The ReNEW Fund: An Innovative Funding Model
For decades, students have relied on a simple formula when it comes to funding higher education: borrow funds now with the expectation of opportunities in the future. While this approach has expanded access for millions, it has also placed immense financial risk on students, particularly on those with fewer available resources.
For aspiring nurses, that burden can be increasingly difficult to manage. It is no secret the nation is in dire need of more nurses, with an estimated staffing gap between 30,000 to 40,000 trained registered nurses annually. Yet the ultimate cost of completing a nursing degree—including tuition, labs, clinical placements, transportation, and time away from paid work—can keep talented students from pursuing a credential that would greatly benefit their communities.
That challenge has become even more urgent following changes to federal student loan programs effective on July 1. New limits on federal borrowing are causing students to reexamine how they will fund higher education. For institutions, the challenge is becoming even more stark as to how to respond to those changes without limiting access for the learners who need opportunity the most.
The Reinvesting in Nursing Education and Workforce (ReNEW) Fund offers one solution. Launched in 2024 by WGU and Social Finance, the ReNEW Fund is an outcomes-based, pay-it-forward financing model designed to help aspiring nurses complete their education while creating a more reliable workforce pipeline for employers.
The central idea is simple: when education leads to employment, real-world skills and retention, the benefits should be shared—and so should the financial responsibility.
Addressing the Critical Gap in Completion
Analyzing student completion rates revealed a critical gap between those who begin nursing programs and those who progress to completion. There is a drastic drop-off over the final two years where financial constraints weigh the heaviest.
The focus of the ReNEW Fund is to address that obstacle head-on. The fund provides qualifying WGU Prelicensure BSN students with zero-interest, outcomes-based loans for the final two years of their program. This financing can cover tuition and fees as well as critical last-mile costs tied to in-person simulation labs and clinical rotations.
It provides a clear incentive and path for nursing students to complete those final two critical years. Beyond that, the defining feature of this approach is its shared-responsibility payment structure.
Participating employers pay into the fund when they hire and retain WGU graduates. Those payments satisfy graduates’ repayment obligations while they remain employed with a partner organization. Graduates who choose another employer repay their zero-interest loan only if they secure employment above a specified income threshold—currently $60,000 annually. Every repayment is reinvested into the fund to support future nursing students.
This aligns incentives in a meaningful way:
Students gain a path to completion that does not depend on high-interest debt or conventional private-loan underwriting.
Employers gain a more dependable, locally relevant pipeline of prepared nurses.
Philanthropic funders can support a renewable pool of capital rather than a one-time expenditure.
Institutions can demonstrate accountability not only for enrollment, but also for meaningful outcomes.
Early Results and Impact of the ReNEW Fund
While still in the initial phases of implementation, the ReNEW Fund is already starting to show its impact on the healthcare field. Of the more than 5,100 students currently enrolled in WGU's prelicensure program, over 700 have benefited from the ReNEW Fund, with 60 total graduates since its inception in 2024.
Of those students currently enrolled in the prelicensure program, 82% come from one or more underserved populations where the financial impact has traditionally served as the greatest deterrent towards completion. 81% are also working while pursuing their degree, and many of them are already employed in a healthcare system.
The fund also builds on a substantial educational platform. WGU’s prelicensure program is available across 25 states, allowing employer partners to develop and retain local talent. In the most recent reports, WGU nursing graduates achieved an average first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate of 86.64% over five years, compared to the national average of 87.61%.
Why It Matters Beyond Nursing
The ReNEW Fund was originally designed to address the critical nursing shortage, but it has implications that could impact higher education as a whole.
Students pursue higher education expecting credentials to lead to greater career opportunities. On the flip side, employers continue to report talent shortages in critical fields. And the recent federal loan changes make it clear that institutions are unable to depend on traditional borrowing to fill every financing gap.
Scholarships remain a vital piece of higher education finance, but those are generally exhausted once awarded. In addition to controlling costs that don’t directly support student success, a renewable fund allows employer-backed contributions to support multiple cohorts over time, especially when those contributions translate into successful hiring and retention data. It also moves the conversation from how much a student can borrow to how an institution and its partners can reduce the need for borrowing in the first place.
Outcomes-based financing models such as the ReNEW Fund require careful design and implementation. They must avoid offering learners only narrow options, using compensation as the only measure of value, or excluding students perceived as higher risk. Transparent terms, strong student protections, thoughtful income thresholds, quality assurance and rigorous reporting are essential.
The risks of thoughtful innovation should be weighed against the risks of preserving the status quo. When students borrow at high cost for programs disconnected from employment, the system has already chosen the learner to bear the downsides. On the other hand, alternative financing opportunities have the potential to empower learners to continue their programs and meet their career goals.
