Lumina Foundation for Education

While the initial grantmaking of the organization was focused on ostensibly noncontroversial educational programs, such as community college and college affordability programs, the Lumina Foundation has recently enacted a series of left-leaning funding priorities to disperse funds to support left-of-center policy on race and poverty. ^{1 2 3}

Background

The Lumina Foundation was created in 2000 as a conversion foundation using proceeds from the sale of assets of the USA Group, a nonprofit student loan administrator, to the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae). The Lumina Foundation was designed to redirect revenue from the sale towards funding postsecondary education programs. The organization was originally named the USA Group Foundation. Among the first projects funded by the foundation was Achieving the Dream, a partnership with other grantmaking organizations that, as of 2023, has provided $79 million in funding to community colleges. ⁴

The Lumina Foundation’s stated goal is for 75% of Americans to have an education beyond high school through either a degree or certification program by 2040. ⁵

Activity

Funding Priorities Shift

In its 2020 strategic plan, the Lumina Foundation announced plans to refocus much of its grantmaking on “racial equity” projects using left-progressive critical race theory-inspired language in the announcement of its Racial Justice and Equity Fund. The Fund devoted $15 million in funding for projects centered around “dismantling systems of oppression.” ²  The foundation also announced funding for state policy partnerships to fund lobbying efforts for left-of-center racial equity legislation across state legislatures. ⁶

One of the first grant recipients of the Lumina Foundation’s racial equity grant program the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at the Tufts University Tisch College of Civic Life, which received $105,000 from the Lumina Foundation to “explore higher education’s unique role in educating for the health and future of an inclusive democracy.”

Organizations Funded

The Lumina Foundation has funded left-of-center organizations in recent years. These include the  Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Community Partners, the SEIU 1199 Training and Upgrading Fund, the Century Foundation, Demos, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Center for American Progress (CAP), the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Brookings Institution, Business Roundtable, Center for Law and Social Policy, and the New Venture Fund (NVF). ⁷

Policy Stances

The Lumina Foundation promotes various left-of-center state and federal education policies, mostly involving increased spending for community colleges and more focused resources for ethnic minority high school graduates. ^{8 9} The foundation’s lobbying efforts include funding policymaker organizations, including the National Governors Association, the Council of State Governments, and the National Conference of State Legislators.