Rhode Island · Nonprofit
ONWARD WE LEARN
ONWARD WE LEARN (Rhode Island) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,666,757 to it, the largest being THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($825,750). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.7M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Onward We Learn does
Mission
We at Onward We Learn prepare and inspire young people in rhode island to become the first in their families to attend and complete college.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Onward We Learn advisory:each year, the organization recruits a new class of students across the middle school grades (6-8) and provides them with ongoing services through their first year of college. Services include coaching and mentoring services, which are delivered by 30 advisors who operate in 40 middle schools and high schools and at the state's three public colleges and universities. We also provide dozens out-of-school programs to students that focus on academic enrichment, social and emotional development, career education, and postsecondary preparation. Onward We Learn advisors work closely with students to help identify and consider the postsecondary pathway that is the best fit for them and works with young people to identify scholarships and other resources to make postsecondary education affordable.
$1,456,433 spent28% of program spendingScholarship program:in fy 2025, we provided $814,417 for scholarships to 604 students to support postsecondary success. These resources were critical to supporting college persistence and college completion efforts. In conjunction with these scholarship resources, independent researchers studying Onward We Learn discovered that Onward We Learn gear up participants in rhode island were 48% more likely than their closely matched peers to earn a college credential within six years of expected high school graduation. Across every major milestone on-time grade progression, high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion Onward We Learn gear up participants significantly outperformed comparison students. Onward program outcome revealed particularly strong impacts for low-income, black, and hispanic students, and for students with lower academic proficiency or behavioral risk factors. Onward We Learn's largest cumulative gains occurred because fewer students "fell off" at key transition points from 6th grade through postsecondary education.
$814,417 spentof which $814,417 as grants16% of program spendingOnward We Learn fafsa student support: one of the most important milestones in the Onward We Learn program is a student's submission of the fafsa form (free application for federal student aid). Fafsa completion is predominantly a 12th grade activity, but it is often discussed and highlighted throughout the high school experience. In fy 2025, onward supported the completion nearly 400 fafsa forms. This included an 84% fafsa completion rate. Onward We Learn continued to be a statewide leader in fafsa support and supporting all types of families who have challenges in navigating the financial aid system.
$133,561 spent3% of program spendingThe success of the organization's program primarily lies in our seamless system of steady adult support for students from grade 6 to high school graduation. We place a team of 25 full-time middle school and high school advisors in 35 schools in our target districts throughout the academic year to personalize the college-bound experience for the students in our programs. These advisors forge relationships with students, encourage them to pursue high academic goals and run various after-school, weekend, and school vacation and summer programs to meet students' academic, personal and social development, college readiness and career exploration needs. Advisors are a diverse group of young professionals who understand the challenges that young people and disadvantaged communities face, since many of them are alumni or come from rhode island's urban communities.
$2,836,146 spent54% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,240,557.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $7.3M to $9.2M (+26%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 72% · 2018 84% · 2019 72% · 2020 77% · 2021 76% · 2022 74% · 2023 79% · 2024 74% · 2025 85%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of ONWARD WE LEARN’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Andrew Bramson
President & CEO
Board chair
Meg Geoghegan
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $80k → $858k.
6 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ONWARD WE LEARN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ONWARD WE LEARN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
53% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ONWARD WE LEARN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 51% · 2019 56% · 2020 32% · 2021 43% · 2022 72% · 2023 35% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
65% of ONWARD WE LEARN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
ONWARD WE LEARN draws 73% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ONWARD WE LEARN is better cushioned than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like ONWARD WE LEARN
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ONWARD WE LEARN: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ONWARD WE LEARN?
- ONWARD WE LEARN (Rhode Island) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,666,757 to it, the largest being THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($825,750). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ONWARD WE LEARN have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $3,666,757 in grants to ONWARD WE LEARN, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ONWARD WE LEARN?
- THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $825,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ONWARD WE LEARN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 27 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing