WGU Advancement FY 2021 Year in review.

In 2020, 47,021 new graduates celebrated degree completion at WGU and increased WGU’s total alumni network to 214,194 graduates nationwide. In FY21, nearly 55% of our donors identified themselves as WGU alumni and demonstrated the powerful influence of the Night Owl network. In fact, for the first time at WGU, several alumni generously established independent scholarship funds that will benefit many future graduates for years to come. 

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of new alumni were still able to celebrate their achievements thanks to WGU’s virtual commencement ceremonies. And for the third year, the WGU philanthropy cord program continued to provide alumni the opportunity to pay it forward and show their support with pride by displaying a blue and gold cord with their caps and gowns. In 2020, more than 2,000 donations were made and $52,000 was raised for the Fellow Night Owl Scholarship thanks to the program. Since 2019, more than 100 students have received a Fellow Night Owl Scholarship award, mainly because of the generosity from WGU alumni who participate in the philanthropy cord program. When asked how it felt to be the beneficiary of a scholarship funded exclusively by peers, Angela McDaniel expressed, “It’s a blessing and I hope that someday my contributions will be able to help another student the way that the contributions from other students have helped me to continue to be a student and reach my dream.” 

In 2020, Giving Tuesday was observed on December 1. The international day of giving that leads into the holiday season was an ideal opportunity for the WGU community to support WGU students after an especially difficult year. On Giving Tuesday, $18,000 was raised for the WGU Student Emergency Aid Fund from 218 donations. Since the Fund launched in early 2020, more than 5,200 students have received assistance for non-tuition related financial support such as food and housing insecurities.

On April 21, 2021, WGU Advancement hosted WGU’s very first Giving Day celebration with the theme “Night Owls Unite.” In total, more than $86,000 was raised for several important scholarships and the WGU Student Emergency Aid Fund! We received 1,097 gifts from 934 donors, 57% of which were WGU employees and 20% were current WGU students. Hundreds of proud Night Owl names spread across our digital donor wall and #WGUGivingDay #NightOwlsUnite messages inundated social media feeds which resulted in nearly two million engagement touch points with our WGU Giving Day audience. The Night Owl community’s overwhelming generosity exceeded all expectations and set a high bar for future WGU Giving Days. 

Ana Karen R. M.

Hansen Scholar

The COVID-19 pandemic threatened to stand in the way of Ana Karen continuing with her education, but she persisted and was able to get back on track toward her bachelor’s degree in elementary education. It has been an enormously challenging road to get to where she is today. As a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient, she grappled with citizenship status complexities, which forced her to put her education on hold. When the pandemic hit, her partner was let go from his restaurant work, leaving the family to rely completely on her income as a teacher’s aide at a charter school. Life continued to test her fortitude. Thirty-six weeks into her second pregnancy, her family tested positive for the coronavirus. Thankfully, they are all fine now, and Ana Karen gave birth to a healthy baby girl. But after returning to work from maternity leave, she faced a monumental decision: continue her degree program or catch up on overdue bills. A scholarship from the Hansen Foundation freed her from having to make that choice. “I am beyond thankful I did not have to give up my classes,” she said. “Now I can continue to work hard to accomplish my goal of becoming a kindergarten teacher.” 

In late 2020, WGU received a $4.8 million grant from the Kern Family Foundation to support the Character Education for a Better Society project over a five-year timeframe. The grant helps integrate character education into two graduate degree programs within WGU’s Teachers College and creates the Character Education Professional Learning Program (CEPL). The project focuses on bringing character education programming to K-12 classrooms and will support educators and communities across the country.  

In the fall of 2020, the Lilly Endowment contributed a $1 million grant to accompany their initial investment from FY20 for their higher education initiative, Charting the Future for Indiana’s Colleges and Universities.

One challenge for many Americans is having their skills, competencies, and experiences recognized in the labor market, which is currently largely dependent on an outdated process involving resumes and credit hours. To fill this gap, WGU will use its Charting the Future funding to implement technology that helps build a learner owned record called an “Achievement Wallet.”  WGU will collaborate with industry partners to pilot the program in Indiana that will demonstrate an easier way to connect adult learners with education and jobs in healthcare professions. The objective is to deliver wrap-around community care services to students and proven talent to potential employers.

Since launching in September 2020, the Open Skills Network (OSN) has grown to become a group of more than 530 employers, educational organizations, and technology providers. The group’s mission is to ensure workers have the skills and talent necessary to thrive, while also making their talents more easily communicated to the labor market—regardless of whether their learning was academic or work-based.

As a founding member and dedicated partner with WGU, Walmart provided a $250,000 grant to launch the OSN in 2020 and increased their contribution with an additional $850,000 grant in 2021 to support the OSN’s expanded efforts.

The College Innovation Network (CIN) was launched in the spring of 2020 by WGU Labs thanks to support from the Charles Koch Foundation. Since the CIN’s launch, the Charles Koch Foundation has contributed $1 million to reinforce the Network’s goal of connecting leaders from colleges and universities with educational technology (EdTech) innovators to advance students’ academic, career, and life outcomes. 

The Postsecondary Success team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation identified WGU as a national scale institution that reaches new levels of student enrollment and influence through digital solutions and quick creation of new models for deployment to students. Because of their confidence in WGU and our mission to create pathways to opportunity for all learners, in FY21 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation presented a $4.9 million grant to support WGU’s R&D for Growth and Equity initiative over the next five years. Thanks to the foundation’s support, WGU will be able carry out projects aimed at closing existing equity gaps in postsecondary education so students in underserved populations, specifically Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students, can be better served at the university. WGU will not only be able to overcome internal gaps but will also be able to share learnings with other institutions so the entire postsecondary system can become more equitable.  

Thanks to the generous support of a multi-year grant from the Merkin Family Foundation, in October of 2019 WGU began enrolling students in the Bachelor of Science in Health Services Coordination (BSHSC) program. The Merkin Family Foundation is led by Richard Merkin, MD, Founder and CEO of Heritage Provider Network, (HPN), one of the nation's leading physician-led managed care organizations.

Graduates of the BSHSC program are prepared to coordinate with health care providers, patients, caregivers, and medical services to improve the effectiveness, safety, and efficiency of an increasingly complex health care system. The new program in WGU’s College of Health Professions has thrived with nearly 800 students enrolled and 16 graduates to date.

Jayne H. from California had been a teacher for more than 20 years when she enrolled in WGU’s BSHSC program in 2020. While she completed her studies, she was able to share the skills she was learning from the program with her medical assisting students at the same time. “I’m sixty years old and still teaching,” said Jayne. “My career goal right now, besides retirement, is sharing all this information with my students. When they go into their medical and RN programs, they understand a lot of things that are going on in the world of medicine and what’s trending. I thank this program for that.” Jayne completed her degree in about eight months and is grateful to WGU and the Merkin Family Foundation for making the BSHSC program available online for students like her.