Skip to main content

Advance Together: Helping Texas communities build economic opportunity

The Dallas Fed’s Advance Together initiative supports the work of community partnerships that are addressing education and employment challenges to connect more Texans with quality jobs.

Our communities prosper when everyone can move forward. Place-based, collaborative efforts can be instrumental in reducing barriers to economic opportunity. Advance Together helps accelerate their progress and expand their impact.

Apply for Advance Together

Applications are open for the 2025–27 round of Advance Together. Selected community partnerships receive grants from philanthropic partners and technical assistance.

How to request an application

Applicants should be community partnerships that are working to improve education and employment outcomes in Texas. If your partnership is interested in applying, follow these steps:

  • Review the eligibility requirements and timeline. Determine whether this opportunity is the right fit for your partnership. See highlights below and full details in our program prospectus.
  • Watch our information session recording. Our Sept. 12 virtual meeting for potential applicants provided details on the program and application process. | View session recording
  • Contact the Advance Together team by Oct. 3. Email Molly Hubbert Doyle to request an application.
Key dates
  • Sept. 12, 2024: Information session
  • Oct. 17, 2024: Applications due
  • December 2024: Selection announcement
Eligibility requirements

Advance Together is an opportunity for community or regional partnerships that meet specific criteria. Key requirements are given below. For full details, see our program prospectus.

Location: The lead organization, as well as the majority of the service area, is in Texas.

Target population: A majority of the population served by the collaborative effort is lower-income.

Focus: The effort focuses on the education-to-workforce transition. (Preferred emphasis is increasing the number of people connected to quality, well-paying jobs in the region.)

Partnership composition: Partners in the effort represent at least two of three sectors. (Selected partnerships are expected to expand to include all three.)

  • Public sector (school districts, community colleges, public universities, workforce development boards, government agencies)
  • Private sector (employers, businesses, chambers)
  • Nonprofit sector (service providers)

Partnership maturity: The partnership is already established, has partners engaged and has identified a shared long-term goal.

Program timeline

Activities during the implementation phase include ongoing technical assistance and regular participation in a peer learning network. Annual grant disbursements of $100,000 per partnership total $300,000 over three years.

  • January 2025: Implementation phase begins/grant disbursement
  • January 2026: Grant disbursement
  • January 2027: Grant disbursement
  • Fall 2027: Opportunity to apply for 2028 sustainability phase
  • December 2027: Implementation phase concludes
Our program

Advance Together is a multiyear grant and technical assistance opportunity that supports community and regional cross-sector partnerships that are working to improve education and employment outcomes for lower-income people.

In a shared learning environment, Advance Together provides selected partnerships with training and external funding to help them strengthen their collaboration and achieve their goals.

Participating partnerships receive:

  • Flexible funding through philanthropic partners:
    • Total of $300,000 in grants over three years ($100,000 annually)
    • Possibility of an additional $50,000–$75,000 sustainability grant
  • Customized technical assistance, a peer learning network and leadership development focusing on critical areas:
    • Systems thinking and change
    • Collaborative and adaptive leadership
    • Authentic community engagement
    • Data-driven decision making
    • Promising practices and trends in workforce and education fields
Strengthening collaboration to advance economic inclusion

As part of our mission to ensure the benefits of a strong economy are available to everyone, the Federal Reserve supports the growth of an inclusive economy—one that provides access to economic opportunity in all communities.

Across the U.S., many of the barriers people face in building economic mobility and resilience arise from complex structural issues that limit their access to education, jobs, credit, capital and more. Different communities face different challenges—but in every community, successful solutions depend on interested parties working together toward the same goal. Collaboration across sectors is essential.

Advance Together strengthens collaborative efforts among public, nonprofit and business sector leaders who are working to reduce barriers to economic opportunity.

Our program supports communities in implementing practices that help drive successful outcomes: testing innovative approaches that move beyond isolated programs to transform local education and workforce systems, prioritizing data when making decisions, and engaging community members as partners in shaping solutions.

Initiative partners and steering committee

Advance Together is a collaborative effort led by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. External philanthropic partners provide grants for the participating communities, and a fiscal sponsor directly manages and distributes the funds.

The Dallas Fed does not provide funding for grants or participate in the selection of grantees.

Members of the Advance Together steering committee provide expertise on education and workforce issues. The committee manages the selection of grantees and resource development.

An independent evaluator provides assessment and feedback on the overall effectiveness of the Advance Together program and on grantees’ progress and outcomes.

Funders

Philanthropic partners provide funding for Advance Together grantees.

