PLATINUM2023

COLLEGE VISIONS

Providence, RI   |  http://www.collegevisions.org

Mission

College Visions empowers low-income and first-generation college students to achieve the promise of higher education, while leading the way for innovative college planning and advising.

Ruling year info

2010

Executive Director

Lamont Gordon

Main address

131 Washington Street, Suite 205

Providence, RI 02903 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

27-2344723

NTEE code info

Educational Services and Schools - Other (B90)

Youth Development Programs (O50)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2022, 2021 and 2020.
Register now

Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

RI has a significant unmet current and future need for workers with postsecondary degrees and credentials. The RI Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner projects a need for 70% of RI workers to hold degrees or credentials, but in 2021 our state had only a 53% attainment rate. This gap is even larger in RI’s urban core, communities of color, and low-income communities. Increasing college going and completion benefits individuals, families, and our state. College Visions supports communities and individuals with low college-going rates and underserved by college access and success services to learn about college options, apply, enroll, stay in college to earn a degree or certificate, and transition to employment. Equity is embedded throughout CV’s work and reflected in our scholars, staff, and Board. CV prioritizes students with very low family income, young people of color, and those attending schools that do not have robust college access counseling.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

College Access Program

The College Access Program
(CAP) provides high school seniors step-by-step support throughout the admissions and financial aid process, including a summer workshop series tobuild college awareness, weekly one-on-one meetings with a
CV advisor, a series of college tours, and family workshops on financial aid and planning.

The CAP serves low-income, first-generation students from urban RI. We deliberately accept a wide academic range of students, from high academic achievers to students who have struggled in high school. Over 75% of CV student identify as Black or Latino, which reflects the demographics of the communities in which we work. The CAP serves students of any immigration or citizenship status.

CAP students achieve outstanding outcomes! Since the program began in 2004, 98% of program students have enrolled in college (compared to 56% of low-income RI students). 68% of CV students earn a degree within 6 years of enrollment (compared to 41% of low-income RI students.

Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Low-income people
Economically disadvantaged people
Adolescents
Young adults

The
College Success Program (CSP) provides group planning and reflection
sessions, consistent communication, continued financial aid assistance, and
ongoing one-on-one advising to graduates of the CAP. The CSP supports
participants to persist in college and ultimately earn degrees.

Population(s) Served
Young adults
Low-income people

This intensive summer program is offered in partnership with Providence Public Schools. It is open to all PPSD high school students and provides college and career learning, academic enrichment, and social emotional support. The program is held on the Rhode Island College campus and enrolls 100 students.

Population(s) Served
Adolescents

Where we work

Videos

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of scholars who graduate from four year colleges and university within six years

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

College Success Program

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

2022: 71% of CV students completed within 6 years of initial enrollment 2021: 68% of CV Students completed within 6 years of enrollment 2020: 67% of CV students completed within 6 years

Number of high school graduates who are persisting in college

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Economically disadvantaged people

Related Program

College Access Program

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Cumulatively, since 2004, CV has supported 98% of students who participate in our College Access Program to enroll in college.

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Drive Strategic Growth
• Expand college preparation and completion supports (i.e. workshops, events) to impact more RI high school and college students.
• Grow the College Access Program by 10% each year through expanded recruitment strategies and increased enrollment.

Build Infrastructure and Partnerships
• Develop a national partnership through which we share our expertise and equip college advisors across the nation with culturally competent advising skills and tools.
• Explore and develop an annual scholarship distributed to ten College Visions students, by FY26.

Enhance Ecosystem
• Develop a framework to advocate for local and federal policies that enable college access and success for low income, first generation college, and historically underserved students.

● Be Transformative: We challenge the status quo by forming transformative relationships that drive strong communities.
● Strive for Equity: We acknowledge equity as foundational to a diverse and inclusive organization.
● Support Honest Conversations: Our community provides a space to have the honest conversations that can break down barriers and support understanding, empathy and growth.
● Value Identity: In our community, we honor the voice, agency, and identities of all and prioritize the voices and experiences of our community in our work.
● Deliver Excellence: Through hard work, failure and growth, and pursuit of excellence, we embrace success and achieve our goals.

-College Visions approaches the organization's 20th anniversary in 2024 with a demonstrated capacity for sustainable growth. CV began with a first cohort of 10 students and has grown to serve more than 600 young people each year.

-CV's diverse and engaged board is supporting the organization to set and achieve strategic goals.

-CV is in a strong fiscal position.

-CV has a strong program model that supports young people who face the most barriers (low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color) as they apply to college, persist, and complete to earn degrees, to achieve outstanding outcomes.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, We don't always have the resources to respond to feedback in the ways we feel would be most effectiv

Financials

COLLEGE VISIONS
lock

Unlock financial insights by subscribing to our monthly plan.

Subscribe

Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more about GuideStar Pro.

Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

COLLEGE VISIONS

Board of directors
as of 10/05/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board co-chair

Ivette Luna

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island

Term: 2022 - 2025


Board co-chair

Kirtley Fisher

University of Rhode Island

Term: 2023 - 2026

Chace Baptista

Nowell Academy

Shamika Cameron

Harvard University

Osvaldo Jose Marti

Moses Brown School

Jaretta Konneh

NE Basecamp

Ivette Luna

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island

Julio Reyes

Brown University

Cassandra Richter

retired teacher

Brian Clark

Rhode Island School of Design

Brian Velasquez

Bank of America

Kirtley Fisher

University of Rhode Island

Bridget Mullaney

Cameron & Mittleman LLP

Carlos Then

Mr. Then Consulting LLC

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 10/5/2023
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
Black/African American
Gender identity
Male, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other sexual orientations in the LGBTQIA+ community
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability

We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.

Equity strategies

Last updated: 01/26/2022

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
  • We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
  • We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
Policies and processes
  • We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
  • We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.