The Step Onward Foundation

What The Step Onward Foundation does

The Step Onward Foundation is a private, nonprofit charitable organization that provides educational scholarships to individuals facing financial barriers to academic attainment. Its primary beneficiaries are scholarship recipients — students and individuals seeking financial assistance for educational opportunities — while its funding base consists of individual donors, corporate partners, and participants in its signature fundraising events. The foundation has no subsidiary structure, no parent company, and no public listing.

The foundation operates through a layered donor-engagement model. Contributions are accepted via one-time online donations, monthly recurring giving, 3-year pledge commitments, and planned/legacy giving arrangements. It runs a Giving Society to recognize major supporters, a Corporate Giving program for business partnerships and matching gifts, and an annual signature event — the "Love is Home Gala" — which has been documented for both 2025 (with evening-highlights gallery content) and 2026. Distribution is primarily domestic through the foundation's owned website (steponward.org), with no disclosed geographic expansion or multi-currency capability.

The business model is donation-driven rather than revenue-generating: there is no product, service, or pricing model in the commercial sense. No founding date, audited financials, headcount, leadership team, board composition, or institutional grantmaker relationships are disclosed in the available source material. Operating status is active, with no signals of closure, acquisition, or restructuring.

Name

The Step Onward Foundation

Legal name

The Step Onward Foundation

Website

https://steponward.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Step Onward Foundation is a private nonprofit foundation that provides educational scholarships to individuals in need, funded by individual donors, corporate giving partners, and its annual Love is Home Gala.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Educational Scholarship Foundation

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Educational Services (611)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Scholarship & Fellowship Foundations and Trusts (EDADAHAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Education Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAK)

Keywords

• Educational scholarships
• Nonprofit foundation
• Charitable giving programs
• Donor recognition society
• Community fundraising galas

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Step Onward Foundation is a nonprofit foundation that provides educational scholarships to students and individuals facing financial barriers to academic pursuits. The foundation funds its scholarship programs through charitable donations from individuals and corporate partners, accepting one-time gifts, monthly recurring donations, 3-year pledge commitments, planned giving, and corporate giving programs. It also engages supporters through signature annual gala events and a Giving Society recognition program.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Educational Scholarship Program Financial scholarships awarded to students and individuals in need to support their educational pursuits and remove financial barriers to academic attainment.
• Corporate Giving Program Corporate partnership opportunities for businesses to support educational scholarships through corporate giving, matching gift programs, and employee engagement initiatives.
• Giving Society Donor recognition program that acknowledges and engages major contributors to the foundation, providing structured pathways for sustained philanthropy.
• Planned Giving Program Planned giving arrangements allowing donors to make structured, long-term charitable contributions to support the foundation's scholarship programs.
• Annual Gala Fundraising Events Signature annual gala events (e.g., Love is Home Gala) that serve as the foundation's primary fundraising and community engagement occasions, combining donor cultivation with scholarship fundraising.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• QuestBridge: A non-profit that connects high-achieving low-income students with scholarships and admission to top colleges. Comparable to Step Onward as a donor/foundation-funded scholarship intermediary addressing financial barriers to education, with similar scholarship-recipient and individual-donor segments.
• Hispanic Scholarship Fund: A non-profit organization that provides scholarships and educational support services to Hispanic students. Closely comparable to Step Onward in mission (educational scholarships for underserved populations) and operational model (donor-funded scholarships), though with a defined demographic focus.
• Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans: A non-profit organization that provides need-based scholarships to underserved youth and honors distinguished Americans. Comparable to Step Onward in mission and structure as a scholarship-focused foundation supported by individual donors, corporate partners, and signature events.
• Jack Kent Cooke Foundation: A private foundation providing scholarships and educational support to high-achieving students with financial need. Comparable to Step Onward as an endowed foundation funding undergraduate scholarships, with a more focused and selective application model.
• Scholarship America: The largest U.S. private scholarship and educational support organization, administering scholarships funded by donors, corporations, and foundations. Directly comparable to Step Onward as a non-profit intermediary that funds private educational scholarships, but operating at substantially greater scale.
• Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation: A corporate-affiliated foundation that awards achievement-based scholarships to high school seniors. Comparable to Step Onward as a scholarship-granting non-profit with corporate sponsorship and structured donor/student engagement, though at much larger scale.

Broad incumbents

• DonorsChoose: A large non-profit crowdfunding platform that connects individual donors with classroom education projects. Comparable to Step Onward as a non-profit fundraising intermediary for educational causes, with a more digitally scaled giving model and broader scope (teachers vs. students).
• UNCF (United Negro College Fund): A major national non-profit that funds scholarships for minority students and supports member HBCUs. Comparable to Step Onward in being an educational-grantmaking non-profit, but operating as a broad incumbent with a national footprint, institutional partners, and dedicated corporate fundraising campaigns.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/StepOnwardFoundation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about The Step Onward Foundation