Ascendium Education Group: Championing Opportunity Through Education and Innovation
Introduction
Ascendium Education Group, formerly known as Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation & Affiliates, stands as a multifaceted organization dedicated to fostering opportunity for individuals, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, through education and workforce training. With roots dating back to 1967, Ascendium has evolved into the nation's largest student loan guarantor, a leading higher education philanthropy, and a provider of student success services for postsecondary institutions. Their operations are grounded in the belief that every individual has the potential to contribute meaningfully to their community and society.
A Legacy of Supporting Borrowers
For over five decades, Ascendium has played an integral role in helping people finance their education and training beyond high school. As the nation’s largest student loan guarantor, Ascendium provides information, tools, and counseling to millions of borrowers nationwide, helping them avoid the consequences of default and keeping the door to re-enrollment open. The knowledge and experience gained during that time enable them to provide assistance in a complex and challenging field. The student loan industry is highly regulated and technical; Ascendium has developed robust compliance models and practices to ensure services adhere to regulatory and policy requirements.
Philanthropic Investments in Systemic Change
Ascendium Education Group's philanthropy is grounded in a commitment to ensuring all learners have a path to upward mobility, and the recognition that good jobs increasingly require some kind of postsecondary education or specialized workforce training. Since 2006, Ascendium’s philanthropy program has committed more than $325 million in grant funding aimed at exploring, validating, and scaling evidence-based strategies for overcoming systemic obstacles to completion of postsecondary education, particularly for students from historically underserved populations. As a national funder, their investments aim to transform postsecondary education and workforce training systems so that more learners from low-income backgrounds - regardless of race, rurality, history of incarceration, or other factors - have an opportunity to succeed.
In early 2025, Ascendium released a refined grantmaking strategy that centers three priorities:
- Expand Opportunity: Increasing postsecondary education and workforce training options that lead to good jobs.
- Support Learner Success: Strengthening systems of academic and non-academic support for learners.
- Connect and Align Systems: Improving how state and regional education and workforce systems enable the upward mobility of learners from low-income backgrounds.
Ascendium is committed to making education and training after high school a reality for learners from low-income backgrounds. Through their national education philanthropy, they fund systemic change to ensure learners from low-income backgrounds have a path to upward mobility available to them.
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Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives
Ascendium actively engages with various networks and initiatives to enhance its impact. In 2021, Ascendium joined Workforce Matters, a network that has helped the team strengthen its knowledge of the sector, establish relationships with and learn from other funders, and enabled opportunities for co-funding that identified promising practices and approaches to supporting workforce training. For example, Ascendium was an initial investor in the Fund for Workforce Equity, including the Workforce Grantmaking in Native Nations and Communities initiative. As a national funder, this pooled fund has allowed Ascendium to support locally-focused, Native-led organizations, and deepened their understanding of both the assets and challenges unique to workforce training organizations in rural, Native communities.
Ascendium is doubling down on its commitment to workforce training investments through two new portfolios of work: one focused on scaling sectoral workforce training programs (led by Senior Program Officer Maryann Rainey) and another focused on accelerating the implementation of apprenticeship programs in high-demand sectors (led by Senior Program Officer Brittany Corde). Recently, Ascendium made a $20 million grant to Merit America to support their continued efforts in scaling high-quality technical training to more low-income learners and workers by adding new program tracks in fields such as human resources, semiconductor and advanced manufacturing and supply chain and logistics.
A Focus on Learner Outcomes and Upward Mobility
Across all of Ascendium's grantmaking, they aim to work with partners to build evidence that supports their own continuous improvement, sustainability, and pathways to scale. As they implement their new grantmaking strategy, they will continue to focus on improving postsecondary and workforce training outcomes, but with a priority on programs that ensure learners have pathways to good jobs and upward mobility. Simply earning a degree or credential is not enough. They know that good jobs - those that provide a living wage, benefits, and opportunities for career growth - require postsecondary education or workforce training that meaningfully prepares learners with the knowledge and skills aligned with the needs of employers. Across all of their investments, they are exploring innovative solutions, generating evidence about effective programs and reforms, and scaling the practices and conditions that will help learners get on that path to upward mobility.
Comprehensive Support for Learners and Institutions
Ascendium's commitment extends beyond philanthropy. As a student and employee success solutions provider, they support colleges and employers in promoting academic achievement, long-term financial wellness, and student loan repayment success. In their role as an education impact investor, they invest in education-focused companies that create and develop innovations to improve learner outcomes. As a federal student loan guarantor, they help borrowers avoid defaulting on their student loan or get their student loan back in good standing if they've already defaulted.
A Culture of Opportunity and Community Engagement
Ascendium's mission to champion opportunity for everyone doesn't just apply to their work with student loans, their development of student success and financial wellness solutions, their national philanthropic endeavors, or their investments in education-focused innovations. Bridging opportunity gaps is one of the best ways to improve people's lives and strengthen our community. Ascendium employees share a passion for providing support and assistance to those in need.
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For the past five years, Ascendium has been named a Top Workplace, both nationally and in the Madison, Wisconsin, area. The organization emphasizes volunteerism, with employees dedicating time and energy to causes that matter. In 2025, the team dedicated 1,606 hours of #VolunteerTimeOff to organizations that strengthen communities and create opportunities for others. Ascendium is excited to continue building on this spirit of volunteering in 2026 and beyond.
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