GreenLight Fund Detroit green lights Bottom Line

Investment in post-secondary education brings proven nonprofit Bottom Line to Detroit to support college access and persistence among first generation students

DETROIT, MI – October 28, 2024 – Nonprofit funder GreenLight Fund Detroit announced its investment in bringing Bottom Line—a Boston-based post-secondary education organization—to Detroit to complement existing programs including Detroit Promise, helping Detroit students access and persist through college. GreenLight Fund Detroit’s support of Bottom Line’s expansion includes a $600,000 unrestricted, multi-year grant and ongoing, in-kind coaching and assistance. This will support the goals of reaching 725 Detroit students annually by 2031 with a 95% college enrollment rate and an average student debt of $19,000 after graduation. The organizations work with students locally will begin this summer.

Since 1997, Bottom Line has promoted educational equity by partnering with first-generation students, whose families receive lower wages, on their road to bachelor’s degree attainment. Founded on the belief that consistent, one-on-one advising improves student outcomes, Bottom Line advisors are relentless allies to students from their senior year of high school until they launch economically mobilizing first careers. In their first jobs upon graduation, Bottom Line students on average earn more than twice their family’s income. The organization is in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Dayton. Detroit is its fifth city.

“This new funding for Bottom Line will be a welcome extension of resources that complement the Detroit Promise’s work to get students to and through college,” said Wytrice Harris, Senior Director of College Success and Partnerships for the Detroit Promise and member of the GreenLight Fund Detroit Selection Advisory Council (SAC).“This funding is an important measure to ensure the Promise and other Detroit-based educational support programs can sustainably continue serving local students, and in turn, benefit the Detroit region’s economy.”

GreenLight Fund’s approach centers around an annual community-driven process that brings together government, corporate, philanthropic, nonprofit, and community leaders with relevant lived experience to identify local needs and opportunities to promote the prosperity of Detroiters who are experiencing poverty. Once focus areas are identified, GreenLight Fund searches the country for high-performing models that are ready to replicate and can complement but not duplicate or compete against local Detroit programs and efforts. This year, GreenLight Fund Detroit in partnership with its Selection Advisory Council identified a significant gap between the need for college access programs and the limited resources to support them. With post-secondary education as an opportunity area, they selected Bottom Line as the proven model best positioned to make a difference in Detroit.

Jasahn M. Larsosa, Executive Director of GreenLight Fund Detroit, explains, “Bottom Line’s impact was impressive, but we also wanted to be sure the timing was right and they were a good local fit before GreenLight Fund Detroit would select and invest in them. We conducted a deep assessment of the organization, examining their impact and financials and speaking with their students, donors, staff, and other stakeholders. This assured us not only of their effectiveness, but also of their commitment to racial equity. As the nation’s largest majority Black city working hard to get Black folks ahead, we have a healthy skepticism of outsiders. For us to invite you here, your commitment to racial and economic justice must run deep.”

With support from GreenLight Fund Detroit and its SAC, Danielle North, a trusted local leader who formerly served as founding executive director of Degree Forward, a Detroit-based college completion program serving adult students, was named founding executive director for Bottom Line Detroit.

North is in the process of hiring a local team, building partnerships, and beginning program outreach for inaugural students who will start being served by the summer of 2025.

“We’re hitting the ground running,” North said. “As a product of Detroit public schools, a first generation college graduate, and a local community developer, I believe in making deep investments in the city that raised me. My passion to create community-based hubs focused on providing educational and career resources to young opportunity-seekers aligns with the Bottom Line mission.”

“We are very excited by this opportunity to partner with GreenLight Fund Detroit,” said Steve Colón, CEO and national leader for Bottom Line. “Promoting equity and honoring community is important to us, so it means the world to be brought into Detroit by a nonprofit funder that engages a community-driven process. I’m also excited by our appointment of a Detroit native in Danielle North as our Founding Executive Director. I’m confident that her leadership will take Detroit right where it wants to go when it comes to college persistence.”

Students will begin accessing advisors in a 2025 summer bridge program. College advisers will work alongside first-generation students to ensure they are generating lists of schools, completing their FAFSA, and making affordable choices that leave them with as little debt after college as possible. On average, Bottom Line students graduate with less than $19,000 in college debt.

Other key funders supporting Bottom Line’s expansion to Detroit include the Jacob Family Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Balmer Group, as well as 50+ funders that support Bottom Line through their investment in GreenLight Fund Detroit.

Other organizations GreenLight Fund Detroit has invested in bringing to Detroit to make progress on community identified needs include Center for Employment Opportunities, New Teacher Center, and Springboard Collaborative.