Albany, Georgia – The Albany Tech Foundation has received a $140,000 gift donation from Goodwill Southern Rivers (Goodwill) to create an endowment fund to be known as the Goodwill Gap Fund to support student grants and awards outright over the first four years of the gift.
The Goodwill grant is part of a $1 million initiative to assist seven technical colleges with student scholarship gap funds. The seven regional technical and/or community colleges within a 50-county territory served by Goodwill Southern Rivers include Albany Technical College in Albany, Georgia, as well as:
- Chattahoochee Valley Community College, Phenix City, Alabama
- Columbus Technical College, Columbus, Georgia
- Southern Regional Technical College, Tifton, Georgia
- Southern Union State Community College, Opelika, Alabama
- West Georgia Technical College, Carrollton, Georgia
- Wiregrass Technical College, Valdosta, Georgia
“The opportunity to help our students by working with Goodwill is going to support students directly as they pursue their degrees here at Albany Technical College. This agreement is much needed supplementary funding to help us fulfill our mission and provide work-ready, employable citizens here in the Southwest Georgia region,” Dr. Anthony Parker, President of Albany Technical College, said.
The introduction of the technical college gap grants is one of the first initiatives implemented as a result of the $10 million donation Goodwill received from McKenzie Scott in 2020. Ms. Scott is an award-winning novelist, philanthropist, and former spouse of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Goodwill spent most of 2021 developing an internal plan to maximize its return on investment. Externally, they met with community leaders from across the territory to discuss a range of initiatives that would best benefit the communities receiving the funds.
The Goodwill Gap Fund will be available for students starting February 2022.