The College Success Foundation is a nonprofit organization with offices in Washington State and Washington, DC. It provides programs and scholarships to help low-income students attend college.
The foundation receives significant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and has raised nearly $400 million for scholarships for almost 8,000 students.
History
The foundation was formed in 2000 as the Washington Education Foundation by two former members of the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board: Bob Craves, a founding Costco executive, and Ann Ramsay-Jenkins, a former chair of the UW Medicine Board, under the terms of the Washington State 2020 Commission on the Future of Post-Secondary Education created by Governor Gary Locke. In 2007, with a $122 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the organization expanded to Washington, D.C. It subsequently changed its name to reflect its broader geographic mission.