The Ada Center

What The Ada Center does

The Ada Center is a private, nonprofit advisory organization founded in 2014 by Sarah Zauner and headquartered in Colorado, with a distributed team spanning from California to Maine. The firm provides consulting, research, frameworks, and open-access resources that help higher education institutions, state systems, foundations, and intermediary organizations navigate student success technology and AI strategy. It does not develop or sell commercial technology products; instead, its core offerings are diagnostic tools (Student Success Technology Diagnostic, Technology Mishaps Map), a five-module practitioner curriculum, implementation playbooks (Advising Technology Procurement & Planning Playbook), research guides (CRM 101 Guide, Holistic Student Support Technology report), and strategic frameworks (Decision Support Framework, co-developed with the Aspen Institute in 2017). The resource library is published openly on the website to support top-of-funnel awareness and partner referrals.

The Ada Center's go-to-market is enterprise field sales delivered through direct technical assistance engagements, statewide and multi-institution partnerships, and cohort-based learning experiences. Primary customer segments are colleges and universities, state systems and policymakers, foundations and intermediary organizations, and Tribal Colleges. Named partners include the Gates Foundation (primary funder and collaborator on the Digital Holistic Student Support strategy), College Futures Foundation, Ascendium Education Philanthropy, AIHEC, Aspen Institute, Phase Two Advisory, AASCU, Achieving the Dream, EDUCAUSE, Jobs for the Future, Complete College America, and the Advising Success Network. The organization participates in the multi-organization Higher Endeavor Initiative alongside AIR, rpk Group, and others.

Revenue mechanics are nonprofit grant-based rather than commercial. The Ada Center receives funding from foundations (notably the Gates Foundation) to support its technical assistance, research, and initiative design work; the $280M figure cited on the website represents institution and philanthropic funds under advisement, not the organization's own revenue. The firm has supported 700+ broad-access institutions, 46 national and state partners, and conducted more than 300 in-depth student interviews over its operating history. Leadership includes Founder and Executive Director Sarah Zauner, Managing Director of Digital Holistic Student Support Dr. Christina Hubbard, Managing Director of Student Voice and General Counsel Andres Gil, Managing Director of Strategy Sarah Ferris, and Managing Director of Technical Implementation Dr. Rachel James.

Name

The Ada Center

Legal name

The Ada Center

Website

https://theadacenter.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Ada Center is a Colorado-based nonprofit advisory firm founded in 2014 that provides consulting, diagnostic tools, and open-access frameworks to help U.S. higher education institutions, state systems, and foundations navigate student success technology and AI strategy.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Consulting

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171), Other Computer Related Services (541519)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Instrumentation, Controls & Automation Engineering Consulting (BPAHAIAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

AT Funding, Procurement & Compliance Support (IEP/504 Documentation) (EDAKAIAJ)

Keywords

• Higher education consulting
• Student success technology
• Edtech advisory services
• AI strategy higher education
• Institutional research support

Headquarters

HQ city

Lafayette

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Foundation Grants and Philanthropic Funding: The Ada Center receives funding from foundations including the Gates Foundation to support their technical assistance, research, and initiative design work with institutions and state systems.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

The Ada Center provides consulting, research, and open-access resources that help higher education institutions align technology and AI strategy with student success goals. Offerings include direct technical assistance to colleges and universities, statewide and multi-institution strategic partnerships with state systems and foundations, and applied research translated into diagnostic tools, playbooks, curricular modules, and frameworks. The Center is vendor-neutral and supports institutions through technology assessment, procurement planning, implementation, and AI adoption readiness.

