If you are new to The Rise Report, a brief introduction: FutureRise is a collaborative fund that brings philanthropists, employers, practitioners, and public leaders together to invest in what works, prove what’s possible, and scale durable solutions across the postsecondary education and workforce training ecosystem. This newsletter launched six weeks ago as the policy and field intelligence arm for FutureRise – but the fund itself is celebrating its first anniversary.
Below, founder and senior advisor Scott Laband reflects on the year, the model, and what comes next.
One year ago, we launched FutureRise out of a conviction that has only grown stronger since: too much of the work to expand economic opportunity is still happening in pieces, when what this country needs is a way for those pieces to add up.
There is no shortage of intelligence, effort, or goodwill in this field. Across education, philanthropy, government, and business, committed people are trying to solve hard problems. But too often their impact remains trapped inside separate institutions, funding streams, and strategies. The result is progress, but too often it stays local when high-quality opportunity should not depend on zip code.
The best ideas rarely move far on their own. They move when people with different roles and interests decide the problem is larger than their own turf and important enough to work on together. That kind of work requires places where people can speak honestly about what is working, what is not, and what the rest of us ought to learn from both.
Learners do not experience our institutional categories or organizational lanes. They experience the whole system as it actually meets them, and too often that system feels confusing, fractured, and harder to navigate than it should be.
FutureRise was built to support work that helps learners now and shows the rest of us what it will take to open more high-quality pathways at scale. We are not only looking for programs that serve people well in the moment. We are looking to fund efforts that help answer harder questions. Which supports help adults persist and finish? Which pathway designs lead to wage gains? Which changes make high-quality programs easier to reach?
The strongest investments do two jobs at once: they help learners now, and they generate lessons the broader field can use.
What makes FutureRise different in practice is simple: we are not just funding good programs and waiting for them to grow. We are asking funders to aim at the same goals, look hard at the evidence, and learn together from what is actually proving out. That means investing in programs with real evidence on completion, employment, and wage gains, then treating each investment as a test of what can drive broader change. You can see that in the kinds of work FutureRise is backing:
CrossPurpose is pairing career training with coaching and monthly living stipends that help adults stay the course.
PEBC is opening an apprenticeship path for career changers and other aspiring educators to enter teaching, especially in rural and high-need schools.
Red Rocks Community College is using practical fixes like auto-awarding credentials to reduce the quiet barriers that keep students from finishing.
BuildStrong Academy is partnering with the Community College of Aurora to combine industry-driven training, wraparound supports, and competency-based education so learners can earn stackable credentials that lead to certificates and degrees.
That is the model: back what works, learn from what is proving out, and share the lessons.
One year in, that approach is beginning to show its value. Through the Boundless Opportunity Scholarship portfolio alone, FutureRise helped direct $1 million in scholarship support to 14 organizations across four states, backing hundreds of learners preparing for careers in health care, the skilled trades, information technology, transportation, teaching, and other high-demand fields.
Compared with the total dollars flowing through education and workforce systems, philanthropy is small. That can make philanthropy feel like a bucket of water poured into a vast ocean. The people nearest to it feel the ripple, and that matters. But philanthropy’s real advantage is its ability to help change the tide by listening closely, backing smart experimentation, surfacing what works, and helping those lessons travel farther than a single grant ever could. That is why every dollar should do two jobs: help learners directly and generate lessons the rest of the field can use. In a moment like this, that is not a side benefit. It is the work.
If you see yourself in this work, I hope you will join us. The ambitions in front of us are large. We are talking about whether more Americans can find their way into work that offers stability, dignity, and a future. One year in, I believe in it more strongly than when we started.
Scott Laband
Founder and Senior Advisor
WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
A Nation at Work: Four decades after A Nation at Risk warned of a "rising tide of mediocrity," the Bipartisan Policy Center's Commission on the American Workforce released its long-awaited report this week — and its diagnosis is blunt: America's talent challenge isn't a people problem, it's a systems problem. More than a dozen federal agencies oversee separate education and workforce programs, each with its own rules, definitions, funding cycles, and goals — and the result is a fragmented landscape that fails learners, workers, and employers alike.
The federal government spends more than $250 billion a year on education, workforce training and child care. That money flows through more than 150 programs scattered across a dozen agencies, each with its own rules, definitions and funding cycles.
The Commission, co-chaired by former Govs. Bill Haslam (R-TN) and Deval Patrick (D-MA) and led by BPC President Margaret Spellings, spent a year convening 24 commissioners and 52 additional expert working group members across four areas: elementary and secondary education, postsecondary pathways, workers and the workforce, and worker supports. Its 15 recommendations are organized around three imperatives:
Building a National Talent Strategy — The Commission's centerpiece recommendation calls for a cross-agency Talent Advisory Council housed in the Executive Office of the President — modeled on the National Security Council — to coordinate federal education, workforce, and worker support policy and publish a regular U.S. Talent Report on national workforce readiness.
Keeping Learners and Workers at the Center — Recommendations target declining student achievement, misaligned postsecondary pathways, and the urgent need to reimagine high school — including expanding work-based learning and aligning graduation requirements to actual workforce demands.
