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Grads of Life

Full company profile

uuid0009c3q

Namestring
Grads of Life
Websiteurl
gradsoflife.org
Company typeenum
Private
Founded yearint
2014
Descriptiontext

Grads of Life is a Boston-based non-profit organization founded in 2014 that works with employers to develop and implement equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies. Its functional role is advisory and capacity-building on the employer side of workforce inclusion, helping corporate and institutional hiring teams translate inclusion goals into operational practice across talent acquisition, onboarding, and retention.

The organization operates at a small scale, with a headcount in the 11-50 range, consistent with a specialist non-profit advisory firm rather than a scaled software or platform business. The only named leader surfaced in the available data is a Senior Director of Advisory Services, suggesting a delivery model centered on human-led consulting, training, and program design rather than technology products. The structured inputs on products_and_services, technology, revenue_model, and pricing were all empty, and the public website content returned only a loader/verification page, so no proprietary technology stack, digital product surface, or program catalog could be confirmed from this dataset.

Because the entity is a non-profit, its revenue mechanics are most likely a mix of philanthropic grants, corporate partnerships, and possibly fee-for-service advisory engagements rather than a traditional SaaS or product revenue model. No funding rounds, foundation grants, named corporate clients, or operating budget figures were disclosed in the input, which materially limits any revenue, traction, or growth inference. The organization has been operating for over a decade, indicating institutional durability, but the absence of disclosed financial and customer data means that strategic momentum cannot be characterized with confidence.

Short descriptiontext

Grads of Life is a Boston-based non-profit founded in 2014 that advises employers on equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies. It serves corporate and institutional hiring teams through human-led advisory services, with a staff of 11-50.

Ownership categoryenum
Headcount rangeband
11–50
akta.pro rankint
HeadquartersBoston, United States
HQ citystring
Boston
HQ countrystring
United States
HQ regionstring
North America
Markets served

Serves global market

Keyword5 values
talent acquisition advisory, inclusive hiring strategies, workforce equity consulting, DEI employer services, retention strategy consulting
Industry2 codes
1Alumni Relations & Alumni Engagement Programs
CodeEDALAOAAPrimaryYes
2Student & Alumni Communities
CodeBPAMABAKPrimaryNo
NAICS code1 code
  • Educational Support Services611710
Product category
Workforce Inclusion Advisory
Social media profiles2 records
Cost components3 values
Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales
GTM typeB2B
B2B
Offering typeServices
Services
Core offering1 text field

Grads of Life is a nonprofit organization that enables employers to develop and implement equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies. It provides advisory services to employers seeking to tap into and better support talent from nontraditional and underrepresented backgrounds, including graduates lacking conventional four-year degrees.

Differentiator
Functional benefit
Problem solved
Product and service1 record
1Advisory Services for Inclusive Recruitment and Retention
CategoryWorkforce Inclusion Advisory Services
Description

Advisory services that enable employers to develop and implement equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies, with particular focus on talent pools that include graduates from nontraditional and underrepresented backgrounds.

Recent move1 record

Each record includes

Date, Type, Title, Description, Source

Expansion highlight2 records

Each record includes

Type, Description

Peers10 records
1Jopwell
TypeDirect peer
Description

Jopwell is a career platform connecting Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals and students with employers committed to diverse hiring. Directly comparable in serving underrepresented graduates seeking employer opportunities.

2Cook Ross
TypeEmerging player
Description

Cook Ross is a consulting firm specializing in inclusive leadership and diversity, equity, and inclusion training for employers. It is an emerging, specialized peer in the employer-facing DEI advisory space where Grads of Life operates.

3Rework America Alliance (Markle Foundation)
TypeBroad incumbent
Description

Rework America Alliance is a larger initiative focused on systemic workforce changes to enable equitable hiring and skills-based employment across the U.S. economy. Overlaps with Grads of Life's mission at a more macro, policy-and-systems level.

4Opportunity@Work
TypeDirect peer
Description

Opportunity@Work is a nonprofit focused on expanding access to opportunity for workers without bachelor's degrees, helping employers hire based on skills. It is highly comparable as a nonprofit operating at the intersection of employer hiring and inclusive talent strategy.

5Braven
TypeDirect peer
Description

Braven is a college-to-career nonprofit that prepares underrepresented college students for career-launching jobs and partners with employers. It shares Grads of Life's graduate-employer bridge mission and nonprofit operating model.

