Philanthropy Advocates, a collaboration with Educate Texas at Communities Foundation of Texas, is a diverse funders’ collaborative of over 50 private, corporate, and community foundations and United Ways. Formerly called the Texas Education Grantmakers Advocacy Consortium (TEGAC), we were created in 2012 to unify grantmakers around a multi-year effort to build support for and improvement in public and higher education in Texas in response to the historic cuts made to public education by the Texas legislature during the 2011 session. In 2019, we joined forces with Educate Texas, a trusted change agent in education, to better advocate together on behalf of our state’s 7 million students.
Philanthropy Advocates is steadfast in our commitment to improving the educational outcomes for students at every point along their educational journey.
We harness and combine our more than 50 members’ collective experience and knowledge, our portfolio of research and evidence, and our diverse network of grantees and partners to provide objective, high-quality data to state leaders to make informed decisions around public and higher education policy. We leverage our deep relationships with community partners and state leaders to advocate, engage and advance education policy.
Philanthropy Advocates focuses our work on public and higher education policy issues that will have the greatest impact for Texas students: early grade success; guided pathways to college and career; effective teaching; and school finance.
Our name may have changed, but our mission has not. Philanthropy Advocates is a more accurate reflection of our mission and reaffirms philanthropy’s commitment to advocating on behalf of 7 million preK-12 and higher education students across Texas.