Tiger’s 20-year challenge
As the Tiger Woods Foundation’s 20th year approached, Tiger issued a challenge: Take TWF’s impact to a whole new level by improving the lives of millions of underserved students around the world.
Without a doubt, that’s an incredibly ambitious goal. To achieve it, we had to explore dramatically new and innovative ideas. We entered into this exploration knowing that we had a great start with already outstanding programs to provide the basis for this growth.
The Tiger Woods Learning Center consists of our flagship Anaheim, California, facility and six satellites that use award-winning, state-of-the-art methods to inspire students to pursue STEM as a possible education and career path. The Earl Woods Scholarship Program provides the support underserved students need to not only gain admittance to college, but to thrive and graduate, ready for the world. These highly successful programs will continue to grow as we move forward, but reaching millions of kids requires a whole new way of thinking. In tackling this challenge, our goal was to use our existing programs as the foundation for a growth plan that will fundamentally change the lives of the children we serve. So we embarked on the development of a five-year plan, assisted by the Bridgespan Group, an internationally accomplished consultant that focuses on helping philanthropic organizations like TWF pursue the right strategies to achieve their goals.
After six months of comprehensive work, we finalized a plan that will reshape our organization and the youth we serve. Using the Tiger Woods Learning Center as a STEM education “laboratory,” we will continue to innovate our teaching style, and will share our methods broadly with teachers around the world, helping them reach thousands of students.
We will also expand the Earl Woods Scholarship Program, which provides extensive support for underserved students entering college. This is a program that has a 98.7 percent college graduation rate — compared to a national average of 11 percent for underserved youth — because of our focus on mentoring, one-to-one support and internships.
Finally, we will be launching a digital curriculum with our partner, Discovery Education, which has the potential to reach millions of middle and high school students, inspiring them to see STEM careers and college as a way for them to create a great future.
The future is very exciting for TWF and the children we serve. Even as we embark on this five-year plan, we know that we must constantly re-evaluate our plans and methods. True success is hard to achieve, and it can be fleeting. We will continue to think about reinventing ourselves every day. It’s the same approach Tiger takes to his golf game. Analytical. Determined. Dedicated. Results-oriented. We approach our work at TWF in the same way. And that’s why we know our 20th year will set the stage for an even brighter future.
Join us for a Celebration of Unexpected Champions.
