HAND-UP FINANCIAL GROUP (“Hand-Up” or “HU”) is a unique non-profit education financing platform that provides GAP Funding solutions to students and educational institutions—via its mission-focused donors and investors to meet diverse needs and achieve common goals. WHO DOES HAND-UP SERVE? GAP Funding can affect students from many different backgrounds, but the groups most often affected are the following: • Independent/adult students • Minority students • Students from lower socioeconomic means • First-generation students • Students that receive less Merit based aid • Families where parents are ineligible for Federal and/or credit-tested loans • Student attending underrepresented faith-based, liberal arts or vocation schools NEED & OPPORTUNITY The 2008 financial market meltdown, the 2010 nationalization of federal student lending into a single-payer system, and other regulatory changes collectively combined to eliminate funding from over 1,500 financial institutions that previously supported the funding of higher education. As a result, billions of dollars per year in private-funded student financing vanished, leaving only students/families in the highest income brackets and credit tiers able to access GAP Funding (defined as the last dollars needed for someone to attend the school and program of their choice). Hand-Up fills this void, breaking down barriers to entry for students and helping schools escape from suffocating unfunded tuition discounts.