© 2025 Tilting Futures. All rights reserved.
Dear Fellow Tilters,
Fifteen years ago, we made an audacious bet: that young people, given the right experiences and trusted with real responsibility, could become the curious, kind, globally minded leaders our world needs.
Today, that bet is paying off, thanks to all of you.
This year demanded courage. Courage to expand when the path wasn't always clear. Courage to test what we believed through rigorous research. Courage to partner with higher education institutions ready to reimagine what's possible together.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM
GLOBAL TEAM
We chose courage, and the momentum has been extraordinary.
Applications over the past three years now surpass the prior twelve combined, the highest demand growth in our history and a clear signal of the power of Take Action Lab to meet this moment.
In 2025, we also chose collaboration.
That's the world we're building together.
The future isn't something that happens to us, it's something we must build, together, with humility and hope.
In FY2024, Tilting Futures maintained a strong financial position, with total assets of $11,184,473 and net assets of $10,829,246, ensuring long-term sustainability and impact. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we secured essential funding to support programs that empower young changemakers globally. Our strategic investments in programmatic expansion, impact measurement, and a path to accreditation have positioned us for continued growth, allowing us to expand immersive, real-world learning experiences in the year ahead.
As of June 30, 2024
Assets 2024
Liabilities and
Net Assets 2024
CURRENT LIABILITIES
NET ASSETS
WITHOUT DONOR RESTRICTIONS
Thank you for fifteen years of partnership, trust, and unwavering belief that young people can change the world.
Letter From The CEO
We partnered with universities ready to build with us. We listened to students who challenged our assumptions. We learned from community partners who've been doing this work far longer than we have. Together, we're discovering what it takes to prepare young people for a world none of us can fully predict.
We're living through a moment of rapid technological change, uncertainty, and challenges that ignore borders. No single institution has all the answers, and that's exactly why partnership matters more than ever.
Higher education is wrestling with urgent questions: How do we prepare students for jobs that don't exist yet? How do we cultivate the human capacities technology can't replace? How do we foster connection in an age of fragmentation?
At Tilting Futures, we're committed to finding the answers to these questions, together with universities, students, funders, and communities around the world.
What We’ve Built Together:
Years of Impact
and Innovation
Research confirms that our programs produce lasting gains in young people’s sense of agency, social responsibility, and ability to collaborate across cultures to address complex challenges.
A PARENT'S PERSPECTIVE ON RETHINKING READINESS
As both a parent and an education leader, Aziza Musa watched her daughters succeed in a system designed to reward perfection, not purpose. Then they stepped into Take Action Lab, and everything changed. Here’s what she learned about what true readiness actually looks like.
Aziza Musa
United States | Parent of South Africa ‘24 and Malaysia ‘25 Alumni
They were doing everything right - AP courses, community service, leadership roles, great transcripts. But by senior year, the spark was gone.”
Daughter Layan ‘25 with fellow alum Hania Imran ‘25
Aziza with daughter Salam ‘24
2010
When COVID-19 sent the world virtual, we built Global Citizen Year Academy and developed a best-in-class Monitoring & Evaluation system to track and validate our impact.
2020
Tilters As Civic Changemakers
Alumni come from different backgrounds, experiences, industries, and countries. What connects them? A belief in a stronger, more collaborative future. Here are a few of their stories.
Jordan Lee
United States | Ecuador ‘13
Board Member, Tilting Futures
From Virginia to Ecuador to Jakarta, Jordan Lee is part of a team helping nations design the clean energy transitions that will define the next century, work first sparked by his Tilting Futures experience in 2013.
POWERING THE PUBLIC GOOD
Aarushi Arora
India | South Africa ‘24
In Cape Town, Aarushi Arora learned that storytelling is a form of community-rooted leadership. Her Tilting Futures experience at a local radio station gave Aarushi a way to connect across difference, amplify local voices, and show that real change starts with listening.
TUNING IN TO THE POWER OF COMMUNITY
Karyn Miller
United States | Brazil ‘11
Before founding Emrgi, a solar cooperative in North Carolina, Karyn Miller saw how local solutions can drive global change, insights that still fuel her work to build healthier communities and planet.
FROM FARMING COLLECTIVE TO COMMUNITY-POWERED ENERGY SOLUTIONS
Brooke Mumbi
Kenya | South Africa ‘24
In Cape Town, Brooke Mumbi saw how resilience and local leadership drive real change, lessons she’s now carrying into her studies at and future work in Kenya.
