Assessing Opportunities to Implement the Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) to College Initiative

The Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) education initiative, HIP to College, is intended to develop local networks of funders to support the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s College Ready Education and Postsecondary Success strategies. To further develop the initiative, HIP identified five sites to consider for future work — two states (Colorado and North Carolina), two metropolitan areas (Philadelphia and New Orleans), and one region (South Florida). These five locations represent a diverse set of communities with varying level of Latinos student concentration and college readiness.

To inform HIP’s education initiative, Excelencia in Education prepared an education needs assessment of the Latino community with a focus on the five locations HIP has identified. This assessment has four main components:

1. A snapshot of the current status of education for Latinos at the national level and in the five locations. The snapshot includes public data and metrics related to college readiness and postsecondary success, as well as demographic information and population growth data for the total population and for Latinos.
2. A list of community-based organizations that HIP has worked with in each location, followed by a brief overview of other community-based organizations, which Excelencia in Education has identified for consideration as HIP evaluates partnership and leveraged opportunities to implement the HIP to College initiative.
3. A summary of foundations/funders Excelencia in Education has identified for potential collaboration to implement the HIP to College initiative.
4. An overview of the local education policy landscape, with opportunities and challenges in College-Ready Education and Postsecondary Success strategies for Latino students.