"That turtle didn’t get to the top of the fencepost by himself!" Often times, dogged perseverance and support from a cadre of family, friends, counselors and teachers is just not enough to grow a successful college graduate. The rising cost of college is often in the way (up 1,115% since 1978). Even after Federal Pell Grants, scholarships and loans, many prospective students still have financial gaps to close in order to make college a reality. We’d like to help The Goodwin Meissner Family Foundation (GMFF) helps individuals achieve what they are already driven to seek: a better future for themselves through education We started in May 2015 with an endowment from Michael S. Goodwin and his late wife, Betty Ann Goodwin. Surveying the many needs in our community we concluded that education was a core requirement for a fulfilling and successful life and that anything we could do to assist folks in furthering their education would have the greatest impact. Thus we set about working on our goals to: alleviate the heavy burden of college debt for those who can least afford it, and provide opportunity and support, through our partners, for individuals to successfully complete a post secondary degree or professional certification The GMFF strategy is two fold: (1) we grant scholarships directly to individuals through our Last Dollar Scholarship and Pay it Forward programs and (2) we partner with organizations that support students through completion of their desired degree (or a professional certification) For more information email us at info@gmff.foundation or visit our web page at www.gmff.foundation