6INROADS
TypeDirect peer
Description

INROADS is a nonprofit that develops and places underrepresented talent in corporate internships and full-time roles, working directly with employers on inclusive hiring. Strongly comparable as a graduate-employer bridge nonprofit.

7SEO (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity)
TypeDirect peer
Description

SEO is a nonprofit that provides career development and internship programs for underrepresented students and partners with major employers on inclusive recruitment. Direct overlap with Grads of Life's inclusive employer-recruitment focus.

8https://gradsoflife.org/dev/color
TypeEmerging player
Description

/dev/color is a nonprofit community that supports Black software engineers in career advancement, partnering with tech employers. It is an emerging, segment-focused peer in connecting underrepresented graduates to inclusive employer opportunities.

9NPower
TypeDirect peer
Description

NPower is a nonprofit that provides tech workforce training and job placement to underrepresented young adults and military veterans, partnering with employers on inclusive tech hiring. Comparable as a graduate-employer bridge nonprofit with a specialization lens.

10Year Up
TypeDirect peer
Description

Year Up is a workforce-development nonprofit that trains young adults from underrepresented backgrounds and connects them to corporate employer partners, directly overlapping Grads of Life's graduate-to-employer inclusive-hiring mission.

Market position
Strengths5 records

Each record includes

Headline, Details, Source

Weaknesses5 records

Each record includes

Headline, Details, Source

Competitive moat2 records

Each record includes

Type, Details

Key risks5 records

Each record includes

Headline, Details, Source

Key highlights5 records

Each record includes

Headline, Details, Source

Customer concentration

Classification, Details

Ideal customer profile1 record

Each record includes

Profile, Firmographic size, Sales motion, Sales cycle length, Buying structure, Purchase trigger, Buyer persona, Geography, Industry vertical, Primary use case, Description, Pain points, Evidence proof points, Target buyer

Technology focused
No
API detail
Has APIbool
No

Docs URL, Description

AI maturity
App detail

Has app

Core technology
Revenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Number of profiles
Profiles1 record

Each record includes

Name, Designation, Designation category, Overview, Profile commentary, Source

No data
No data
Funding overview

Funding stage, Last funding date, Total funding USD

Funding rounds

Each record includes

Round, Amount USD, Date, Pre money valuation, Total investors, Investors, News

Investors

Each record includes

Name, Type, Date of entry, Rounds participated, Website

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Each record includes

Name, Acquisition type, Announced date, Completed date, Status, Website, News

Investment

Each record includes

Name, Round, Announced date, Lead investor, Website, News

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Grads of Life

Workforce Inclusion Advisorygradsoflife.org

Grads of Life is a Boston-based non-profit founded in 2014 that advises employers on equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies. It serves corporate and institutional hiring teams through human-led advisory services, with a staff of 11-50.

What Grads of Life does

Grads of Life is a Boston-based non-profit organization founded in 2014 that works with employers to develop and implement equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies. Its functional role is advisory and capacity-building on the employer side of workforce inclusion, helping corporate and institutional hiring teams translate inclusion goals into operational practice across talent acquisition, onboarding, and retention.

The organization operates at a small scale, with a headcount in the 11-50 range, consistent with a specialist non-profit advisory firm rather than a scaled software or platform business. The only named leader surfaced in the available data is a Senior Director of Advisory Services, suggesting a delivery model centered on human-led consulting, training, and program design rather than technology products. The structured inputs on products_and_services, technology, revenue_model, and pricing were all empty, and the public website content returned only a loader/verification page, so no proprietary technology stack, digital product surface, or program catalog could be confirmed from this dataset.

Because the entity is a non-profit, its revenue mechanics are most likely a mix of philanthropic grants, corporate partnerships, and possibly fee-for-service advisory engagements rather than a traditional SaaS or product revenue model. No funding rounds, foundation grants, named corporate clients, or operating budget figures were disclosed in the input, which materially limits any revenue, traction, or growth inference. The organization has been operating for over a decade, indicating institutional durability, but the absence of disclosed financial and customer data means that strategic momentum cannot be characterized with confidence.