LEARNING IN THE FIELD, LEADING FROM WITHIN
How Higher Education and
Are Building What’s Next
Tilting Futures is partnering with universities to build the next era of global learning, one that connects classroom theory with real-world practice and turns civic engagement into a measurable learning outcome.
We couldn’t imagine a better first partner to scale this vision for immersive global learning. With Pitt, we’re building a new blueprint for higher education, one that centers global learning, community engagement, and the kinds of human skills that technology can’t replace. Together, we’re making transformative learning the rule in higher education, not the exception.”
Erin Lewellen
Tilting Futures CEO
This partnership offers students something powerful: the chance to earn credits from the world-class University of Pittsburgh while learning and doing impactful service in South Africa. Tilting Futures’ immersive, interdisciplinary model fosters the kind of resilience, agency, and global awareness that students need to lead and thrive in today’s world.”
Dr. Jem Spectar
President of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
In 2025, Tilting Futures secured its first School of Record partnership with the University of Pittsburgh, marking a historic step forward for experiential learning in higher education. Students completing the Take Action Lab in Cape Town can now earn a full semester of college credit through a Tier 1 research university.
Tilting Futures’ higher education network continues to grow. In 2025, we welcomed new partnerships with Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Universiti Sains Malaysia, and applications came in from students representing 122 universities worldwide.
Stanford alum Jane McConnell, a longtime supporter of the university, saw an opportunity to expand access to transformative global experiential learning. Her vision helped spark a new partnership between Tilting Futures and Stanford in 2025. Through Cardinal Quarter, undergraduates now have funded seats in Take Action Lab Accelerator in Malaysia & South Africa, connecting academic learning and real-world impact.
Our Partnership with the University of Oregon is an example of how Tilting Futures collaborates directly with colleges and universities to embed global learning into degree pathways, making experiential, credit-bearing Labs available to their students.
At the University of Oregon Honors College, we’re committed to preparing students to think critically and act boldly in an interconnected world. Our partnership with Tilting Futures allows us to extend that mission beyond the classroom — by embedding global learning and real-world experience, we’re equipping students with the skills, perspective, and purpose needed to lead change on a global scale.”
Carol Stabile
Dean of University of Oregon Clark
Honors College
I had studied nonprofit work before, but being on the ground changed everything,” she says. “Even small acts like data collection, behind-the-scenes logistics, and story-gathering, were crucial to the systemic change my apprenticeship site was working toward.”
Margaret Grace
United States | South Africa ‘25
At the University of Oregon
Honors College, junior Margaret Grace spent her summer in Cape Town through the Take Action Lab Accelerator. Working at a local women’s shelter, she saw how every small action helped advance the larger mission.
The experience redefined how Margaret thinks about her own leadership and impact. She built life-long connections and a clearer vision for her future. Now majoring in global studies and history, she plans to pursue a career in law focused on human rights and migration.
Margaret with her peers during her Take Action Lab Immersion in Cape Town (2025).
PARTNER WITH US
No matter your campus size, there's a path to bring research-backed, global experiential learning to your students.
Embed Global Experiential Learning Into Your Curriculum
Integrate Take Action Labs directly into your degree programs or honors colleges.
Make Transformational Learning Accessible
Offer Take Action Lab to your students through credit transfer and cost-sharing models that reduce barriers.
ACREDITING PARTNER
Ready to Explore What's Possible?
How Do Young People Learn? Building the Evidence Base for the Future of Education
Fifteen years in, Tilting Futures has moved from promising practice to proven model. What began as a bold idea, Take Action Lab now rests on a growing body of rigorous research designed to strengthen our program and the field.
This year, we launched a multi-year randomized study with UC Berkeley, tracking Take Action Lab participants alongside a matched and randomized control group. The study will isolate program effects, offering youth-serving organizations and higher education institutions a replicable framework they can adopt.
The 2025 Step-Change
UC BERKELEY STUDY GOES DEEPER
TESTING IMPACT ACROSS CONTEXTS
We designed a cross-site study across our South Africa and Malaysia programs to test a core question: Can impact be replicated across thematic tracks, cultures, and contexts? This study will surface comparative data on how local context shapes student growth, helping us refine our model and inform future Lab design.
Elikem Tomety Archer
Tilting Futures Chief Program Officer
At Tilting Futures, impact means two things: changing lives directly and changing systems that shape those lives. Together with our partners, we’re doing both, proving that global experiential learning can, and should, be part of every university degree pathway.”
PREPARING TILTERS FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK
Self-Discovery - well-being, agency, and self-awareness.
