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Lumina Foundation

Help make opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. Our mission is to prepare people for informed citizenship and success in a global economy.

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Lumina Foundation: Tapping into Worldwide Education Expertise

Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. We envision a system that is easy to navigate, delivers fair results, and meets the nation’s need for talent through a broad range of credentials. Our mission is to prepare people for informed citizenship and success in a global economy.

Lumina Foundation works with governmental, nonprofit, and private-sector organizations to bring about change. We rely on communications outreach, meetings and events that engage and mobilize people, state and federal policy outreach, investments in proven and promising practices, and targeted efforts to measure and evaluate progress.

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What Challenge will you solve today?

The Goal

Since 2000, Lumina Foundation has been working to make learning opportunities available for all by supporting the ecosystem for increasing post-high school attainment. Our work centers on large-scale, system-change strategies to improve participation, increase student success, and better align credentials with the labor market.

The nation will need 60 percent of working-age people to have college degrees, workforce certificates, or other quality credentials by 2025 to meet social, economic, and individual needs. Dramatic changes in how the country educates and trains people beyond high school are necessary to help 16.4 million Americans who are not yet on track.

Our Work – Overview

Lumina strategies to help more students to reach their goals.

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Lumina News & Blog

News and views in higher education from Lumina Foundation.

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Data & Research

Lumina’s data, research, related to the populations and issues critical to our mission.

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Why Are We Here

While we have made significant progress towards our goal that 60 percent of American adults have a high-quality post-high school credential there is still a lot of work to be done. The confluence of a pandemic, severe unemployment, and racial injustice has exposed the daunting challenges ahead.

Yet overcoming such challenges is what has made our nation successful.

Quality of life as measured by income, civic participation, and personal well-being is highest among those with a college degree or other credential of value and lowest among those with a high school diploma or less. As human work evolves to require broader knowledge, skills, and abilities, the rewards for individuals with talent signified by possessing these credentials will only increase. Conversely, those without credentials beyond high school will face a declining quality of life and a downward spiral in their financial and social well-being.

We believe that there are lessons and tactics we can draw upon from other fields to inform our work. There are others working in sectors around the world who have knowledge and expertise we would like to tap into to help us solve some of the greatest challenges in post-secondary education facing us today.

Lumina Foundation welcomes innovative ideas and submissions from individuals, the public and private sectors, and scouts to solve education Challenges.

Will you join us?

Lumina Foundation works in partnership with education and business leaders, civil rights organizations, policymakers, and individuals who want to reimagine how and where learning occurs.

Industry

Education

Headquarters

Indianapolis, USA

Total Challenges Run

2

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1

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2

Review the Challenge Agreement

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3

Submit a Solution

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4

Win

Receive cash awards or collaboration agreements if your solution or proposal is accepted by Seeker organizations.

Your solution will be evaluated following the due date for submissions. You will then be notified via email as to whether your solution has been successful. In some challenges, you will also receive feedback on your submission.

Award Potential

We've awarded more than $60 million to thousands of Solvers from around the world.

The average award amount is approximately $20,000, but some challenges come with awards of over $100,000 or collaboration agreements.