ACT Creates Foundation to Support Company Mission

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of ACT’s founding, the ACT Board of Directors announced plans to establish the ACT Foundation.

The ACT Foundation will support ACT’s mission—helping people achieve education and workplace success—by facilitating and funding initiatives aimed at enriching that mission. The Foundation is in the organizational phase, which will be completed this year.

As a supporting organization of the ACT corporation, the ACT Foundation will pursue the purposes described in ACT’s Articles of Incorporation—advancing education by providing programs and services and conducting research that assist:

• Individuals planning and pursuing education and training
• Educators delivering instruction and training
• Policymakers concerned with ensuring that individuals are ready for education and workplace success

Examples of projects the Foundation will support include:

• Informing education and workforce development policies and practices at state and national levels through research.
• Supporting efforts to increase the readiness of student groups underrepresented in postsecondary education and training programs.
• Facilitating effective applications of ACT’s workforce programs and services through cooperative validity studies with government and business users.
• Convening groups of experts to define significant challenges in education and workforce policy, develop strategies and solutions, and advocate for adoption of those solutions.
• Sponsoring programs that recognize and reward effective practices in education and workforce development.
• Sponsoring and publishing research that documents the impact of ACT’s programs and services in the diverse settings where they are used, and providing insights into ways to strengthen them and their effective uses in those settings.

Funding priorities consistent with the Foundation’s primary goal of helping a wide range of people achieve education and workplace success are being identified. A grant-making process is also under development.

The Foundation will initially fund projects that focus on supporting ACT’s work in the United States. In the future, it will have a larger reach, supporting innovations in education and workforce globally.

The ACT Foundation will not accept unsolicited proposals. Instead, it will solicit proposals for projects aligned with its mission and priorities. ACT anticipates working very closely with other progressive Foundations and organizations to identify and fund projects designed to improve student achievement and the workforce.