Global Orientation - perspective-taking, empathy, and interrelatedness.
When adjusted for response-shift bias - the fact that students often see themselves differently as they learn more - the results show even greater gains, rising from moderate to strong improvements in the human skills that underpin success in an evolving global economy.
FROM INSIGHTS TO INFRASTRUCTURE
To make these outcomes measurable at scale, our research team created and validated a Global Perspective Index, a statistically reliable composite that quantifies growth across eight dimensions of cross-cultural understanding (perspective-taking, empathy, and interrelatedness). Designed for portability, it enables colleges, research labs, and youth organizations to measure comparable outcomes with confidence.
First findings expected in 2028
Preliminary results anticipated by December 2026
Index toolkit in development for public release
A Global Coalition
Advancing a shared vision for how the world learns and leads
The challenges young people face are too large and interlinked for any one program, campus, company, or country to solve alone.
The power of this work lies in the coalition: the universities, researchers, employers, philanthropic partners, and communities working together to equip young people to shape solutions, build enterprises, and lead across sectors and borders.
The Network Making Change Possible
ACCESS PARTNERS
Our access partners connect young people worldwide to Take Action Labs, from K-12 schools and universities to youth outreach organizations, apprenticeship hosts, and alumni networks opening doors for continued impact.
It’s clear that the Tilting Futures' experience gives students a real head start in building a global mindset and preparing for their future careers.”
Brenda Leonard
Bush Radio
EVIDENCE PARTNERS
Together with leading research institutions, advisors, and thought partners across the sector, we’re building the global evidence base for immersive learning and translating insights into scalable models for higher education.
SYSTEMS CHANGE PARTNERS
From Pittsburgh to Penang, 2025 marked a new wave of university partnerships committed to making real-world, global, credit-bearing education available to all young people.
Our Supporters
Tilting Futures’ supporters are instrumental to our ongoing, transformational impact. This list reflects contributions and pledges made from July 2024 through the publication of this report.
FROM THE WORLD TO WALL STREET:
Board Chair Yasmine Coupal says. “It’s nimble, collaborative, and deeply human, exactly the qualities our world needs more of.”
Yasmine Coupal
United States | Partner, Goldman Sachs Board Member, Tilting Futures
What makes Tilting Futures special is that it’s not afraid to take on big challenges.”
The People
Behind Tilting Futures
At Tilting Futures, the magic is in the people. Our staff, board, and advisors lift each other up, challenge each other to grow, and remind me daily that serious impact doesn’t have to come without joy.”
Odiaka Gonzalez
Tilting Futures VP of People and Operations
EXECUTIVE ADVISORY COUNCIL
The Tilting Futures Advisory Council is a global group of experienced leaders who lend their insight, networks, and perspective to help expand our reach and open new doors. They support our work by increasing brand awareness, driving revenue growth, and deepening external engagement. They help shape how Tilting Futures shows up in the world and where we go next.
ALUMNI AMBASSADORS
Our alumni are our mission in action. Transformed by their Tilting Futures service, they are now driving impact on critical global issues across industries. These outstanding alumni will serve a two-year term supporting Tilting Futures programs and our global community of Tilters.
Thank You
Thank you for being part of a year of record growth and learning. Together with our students, alumni, partners, and supporters, we’ve taken another bold step toward a future led by globally-minded, purpose-driven young leaders.
JOIN US IN WHAT'S NEXT
Join Stanford, Pitt, Morehouse and others in building an innovative new model for real-world, globally immersive education.
Join a once-in-a-lifetime global journey where you learn by doing, apprentice with purpose, and grow alongside changemakers from around the world.
STRATEGIC PHILANTHROPY FOR GLOBAL GOOD
A partnership spanning 15 years, Tom and Shari Crotty demonstrate how strategic philanthropy can shape a new generation of globally minded, impact-driven leaders.
Tom and Shari Crotty
United States | The Crotty
Family Foundation
If a donor is looking for a non-profit where their capital will be managed carefully and directed for impact, with a team that values dialogue and delivers measurable results in developing young leaders, then Tilting Futures is your answer.”
Photos: Bing Yi of the Wenya Foundation and team visit Take Action Lab: Environment & Sustainability, Penang Island, Malaysia (October 2025)
As AI advances and the world grows more complex, universities are deepening their focus on developing the human capacities that drive civic engagement, career success, and lifelong flourishing.
Recognized for Excellence
Our 2025 Annual Report celebrates 15 years of progress, impact, and the young changemakers shaping a more connected world.