Product overview

The Ada Center offers a portfolio of open-access consulting frameworks, diagnostic tools, and curricular resources designed to help higher education institutions navigate student success technology strategy. The core offerings include the Student Success Technology Diagnostic (assessment tool), the 5-module Student Success Technology Curriculum (educational pathway), the Advising Technology Procurement & Planning Playbook (implementation guide), the Technology Mishaps Map (troubleshooting diagnostic), CRM 101 Guide (vendor landscape resource), Decision Support Framework (strategic planning tool), Software Evaluation Guides, and research reports on HSS technology and scheduling systems. These tools are designed to work together as an integrated resource ecosystem supporting institutions through the full technology planning, procurement, and implementation lifecycle.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Student Success Technology Diagnostic Team assessment tool for higher education institutions that identifies 16 tenets of a healthy student success technology ecosystem, helping institutional teams assess current practice, identify strengths and gaps, and prioritize improvements across five phases of the student journey.
• Student Success Technology Curriculum (5 Learning Modules) Five-module learning series that helps higher education leaders navigate the student success technology landscape through practical, actionable guidance including planning tools, discussion guides, facilitated activities, and research-based resources.
• Technology Mishaps Map Diagnostic tool that helps organizations identify why a technology implementation is struggling by determining what is going wrong and why challenges are occurring, enabling strategic decisions about interventions to get implementations back on track.
• CRM 101 Guide: Making Sense of CRMs in Higher Education Practical guide to the CRM landscape in higher education that explains what CRMs are, what they can do, how different products compare, and how institutions can prepare for successful CRM adoption, based on more than 50 interviews with practitioners, researchers, technology leaders, and CRM vendors.
• Advising Technology Procurement & Planning Playbook Practical playbook for higher education leaders that provides step-by-step guidance for procuring new advising tools or getting ongoing technology-supported efforts back on track, based on research from more than 40 institutions.
• Decision Support Framework Framework co-developed with the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program that helps institutions understand the student success software market, including key technology capabilities, organizational foundations needed, and considerations for evaluating solutions.
• Software Evaluation Guides Checklist of considerations for purchasing case management, degree planning, or predictive analytics tools, originally developed for Achieving the Dream's Integrated Planning and Student Support Toolkit.
• Report on Scheduling Systems Research report exploring the opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned from adopting course scheduling technologies, drawing on implementation experiences from Ohio's statewide initiative with 18 community colleges.
• Holistic Student Support Technology Report Report based on more than 7 years of work with California Community Colleges, providing practical insights and recommendations for leaders on the Holistic Student Support technology landscape, tools, needs, and challenges, including case studies from HSS Implementation Network colleges.
• Institution Technical Assistance Direct technical assistance consulting for colleges and universities that helps institutional leaders navigate technology-enabled change, make thoughtful technology decisions, strengthen organizational capacity, and prepare for emerging opportunities including artificial intelligence.
• Strategic Partnerships with State Systems and Foundations Strategic partnerships with state systems, policymakers, foundations, and national organizations that include technology and AI strategy development, statewide and multi-institution technical assistance, strategic advising for philanthropy and intermediaries, and design of collaborative initiatives that advance student success at scale.
• Research and Field Learning Applied research and field learning service that includes environmental scans, student/practitioner/field insight gathering, workshop and convening design, cohort-based learning experiences, and facilitation of peer learning across institutions and organizations to translate lessons into practical frameworks, shared language, and actionable insights.

