Posted on February 2, 2007

Lumina Foundation Awards $16.9 Million in Fourth-Quarter Grants

The Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation for Education has announced fourth-quarter grants totaling $16.9 million, bringing its grantmaking total for 2006 to $42.1 million awarded to 178 grantees.

During the quarter, the foundation awarded grants to seventy-nine organizations in twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., to support research, expand student services, and replicate successful models. The grants included $1.6 million to the University of Florida in Gainesville to serve as a partner in the Achieving the Dream initiative; nearly $1 million to the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, D.C., to build partnerships designed to improve access and success among underserved populations among four-year and community colleges, technical schools, high schools, and business and civic organizations; and $700,000 to the Louisiana Board of Regents in Baton Rouge to support a planning process for higher education in the state.

"National trends show that too few students will graduate from college over the next fifteen years to keep the United States among the world leaders in educational attainment," said Lumina Foundation president and CEO Martha D. Lamkin. "Through strategic grants, convenings, and programs targeted at groups of students who have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education, Lumina strives to help close this gap."

For more information about the foundation's fourth-quarter grants, visit its Web site.