Thank you for joining us in…
New to Tilting Futures?
Jump to 2025 Impact
New to
?
Welcome!
What is
Tilting Futures?
Why Does This Work Matter?
Who Participates in Take Action Labs?
Behind every data point in this report is a young person who now sees themselves differently, someone who understands that their life is connected to lives across oceans; who knows empathy isn't soft, it's essential; and who believes they can contribute to solutions that unite.
2025: Our
Breakthrough Year
Fifteen years of groundwork. A year of record growth: scaling access, influence, and innovation in global education.
2025 was a banner year for Tilting Futures. We expanded to new countries, launched partnerships with esteemed higher education institutions, and built on our 15-year legacy of developing tomorrow’s global-minded leaders.
EXPANDED OUR GLOBAL FOOTPRINT
Two New Take Action Labs
Launched the Environment & Sustainability Lab in Malaysia and the Accelerator Lab in South Africa, the most significant programmatic growth in Tilting Futures' history.
FIRST ACADEMIC ACCREDITATION UNLOCKS NEW PATHWAYS
Students Now Earn Full Academic Credit
Partnered with the University of Pittsburgh to enable students to earn a full semester of credit for immersive global learning, paving the way for future university collaborations.
... and that’s not all. Here are more moments that defined 2025:
Cardinal Quarter Connects Students to Global Impact
Stanford undergraduates now have access to Take Action Lab Accelerator in South Africa and Malaysia, connecting academic learning to real-world skills.
NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Multi-Year Study Underway With UC Berkeley
Building on early research showing Tilting Futures strengthens key learning outcomes, including collaboration and empathy across differences, Berkeley’s team launched a rigorous RCT to generate additional causal evidence about Take Action Lab’s impact.
RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL (RCT) LAUNCHES
50% of Seed Capital Raised
This campaign will help to kickstart the Women in Environment & Sustainability Lab in 2027.
WOMEN IN SUSTAINABILITY LAB REACHES FUNDING MILESTONE
GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT ON NEXT-GEN LEARNING
Tilting Futures gained international visibility in 2025, appearing on stage, in publications, and across working groups for our thought leadership on Gen Z, global learning, and reimagining education systems.
BUILDING THE EVIDENCE FOR HUMAN SKILLS
New Research Tool Validated in 2025
Created and validated the Global Perspective Index, a statistically reliable tool to quantify growth in one of the most distinctive dimensions of our program and curriculum.
NEW VOICES, BIGGER VISION
Six New Board Members & Executive Advisory Council Established
Welcomed a powerhouse network of global leaders guiding Tilting Futures’ next phase of growth.
AWARD-WINNING WORKPLACE
Winner of Three Major Workplace Awards in 2025
Named one of the NonProfit Times’ “50 Best Places to Work,” ranked #4 on Outside Magazine’s “Best Places to Work” for the sixth year, and honored with the “Inclusive Workplace Award” for the second time.
What started as a nine-month fellowship is now a scalable, credit-bearing global immersion that builds real-world skills and gives young people access to trajectory-shifting education.
Grounded in Harvard research and student insights, we launched our first Take Action Lab in South Africa. We also rolled out our Systems Change Strategy, asking: What if global experiential learning became the standard for higher education?
We knew the world had shifted, and we needed something designed for now. We made four core moves: we widened access to ages 17–22, organized learning into themed tracks like Environment & Sustainability, built for higher-ed adoption so credit is the norm rather than the exception, and opened doors to a truly global community of learners. And it’s working… the demand speaks for itself.”
2023
Shaped with feedback from young people, Global Citizen Year became Tilting Futures, launching a bold, Gen Z-facing brand that reimagines the future of learning.
2024
Take Action Lab spans multiple tracks and continents, and now includes a new credit-bearing partnership with the University of Pittsburgh. We are accelerating our work to make global experiential learning a standard for higher education.
Where
We Are Today
2025
Major 2025 Milestones
A PARENT'S PERSPECTIVE ON RETHINKING READINESS
As both a parent and an education leader, Aziza Musa watched her daughters succeed in a system designed to reward perfection, not purpose. Then they stepped into Take Action Lab, and everything changed. Here’s what she learned about what true readiness actually looks like.
Aziza Musa
United States | Parent of South Africa ‘24 and Malaysia ‘25 Alumni
They were doing everything right - AP courses, community service, leadership roles, great transcripts. But by senior year, the spark was gone.”
Aziza with daughter Salam ‘24
Daughter Layan ‘25 with fellow alum Hania Imran ‘25
