Donor Spotlight: Ballmer Group
E3 Alliance lands second largest grant
In March, E3 Alliance received the second largest grant in its 18-year history – a $3 million award from the Ballmer Group to bolster the Advanced Manufacturing Workforce initiative.
Ballmer Group, co-founded in 2015 by philanthropist Connie Ballmer and her husband Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, is committed to improving economic mobility for children and families in the United States by funding leaders and organizations that have demonstrated the ability to reshape opportunity and reduce systemic inequities.
Over the next five years, Central Texas will need to fill roughly 20,000 new Advanced Manufacturing jobs. Through this initiative, E3 Alliance, along with key industry partners, independent school districts, and local postsecondary institutions, is reimagining what it takes to ensure young people across Central Texas have clear paths to high-wage, high-demand careers in the region. The funding from the Ballmer Group will enable E3 and its partners to achieve the following results over the next three years:
- Enroll 1,750 new students and adults in advanced manufacturing pathways in the 2024-2025 school year.
- Expand the pipeline to 10,000 new employees in the industry within the next five years.
- Design a framework adaptable to other high-need, high-valued industries.
“Ensuring young people have the opportunities, supports, and credentials needed to successfully transition from high school into careers that will put them on a path to upward economic mobility will take more than quality programs – it will take tight alignment across systems, from school districts, to colleges, to employers,” says Celine Fejeran, Senior Portfolio Manager at the Ballmer Group. “As a trusted backbone organization, E3 Alliance has the vision and leadership to steward this critical effort, and we anticipate that results from this work will serve as a compelling model for other regions seeking to improve economic outcomes for young people.”
In July, Ballmer Group made a separate $464k investment for E3’s Strengthening Data Talent Pilot project. These funds will build equity and inclusiveness in hiring commonly hard-to-recruit research and backbone roles.
E3 Alliance is deeply grateful to the Ballmer Group. They are a steadfast and generous partner who will profoundly affect the success of all students.