Moneythink, National Ed-Tech Nonprofit, Awarded Generous Grant to Accelerate its College Affordability Tool, DecidED

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Moneythink, a national ed-tech nonprofit, announced today it will accelerate the development and reach of DecidED, its free college affordability comparison tool, thanks to a generous $980,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Over the next two years, Moneythink will leverage these funds to advance our mission as we empower historically marginalized students to achieve college success through financial decision-making.

Moneythink creates accessible college affordability solutions to help students who have been traditionally left at the margins. Its cutting-edge product, DecidED, prevents financial obstacles and inequities that students often encounter on their journey to school. DecidED enables students to accurately determine which schools offer the best value and create responsible plans to pay, setting them up for college and life success. DecidED's technology collates crucial financial aid data and provides transparent information about college costs, enabling students to make clear choices about their futures. The Gates Foundation grant will fuel Moneythink's ability to tackle the interrelated affordability and student debt challenges at the national scale.

"With this tremendous boost, we are thrilled to enable Moneythink's ability to develop and deploy its DecidED tool into its next phases of evolution," said Greg Nance, Moneythink's co-founder and current Board Chair. "Since our founding, we have strived to create meaningful change and impact across the country. This opportunity brings us an important step closer, fueling our tech-enabled tools for individual students and college advisors while aggregating critical data to inform system-wide decisions that put students in the driver's seat."

"This catalytic support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a further show of confidence that Moneythink is uniquely positioned to set historically underserved students up for academic and career success by eliminating the surprise financial stressors plaguing millions of young people. With our distinctive solution, we are able to offer life-changing resources — and real hope — for current and future generations of students," said Joshua Lachs, CEO of Moneythink.

About Moneythink

Since 2008, Moneythink's youth-focused financial capability work has served more than 33,000 high school students across the country. Moneythink's new college affordability comparison tool, DecidED, is positioned to tackle the inter-related college affordability and debt challenge at the scale and urgency at which it exists. DecidED helps students make confident, real time, holistic enrollment decisions using essential information — all aligned with their individual goals and financial circumstances. In turn, students equip themselves for their future by building long-term financial wellness habits. Moneythink has received national recognition, such as Capital One's 2020 Give Back Nonprofit of the Year Award, Goldman Sachs' Impact Challenge Fan Favorite Award, The MassChallenge Winner, White House Champion of Change Award under President Obama, and many others. Moneythink has also collaborated with leading design and behavioral science firms, such as Ideo.org, Ideas42, PwC, and Fast Forward. 

SOURCE Moneythink

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