Northwest Education Access Receives $2 Million Gift From the Yield Giving Open Call

MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving announced Northwest Education Access as one of the Yield Giving Open Call’s awardees working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States. Northwest Education Access was among those to receive the highest award amount of $2 million, and one of only 10 organizations in Washington to receive the award.  

In March 2023, Yield Giving launched an Open Call for community-led, community-focused organizations whose explicit purpose is to enable individuals and families to achieve substantive improvement in their well-being through foundational resources.

“We are so thrilled to receive this incredible news,” said Jeff Corey, Interim Executive Director of Northwest Education Access. “To be included on a list with so many other organizations doing such important work is an honor. The generous award is truly a reflection of the amazing work our staff, students, and volunteers have been doing for years, and we are so excited to see how it helps us expand and grow these efforts.”

The Open Call received 6,353 applications and initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million each. In the Fall of 2023, organizations top-rated by their peers advanced to a second round of review by an external Evaluation Panel recruited for experience relevant to this cause, and underwent a final round of due diligence. In light of the incredible work of these organizations, as judged by their peers and external panelists, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount.  ."

What’s next? Our Finance Committee will meet to decide our spending, savings, and investment strategies for this incredible gift so we can best put it to use to support low-income young people, ages 16-29, build their own path to higher education and beyond.

In the meantime, we hope that you will join us in basking in the happy news!

More information on the Yield Giving Open Call and other initiatives can be found at www.leverforchange.org.