Evaluation Criteria

Leadership
Demonstrate the capacity and accountability to deliver results. Proposals must clearly identify the dedicated project leader and core team, articulating their relevant experience, roles, and time commitment.

Track Record
Share a history of impactful outcomes, quality, and organizational growth that provides a strong indication of success for the proposed project. Applicants must detail their past performance in serving low-income and first-generation students, specifically citing outcomes related to academic attainment, credential completion, and successful transition to postsecondary education or employment. Focus on quality of growth (e.g., retention, post-program success) over mere quantity (e.g., enrollment numbers).

Evidence-Base
Explicitly detail what research says about the proposed intervention. Applicants must connect their core activities (e.g., mentorship, work-based learning, specific curricula) to peer-reviewed evidence demonstrating a causal or predictive link to postsecondary success, livable wages, or workforce readiness for the target population.

Financial Health, Budget Detail, and Cost Efficiency
Provide a detailed, line-item budget that clearly ties every dollar requested to a specific project activity and outcome. Proposals should include a projected cost-per-student metric and justify why the proposed use of funds represents a highly cost-efficient philanthropic investment for the scale of impact promised.

Feasibility: Viability and readiness for implementation
Present a realistic, viable, and actionable plan with a high degree of readiness. Demonstrate that the organization has the necessary resources (staff, partnerships, technology, data systems) already in place or imminently secured to begin implementation immediately upon funding.

Scalability
Outline a model with potential for significant regional or statewide expansion. While deep, local initiatives are in-scope, we seek to understand the potential for future impact through replication. Proposals should articulate a path for scaling—either by deepening impact with more students in a single region or by developing a clear replication/partnership model that allows other institutions or partners to successfully adopt the methodology across North and/or South Carolina.

Sustainability
Address the long-term viability of the program beyond the one-year grant period. Applicants must present a clear, multi-year funding strategy and demonstrate local funding commitment—evidence of diversified revenue streams (e.g., local government, earned income, corporate/foundation support) or a concrete plan to secure them, ensuring the program’s success is not solely dependent on foundation funding.

Labor Market Alignment & Employer Voice
Clearly articulate which high-ROI jobs students are being prepared for, anchored in co-designed pathways. The targeted careers must meet the MIT Living Wage threshold for the relevant county and be resilient to AI/automation risk (i.e., “future-proof jobs”). Applicants must provide evidence that employer voice is actively incorporated—ideally through co-designed curriculum, shared governance, and clear pathways that increase the likelihood of hiring, apprenticeship, or postsecondary enrollment on the back end.

Student Voice
Demonstrate alignment with student and community lived experience and demand. The program design must show how it has been informed by the voices of the target population (low-income, first-gen students, and their families).

Innovation
Describe new practices (digital or in-person) and/or demonstrate significant potential for advancing the field. Innovation may involve leveraging emerging technologies (e.g., AI for personalized career coaching), groundbreaking instructional design, novel partnership structures (e.g., new employer engagement models), or a systemic change approach that shifts how education and workforce development operate in the Carolinas.

Through this challenge, we seek to catalyze solutions that reshape educational experiences, support first-gen success, and ensure low-income students in the Carolinas are equipped for lifelong economic mobility. We invite visionary leaders to join us in building a stronger, more inclusive future for our region’s students.