fund

website: https://www.lastmile-ed.org/
Organization Headquarters
Colorado, United States of America
Organization ID
45-2536579
Number of Full-time Employees
< 10
Annual Operating Budget
$5.1 to 10 Million
Type
Nonprofit

Charity, fund, non-governmental organization, religious institution, school, or other entity

Organizations may provide budget and employee data based on this proposal or the organization as a whole. For more information on this proposal or organization, please email us.

Accomplishments

- Invested in 1500 low-income women students pursuing computing related majors.

- Grantees are 48% Black, 25% Latino, 16% Asian, 10% White, 3% Indigenous

- Produced 420 new computing graduates in 18 months

- Raised $20M towards $60M goal

Help Fund Bold Solutions

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