Quantifiable outcome

• 700+ institutions supported
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• AIHEC (American Indian Higher Education Consortium)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to strengthen technology capacity across Tribal Colleges as part of The Ada Center's mission to support access-focused institutions.
• Aspen Institute College Excellence ProgramcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-developed the Decision Support Framework originally in 2017 to help institutions understand the student success software market. Both organizations share commitment to student success in higher education.
• Phase Two AdvisorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with Phase Two Advisory on the California Guided Pathways Project, providing input for the Holistic Student Support Technology report and collaborating on recognizing student support leaders.
• Complete College AmericamajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership and roll-out partner for the five-module curriculum on student success technology. Collaborated on developing learning resources for higher education practitioners.
• Advising Success NetworkmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRoll-out partner and project champion for the student success technology curriculum, helping disseminate and champion the resources developed by The Ada Center.
• AASCU (American American Colleges and Universities)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization within The Ada Center's broader ecosystem working to improve economic mobility through higher education.
• Achieving the DreammajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization. The Ada Center developed software evaluation guides for Achieving the Dream's Integrated Planning and Student Support Toolkit in 2018.
• EDUCAUSEmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization within the ecosystem committed to improving higher education through technology.
• Jobs for the FuturemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization working on economic mobility through higher education.
• AIR (American Institutes for Research)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner within the Higher Endeavor initiative, providing coordinated support to participating institutions alongside The Ada Center and other organizations.
• Community College Center of Student EngagementmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner within the Higher Endeavor initiative working to provide coordinated support to participating institutions.
• Higher Endeavor InitiativecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-organization initiative where The Ada Center partners with AIR, Community College Center of Student Engagement, rpk Group, Student Ready Strategies, and T3 Advisory to provide coordinated support to participating institutions.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Anthology: Anthology is a large higher education technology vendor formed through the merger of Blackboard, Civitas Learning, and others, offering SIS, CRM, and student success platforms. While vendor-aligned (in contrast to The Ada Center's vendor-neutral stance), it operates across overlapping customer institutions and competes for institutional technology mindshare.
• Huron Consulting Group: Huron is a large, publicly-traded professional services firm with a dedicated higher education practice that advises colleges and universities on technology implementations, student success transformation, and operational change. It is broader and more commercially focused than The Ada Center but competes for the same institutional technology advisory engagements.

Others

• Achieving the Dream: Achieving the Dream is a national nonprofit network focused on community college student success and equity, and is an existing strategic partner that has integrated The Ada Center's software evaluation guides into its Integrated Planning and Student Support Toolkit. It is more ecosystem collaborator than competitor but addresses overlapping institutional audiences on student success technology adoption.
• EDUCAUSE: EDUCAUSE is the leading higher education IT association, producing research, hosting conferences, and convening CIOs and technology leaders. It is a close partner of The Ada Center within the higher ed ecosystem and addresses overlapping audiences on technology strategy, though it is membership-driven rather than fee-for-service advisory.

Emerging players

• American Institutes for Research (AIR): AIR is a major nonprofit research organization that conducts applied research in education, including higher education student success initiatives. The Ada Center and AIR are already co-partners within the Higher Endeavor initiative, and AIR increasingly publishes on technology-enabled student support, making it both collaborator and adjacent competitor for research-driven advisory work.
• Civitas Learning: Civitas Learning (part of Anthology) is a student success analytics platform serving higher education institutions. While it sells technology rather than advisory, its analytics and predictive advising products compete with the institutional outcomes The Ada Center helps institutions plan for, and it overlaps on the CRM/advising technology advisory frontier.

Direct peers

• Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL): RNL is a higher education consulting firm specializing in enrollment, student success, and retention, with deep relationships across community colleges and broad-access institutions. Its work on student success technology strategy, predictive analytics, and CRM implementation directly overlaps The Ada Center's core advisory areas.
• EAB (Education Advisory Board): EAB is the most directly comparable peer — a higher education advisory firm that sells research, technology advice, and consulting services to colleges and universities. Founder Sarah Zauner previously led research and product development at EAB, and the two organizations overlap heavily on student success technology strategy, CRM advisory, and enrollment-focused research.
• Tyton Partners: Tyton Partners is an education-sector strategy and investment bank advising organizations across the education ecosystem, including institutions navigating technology procurement and growth strategy. Its advisory work for colleges and EdTech investors closely mirrors The Ada Center's vendor-neutral positioning in the student success technology market.
• Ithaka S+R: Ithaka S+R is a nonprofit research and advisory organization serving higher education, with overlapping work on technology strategy, student success, and the economics of digital transformation. It produces widely-cited field research and serves a similar audience of institutional leaders, foundations, and policymakers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-ada-center

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

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 Ada Center