Grads of Life firmographics

Firmographics
Name
Grads of Life
Website
https://gradsoflife.org
Company type
Private
Founded year
2014
Headcount range
11–50 employees
Short description
Grads of Life is a Boston-based non-profit founded in 2014 that advises employers on equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies. It serves corporate and institutional hiring teams through human-led advisory services, with a staff of 11-50.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Grads of Life industry classification

Industry
Product category
Workforce Inclusion Advisory
NAICS
Educational Support Services (611710)
akta.pro primary industry
Alumni Relations & Alumni Engagement Programs (EDALAOAA)
akta.pro secondary industry
Student & Alumni Communities (BPAMABAK)

Keywords

  • Talent acquisition advisory
  • Inclusive hiring strategies
  • Workforce equity consulting
  • DEI employer services
  • Retention strategy consulting

Where Grads of Life is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city
Boston
HQ country
United States
HQ region
North America

Markets served

Grads of Life business model

Business model
GTM type
B2B
Offering type
Services
Cost components
Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Grads of Life product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Grads of Life is a nonprofit organization that enables employers to develop and implement equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies. It provides advisory services to employers seeking to tap into and better support talent from nontraditional and underrepresented backgrounds, including graduates lacking conventional four-year degrees.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

  • Advisory Services for Inclusive Recruitment and Retention Advisory services that enable employers to develop and implement equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies, with particular focus on talent pools that include graduates from nontraditional and underrepresented backgrounds.

Companies that use Grads of Life

Customer profile

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Grads of Life technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API
No
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Grads of Life partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights2 records

Grads of Life competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Direct peers

  • Jopwell: Jopwell is a career platform connecting Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals and students with employers committed to diverse hiring. Directly comparable in serving underrepresented graduates seeking employer opportunities.
  • Opportunity@Work: Opportunity@Work is a nonprofit focused on expanding access to opportunity for workers without bachelor's degrees, helping employers hire based on skills. It is highly comparable as a nonprofit operating at the intersection of employer hiring and inclusive talent strategy.
  • Braven: Braven is a college-to-career nonprofit that prepares underrepresented college students for career-launching jobs and partners with employers. It shares Grads of Life's graduate-employer bridge mission and nonprofit operating model.
  • INROADS: INROADS is a nonprofit that develops and places underrepresented talent in corporate internships and full-time roles, working directly with employers on inclusive hiring. Strongly comparable as a graduate-employer bridge nonprofit.
  • SEO (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity): SEO is a nonprofit that provides career development and internship programs for underrepresented students and partners with major employers on inclusive recruitment. Direct overlap with Grads of Life's inclusive employer-recruitment focus.
  • NPower: NPower is a nonprofit that provides tech workforce training and job placement to underrepresented young adults and military veterans, partnering with employers on inclusive tech hiring. Comparable as a graduate-employer bridge nonprofit with a specialization lens.
  • Year Up: Year Up is a workforce-development nonprofit that trains young adults from underrepresented backgrounds and connects them to corporate employer partners, directly overlapping Grads of Life's graduate-to-employer inclusive-hiring mission.

Emerging players

  • Cook Ross: Cook Ross is a consulting firm specializing in inclusive leadership and diversity, equity, and inclusion training for employers. It is an emerging, specialized peer in the employer-facing DEI advisory space where Grads of Life operates.
  • https://gradsoflife.org/dev/color: /dev/color is a nonprofit community that supports Black software engineers in career advancement, partnering with tech employers. It is an emerging, segment-focused peer in connecting underrepresented graduates to inclusive employer opportunities.

Broad incumbents

  • Rework America Alliance (Markle Foundation): Rework America Alliance is a larger initiative focused on systemic workforce changes to enable equitable hiring and skills-based employment across the U.S. economy. Overlaps with Grads of Life's mission at a more macro, policy-and-systems level.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

Grads of Life social profiles

Digital presence

Grads of Life financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Grads of Life leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Grads of Life funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Grads of Life M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Grads of Life

What does Grads of Life do?

Grads of Life is a nonprofit organization that enables employers to develop and implement equitable and inclusive recruitment and retention strategies. It provides advisory services to employers seeking to tap into and better support talent from nontraditional and underrepresented backgrounds, including graduates lacking conventional four-year degrees.

When was Grads of Life founded?

Grads of Life was founded in 2014. It employs 11 to 50 people.

Where is Grads of Life based?

Grads of Life is headquartered in Boston, United States, in the North America region.

Who are Grads of Life's main competitors?

Direct peers on record are Jopwell, Opportunity@Work, Braven, INROADS, SEO (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity), NPower and Year Up. Emerging players are Cook Ross and https://gradsoflife.org/dev/color. Rework America Alliance (Markle Foundation) is listed as a broad incumbent.

Does Grads of Life have an API?

No public API is recorded for Grads of Life.

