By Rachel Williams, NACAC Communications

ARLINGTON, VA (Oct. 21, 2025) — NACAC believes that everyone should have a fair shot at earning a postsecondary education. Not only does it benefit individuals, but it also benefits our nation's workforce, communities, and much more.  

Yet, vast numbers of students never reach their educational potential because of systemic barriers that are beyond their control. When this happens, the country's workforce loses future nurses, teachers, engineers, and leaders. The economy suffers from unfilled jobs, and communities lose talent that sustains civic life.  

That's why NACAC is seeking philanthropic and mission-aligned partners to help achieve its vision. Together, through shared resources and networks, NACAC believes the persistent challenges that threaten greater access to postsecondary education can be addressed. These challenges include: 

  • Too few students have access to trusted counseling and admission advising — leaving the most vulnerable and under-resourced students without reliable guidance on how to navigate financial aid, apply to college, and much more.  
  • Efforts to improve fairness and opportunity are under constant challenge — financial and systemic barriers like rising costs, complicated financial aid, and political and legal shifts widen gaps in who enters and finishes postsecondary education.  
  • Priorities for students and institutional success are not in sync — colleges often design policies and practices around institutional survival, not student success. Counselors and admission officers then are left to bridge this gap with far too little resources.  

This year, NACAC created its first-ever Philanthropic Advisory Council that includes college admission counseling professionals, industry leaders, and others who advise NACAC on opportunities to align with other organizations, associations, and funders who invest in the education sector. NACAC already has numerous strategic partnerships with funders and organizations in the education sector that it will continue to build upon. 

Spearheading these efforts is NACAC's Director of Philanthropy and Enterprise Development Tommy Amal.  

How has support from donors and partners made a difference at NACAC? 

Amal: Support from donors and partners has allowed NACAC to move from ideas to creating impact in powerful ways. A great example is our Designing Your Life (DYL) Fellowship, which launched at NACAC Conference 2025 thanks to funding from the Strada Education Foundation. Through this fellowship, school counselors and college access advisors from across the country learn a design-thinking approach that can help students explore their purpose, navigate uncertainty, and imagine their futures with confidence. We are fortunate to have trained DYL faculty, including our CEO Angel Pérez, who guides the work and incorporates Strada's Quality Coaching principles to make the experience deeply meaningful and transformative. 

Strategic partnerships and philanthropic support have been vital in other ways, including: 

  • Reimagining the Future of College Admission: At the core of this work is the Center for Innovation in College Admission, NACAC's new national hub for rethinking how students access higher education. The center launched via a transformational gift from Alexander Clark, founder and CEO of Technolutions/Slate. Lumina Foundation supported the strategic blueprint for the center in collaboration with Education First, giving NACAC the foundation to build this innovation engine for the profession. The Stuart Foundation, through its Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund, continues to provide funding that supports the center's growth and implementation. 
  • Advancing Equity Through Research and Student-Centered Practice: The Kresge Foundation funded the Centering Students in Equitable Admission Practices framework, which helps center students' perspectives in the admission process. Lumina Foundation supported the Toward a More Equitable Future for Postsecondary Access report and national convening with NASFAA, which helped leaders across education align policies and practices around equity. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also funded NACAC's national study on test-optional admission policies that provided data to help shape conversations around college access. 

While we are grateful for these major grants and others, we value every single donation. Every gift matters. Whether it is a first-time donation or a transformational gift, each one helps us strengthen programs, build new opportunities, and extend our reach to more students and counselors.  

What are your short-term and long-term goals for NACAC?
Amal: In the short term, my focus is to expand NACAC's philanthropic foundation and build strong systems to sustain it. That means deepening engagement with individual donors, foundations, and philanthropists who share our belief that the transformative power of postsecondary education is accessible to all. It also means collaborating with partners who want to work alongside us toward collective goals that advance equity and access. 

In the long term, my goal is to create a culture of giving that will allow NACAC to thrive well into the future. I want us to be known not only for the excellence of our programs but for the relationships that make them possible. By nurturing trust, transparency, and collaboration, we can build a legacy of impact that continues to grow and evolve with the needs of our members and the students they serve. 

How will these changes impact the NACAC member experience?
Amal: This work will give our members more of what they deserve: resources, opportunities, and a stronger professional community. Expanding our philanthropic capacity allows us to develop new programs, support innovation, and create tools that strengthen the college counseling and admission profession. It also helps us highlight the essential role our members play in the broader ecosystem of workforce development and educational opportunity. 

Our members guide students through some of the most defining decisions of their lives, and they deserve an association that invests in their growth and amplifies their influence. These efforts ensure NACAC remains a trusted leader in shaping postsecondary pathways, and they reinforce the idea that when we invest in our 28,000 members, we are investing in the millions of students they collectively serve. 

To learn more about how to donate or partner with NACAC, contact Tommy Amal or visit our website.