Modernizing Worker Supports — The report calls for updating benefits and support structures to reflect how Americans actually work today, with particular attention to the workers AI displacement is hitting hardest.
The data brief the Commission opens with is striking: half of college graduates are working in jobs that don't require a degree, only 35% of U.S. adults have the foundational skills needed for the modern economy, and a majority of Americans no longer believe their children will have a better life than they do.
Read my Forbes column on what the BPC report means for postsecondary education here.
A Growing Coalition Behind Colorado’s Postsecondary Talent Development System: A broad coalition sent a letter of support to Colorado legislative leadership making clear that the principles highlighted in the Governor’s December report, Reimagining the Future of the Postsecondary Talent Development System in Colorado, has backing across Colorado's postsecondary and workforce ecosystem. Led by CEEMI, the letter carries 68 signatories — 52 organizations and 16 individuals — spanning community colleges, employers, business associations, labor unions, workforce directors, training providers, apprenticeship programs, and philanthropic partners.
The December report from the Governor found that while Colorado has strong job growth and educational attainment, fragmented governance across more than 20 divisions and seven state agencies is creating unnecessary complexity for learners, employers, and providers. The coalition's five shared priorities align closely with the report’s recommendations and the legislation, including: a unified Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, a learner-centered "no wrong doors" system, outcomes-aligned governance, a single employer entry point, and expanded economic mobility for Coloradans facing the greatest barriers.
The breadth of the coalition is itself a signal — it looks a lot like the kind of cross-sector alignment the new department is designed to create. The full letter and list of signatories is here.
Cross-Agency Project Updates: With thanks to our colleagues at the Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC) through their monthly Executive Update, we have a timely overview on the Council’s partnerships and engagements with other Colorado state agencies. One of the core convictions we hold at FutureRise is that better outcomes require agencies to work in concert, instead of in parallel. The CWDC’s cross-agency project portfolio is a real-time look at what that coordination looks like on the ground in Colorado. This month, the update features projects including: Quality Career Pathway Framework, List of Qualified Credentials (formerly CDIP), Tactical Workforce Plans, Eligible Training Provider List Refresh, and the WIOA State Plan Modifications. Access to the Cross-Agency Project Update is here.
Workforce Pell Moves to Public Comment: Last week, the U.S. Department of Education released draft regulations to implement Workforce Pell, opening a 30-day public comment period that closes April 8. The rules — negotiated by the AHEAD Committee in December 2025 and January — set a high bar: governors would be accountable for program approvals and calculating the "70/70 test" on placement and graduation rates, with placement standards tightening further in 2028 to track whether graduates are actually working in their field.
Kristin Hultquist, CEO of HCM Strategists, former MSU-Denver board chair, and federal negotiator on behalf of the nation’s public higher education institutions on the AHEAD committee, didn't mince words: "These are the toughest standards ever attached to Pell Grants,” she told The Chronicle of Higher Education. Speaking on Inside Higher Ed’s The Key podcast, she also flagged a longer-term concern — that Workforce Pell's accountability framework could eventually influence policy for the broader national Pell program.
For Colorado, the federal comment period is the action moment. The Governor's new role in approving programs and calculating thresholds will depend on state labor market data infrastructure — an area where Colorado has made significant investments. How that maps to the 70/70 test is an open question worth raising before the federal rules are finalized. Related: The CWDC Education & Training Steering Committee will meet tomorrow and include a discussion of the stackability requirements for Workforce Pell. Registration details below.
FROM THE FIELD
The Rise Report welcomes updates from our colleagues across Colorado. Think of this as your one-stop-shop for conference updates, new research + reports, job postings, and career moves.
Dr. Shawna Cooper Whitehead has been named the next president of Regis University. The first female president in the 150-year Jesuit Catholic institution’s history will begin her role on July 1.
Rocky Mountain Partnership Cradle to Career is hiring a Director of Collaborative Action and a Director of Children’s Funding and Strategy based in the greater Denver area. Read more about both roles and apply here.
CWDC Education & Training Steering Committee: will meet virtually on Thursday, March 12 at 9am MT to explore Colorado’s transition to a skills-first economy. The ColoradoFWD team will present insights from a demonstration on skills-first practices and Learning and Employment Records (LERs). The conversation will also include a discussion of the stackability requirements for Workforce Pell. Register here.
The Understated Value of Regional Intermediaries: New America's Future of Work & Innovation Economy initiative, in partnership with Strada Education Foundation and the Association of Community College Trustees, is hosting a conversation on the role of regional intermediaries in workforce and economic development on Tuesday, March 31 at 10am MT. The event will highlight Strada's Work-based Learning Intermediaries Framework and explore how community colleges and economic development agencies are uniquely positioned to serve as connective infrastructure — and what it takes to scale it. Register here.
WHAT'S NEXT
Next week, we will take another deep dive into a FutureRise partner. We are committed to sharing the stories of partners, the learners they support, and the impact they are having in Colorado.
If you have a story idea, please be in touch. We want this dispatch to continue to highlight and profile the news and stories you want to read about. Reach out anytime!
With gratitude,
Alison