What industry is Grads of Life in?

Grads of Life's product category is Workforce Inclusion Advisory. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDALAOAA, Alumni Relations & Alumni Engagement Programs, with a secondary code of BPAMABAK, Student & Alumni Communities. Its NAICS code is 611710.

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Live signals
PR NewswireWalmart Awards $1M to Grads of Life to Drive Greater Measurement and Adoption of Skills-First Talent Practices for EmployersWalmart has awarded a $1 million grant to Grads of Life, an initiative of Year Up, to scale its Impact Measurement Framework for skills-first talent practices. This funding supports the development of guidelines and tools to help employers track and adopt strategies that eliminate degree requirements and improve workforce diversity. The framework was originally developed by a working group led by Grads of Life and IBM, involving major corporate partners such as IBM, Accenture, and JPMorgan Chase.PR NewswireCollege degree requirements are locking out qualified candidates and widening income gap between Black and white AmericansBain & Company, OneTen, and Grads of Life released a joint report advocating for skills-first hiring practices, arguing that over 60% of middle-skilled positions in America require four-year degrees despite being poor predictors of actual job performance. The report, titled 'Eliminate a Degree of Difficulty: Hire for Skills, Not School,' establishes a business case for removing degree requirements, noting that skills-first criteria are five times more predictive of job performance than educational background. OneTen, a coalition launched in December 2020 to place 1 million Black Americans without four-year degrees into family-sustaining jobs within 10 years, reported early success with 17,000 new hires, 4,000 promotions, and an 89% retention rate in its first year.PR NewswireGRADS OF LIFE AND MARKLE FOUNDATION FORM TRAILBLAZING PARTNERSHIP TO DISMANTLE BARRIERS TO ACCESSING THE WORKFORCEGrads of Life and the Markle Foundation formed a new partnership to help companies shift from degree-based to skills-based hiring practices, aiming to advance racial and economic equity in the workforce. The collaboration will provide strategic guidance, executive training programs, and ongoing support to help organizations build, implement, and scale skills-first hiring approaches. Grads of Life has also joined the Markle Foundation's Rework America Alliance, a cross-sector coalition focused on helping workers without bachelor's degrees access better-paying jobs with career advancement opportunities.PR NewswireGrads of Life and OneTen Expand Partnership to Create New Opportunities for Black TalentGrads of Life has expanded its partnership with OneTen to further advance racial and economic equity by helping place 1 million Black Americans into family-sustaining jobs over the next decade. The collaboration leverages Grads of Life's expertise in skills-based hiring to support OneTen's coalition of CEOs and member companies in improving diversity, equity, and inclusion outcomes.PR NewswireBain & Company And Grads Of Life Reveal The 10 Actions Most Likely To Advance Diversity, Equity And InclusionBain & Company and Grads of Life released a joint study identifying 10 evidence-based actions companies can take to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion outcomes, based on a review of more than 100 research sources. The study found that despite clear evidence these tactics improve recruitment, representation, engagement, and retention of diverse talent, only 50% have been widely adopted by companies. The organizations also launched a DEI Opportunity Identifier self-assessment tool for companies to evaluate their progress.PR NewswireWalmart Awards $500K to Grads of Life to Build and Launch a New Impact Measurement Framework for Inclusive EmployersWalmart awarded a $500,000 grant to Grads of Life, an initiative of Year Up, to develop a new impact measurement framework that helps employers evaluate the social impact and business benefits of inclusive talent practices such as skills-first hiring and upskilling. The framework will be tested and refined in partnership with Fortune 500 companies before being distributed through business coalitions committed to equity through employment. Grads of Life aims to expand the evidence base on D.E.I. best practices over the next five years to support broader adoption and scale of inclusive employment best practices.PR NewswireNew PSA Confronts Hiring Challenges Of Employers And Millions Of Unemployed Youth In The United StatesGrads of Life, in partnership with the Ad Council and Atlanta-based advertising agency 22squared, launched a new public service advertising campaign titled 'More Than What's on Paper' featuring videos called '7 Second Resumes' to address the employment gap facing 'Opportunity Youth' — unemployed young adults ages 16-24. The campaign, targeting HR managers and C-level executives, aims to shift employer perceptions by highlighting that nearly 6 million young people are out of work despite 7 million job vacancies, and that life experiences can convey valuable workplace skills. To date, the initiative has received more than $81 million in donated media support and more than 300 employers have reached out to Grads of Life to build talent pipelines.