  • Doris Duke Foundation
  • Texas Mutual
  • Trellis Foundation
Steering committee

Members include leaders who represent business, education, nonprofits, philanthropy and the public sector. They help ensure our program is well coordinated with state and local policy and related efforts across Texas.

Jenny Achilles
Senior Program Officer
Trellis Foundation

Christine Bailie
Senior Director of Institutional Strategy
Texas Association of Community Colleges

Peter Beard
Senior Vice President
Greater Houston Partnership

Joe Esparza
Commissioner Representing Employers
Texas Workforce Commission

Hannah Gourgey
Senior Fellow
Aspen Institute/Texas Opportunity Youth Network

Garridon Hankins
Program Officer
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

Harrison Keller
President
University of North Texas

Carolyn Landel
Director
Texas Education RP3 Network

Ben Mackey
Executive Director
Texas Impact Network

A.J. Rodriguez
Executive Vice President
Texas 2036

Yvette Ruiz
Southwest Region Executive, Corporate Responsibility
JPMorgan Chase

Jackie Quintero Sekiguchi
Community Affairs Manager
Texas Mutual

Erica Simon
Deputy Director of Strategy and Higher Education/Workforce
Educate Texas

Juan F. Solis III
Vice President and Community Development Manager for Texas
Truist

Origins and pilot round

Through our community development function, the Dallas Fed learned that, while many Texas communities are working to address economic challenges, local partnerships often lack the resources, technical knowledge and community connections they need to realize their full potential. This impedes their ability to make progress in reducing barriers to economic opportunity.

Drawing on our research around economic inclusion and the experience of other Federal Reserve Banks, we engaged community partners to develop a solution—a way to strengthen collaborative efforts across Texas.

Advance Together launched in 2020 with an initial design phase involving nine community partnerships across Texas. Four of these moved forward to participate in our 2021–24 pilot round.

Learn more: Explore articles about the initiative

Community participants (2021–24)

Over four years, four community partnerships received training, coaching and $375,000 in funding from philanthropic partners. This support helped them implement their plans and increase the impact of their programs.

Watch: How pilot round participants are making a difference

Big Country Manufacturing Alliance (Abilene) is creating accessible pathways into well-paying manufacturing careers through training, recruitment and retention efforts.

Deep East Texas College and Career Alliance (Jasper) supports rural and first-generation college students in attaining post-secondary credentials that are in demand by regional employers.

Education Partnership of the Permian Basin (Midland–Odessa) is developing a cradle-to-career continuum of support in the region by working to improve early childhood outcomes and college and career readiness.

Travis County 2-Gen Coalition (Austin) is expanding practices and policies to support dual generations of parents and children in education attainment and achieving long-term financial stability.

Partners (2019–24)

The Dallas Fed led the pilot round of the initiative and coordinated technical assistance for participants.

  • Funders
    Communities Foundation of Texas
    Doris Duke Foundation
    The Kresge Foundation
    The Meadows Foundation
    Texas Mutual
  • Fiscal sponsor
    The Dallas Foundation
  • Evaluator
    Mt. Auburn Associates
Steering committee (2019–23)

Members of the steering committee provided expertise on education and workforce issues. The committee managed the selection of grantees and resource development.

Rumeli Banik
Senior Program Officer for Child Well-Being
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Peter Beard
Senior Vice President, Regional Workforce Development
Greater Houston Partnership

Adrianna Cuéllar Rojas
President and CEO
United Ways of Texas

Aaron Demerson
Commissioner
Texas Workforce Commission

Mechele Dickerson
Arthur L. Moller Chair in Bankruptcy Law and Practice
University Distinguished Teaching Professor
The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Yvonne “Bonnie” Gonzalez
CEO
Knapp Community Care Foundation

Tom Luce
Founder and Chairman
Texas 2036

Michael Medalla
Manager
Toyota USA Foundation

Matthew Randazzo
President and CEO
The Dallas Foundation

Wynn Rosser
President and CEO
T.L.L. Temple Foundation

Chantel Rush
Senior Program Officer
The Kresge Foundation

Jackie Sekiguchi
Community Affairs Manager
Texas Mutual

William Serrata
President
El Paso County Community College District

Nirav Shah
City of Austin

George Tang
Managing Director
Educate Texas, Communities Foundation of Texas

Lindsay Whorton
President
The Holdsworth Center

Insights from the initiative

Read about the work of our participants and lessons they have learned about collaborative leadership.

For more information

Contact Molly Hubbert Doyle