Trellis Foundation 2025 Annual Report

Dear Friends, Partners & Colleagues:

At Trellis Foundation, we take inspiration and strength from the commitment and innovation of our grantees—and from the shared belief that education can transform lives—as we move together as a state to ensure success for all Texas students.

We are proud to share this annual report highlighting our work during fiscal year 2025. Learning—together as a team and with our wonderful partners—was a major theme of the year, shaping how we listen, how we lead, and how we show up in service of students and communities across Texas.

In that spirit, we partnered with the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) to survey and listen more deeply to our grantee partners.  We are grateful to the many partners who took the time to provide feedback about our impact, our processes, and more. With a 73% response rate, our first Grantee Perception Report from CEP, paired with internal team reflections, offered a rich picture of what is working well and, just as importantly, where we have opportunities to improve. It also helped us articulate the approach to relationships and collaboration with grantees that will ground our work as we continue to grow our team and expand our grantmaking.

The Trellis Foundation board gathered in San Diego, CA, for their second biennial retreat to reflect on the Foundation’s strategic plan, hear insights from grantees, and engage with a panel of national postsecondary leaders on current conditions and priorities for higher education nationally and within Texas.  Several insights surfaced in conversation among board members and staff—insights that will help guide our work in the years ahead:

In addition, our staff traveled across the state—focusing on North and East Texas in 2025—to learn more about the unique regional challenges to postsecondary attainment and the novel solutions Texas communities are implementing to improve student success. These visits continue to ground our strategy in local realities and expertise.

To explore how institutions can better support today’s students, we co-hosted the 2025 Modern Learner Summit in September alongside our sibling organization, Trellis Strategies. The event brought together more than 200 education, workforce, and policy leaders to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and advance a more student-centered postsecondary ecosystem.

As always, we’re incredibly grateful to our partners for learning with us, sharing their stories, and welcoming us into their communities.  We are honored to walk alongside you—and energized by what we can accomplish together.