MICHELSON PHILANTHROPIES
Education & Equity Michelson 20MM Foundation believes that equitable educational and economic opportunities are essential to activating humanity’s full potential. For more than a decade, it has served 20 million minds—the approximate number of postsecondary students in the United States—by advancing open educational resources, smart justice, student basic needs, digital equity, and intellectual property education.
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2021 IMPACT REPORT
Michelson 20MM launched in 2010 with an effort to relieve the burden of textbook costs on lowincome college students. Its work has since grown to include investing in tech entrepreneurs, changemakers, and policy with the goal of catalyzing scalable innovations in the knowledge economy and accelerating progress toward a more just world. The foundation continues to expand into other verticals, challenging social inequalities and injustices in fields beyond education. Supporting Open Educational Resources When Dr. Gary K. Michelson learned from professors at Santa Ana College, a two-year public institution in Orange County, California, that in 2010 numerous bright and qualified students failed to complete their degrees each term simply because they could not afford their textbooks, he decided to take action.