REACHBY ESTHER FUNDS FOUNDATION

For college staff, faculty and advisors

Help them stay. It's free.

Students rarely leave over one big thing. It's a hold, a bill, a hard week. REACH puts help in their hands before a hard semester becomes the last one, and it costs your campus nothing.

Every resource for you

Four ways your campus can use REACH

  1. Partner free with REACH for Campuses.

    Get a campus link, graphics, captions and a syllabus statement, and be listed as a REACH campus if you'd like. Join REACH for Campuses →

  2. Put REACH in your syllabus and orientation.

    Students who know where help is before they need it use it sooner. Copy the statement below.

  3. Send students to the right tool.

    HOLD UP for a balance and a hold, Before You Withdraw for the cost of leaving, Talk to My Professor for the email they're scared to write, and REACH Emergency for everything else. See the student guide →

  4. Bring REACH to campus.

    A live REACH workshop for a class, a residence hall or orientation, or REACH on Tour. Request a REACH visit →

Keep these close

Print them, put them on the fridge, the bulletin board or the staff room wall.

When a student tells you something is wrong

  • Thank them for telling you. That took courage.
  • Listen. You don't have to solve it or diagnose it.
  • Ask what would help this week: time, a referral, a person.
  • Walk them to the office, or send the email together.
  • If they mention hurting themselves, they can call or text 988 now, and follow your campus's safety steps.
  • Follow up in a few days.

What students most often need

  • Money for a bill or a hold before registration.
  • Food and housing.
  • A deadline or attendance exception after a crisis.
  • Someone to explain their aid offer.
  • Permission to ask for help without shame.

Make basic needs part of the campus

  • Put the food pantry and emergency fund on the syllabus and the student portal.
  • Use research on student basic needs to make the case on campus.
  • Start or grow a meal-sharing program.
  • Tell students what you'll do with what they share, and who will see it.

Words you can copy

Paste them as they are, or make them yours.

A syllabus statement

If something outside this class is making it hard to stay in school (money, food, housing, family, your health), you are not alone and you don't have to explain it all. Talk to me, contact our campus resources, or use REACH by Esther Funds Foundation, free and private: reach.estherfundsfoundation.org

For your orientation slide

Before you drop out, REACH. Free scholarships, emergency plans and a real person to talk to: reach.estherfundsfoundation.org

Every resource for you

From the REACH Library: checked every morning, official sources and EFF’s own tools.

✦ Help right now

Official source ↗Believe in Students: the FAST FundFaculty and staff on campus hand emergency money straight to their own students. Known for: the FAST Fund network, local funds set up campus by campus with one national organization behind them.
Official source ↗Scholarship America: Emergency AidThe largest scholarship provider in the country also runs emergency aid, because one unexpected bill is enough to end a degree. Emergency grants usually run under $1,000 and are tied to staying enrolled.
Official source ↗Beam (formerly Edquity)A platform that gets emergency cash to students in about 48 hours, with a partnership focused on HBCUs and tribal colleges. Ask your school if it uses Beam.
Official source ↗Food Recovery NetworkStudent chapters recover surplus campus dining food and deliver it to people facing hunger nearby. Known for: grants that help new campus chapters launch, including at community colleges.
Official source ↗Single StopOne screening connects a student to every public benefit they qualify for (food assistance, Medicaid, utility help, tax credits) in about 15 minutes.

$ Pay for school

From EFFEFF Pell Grant ProtectorNew for 2026–27: state, college and private aid that reaches your cost of attendance ends your Pell Grant. Check yours, and any new scholarship offer, before you say yes.
Official source ↗uAspireHelps students understand financial aid offers and the real cost of college before a bill surprises them, and trains the advisers who help them.

↻ Stay enrolled

Official source ↗Disability & accommodation rightsLearn about Section 504, the ADA, and support in higher education.
Official source ↗Beyond 12Near-peer coaches who stay with students from high school through college graduation. Known for: the MyCoach app, with coaching, reminders and campus resources on your phone.
Official source ↗Bottom LineFull-time advisers stay with low-income, first-generation students from applying to college through graduation: one adviser, a small caseload, support that follows you for years.
Official source ↗College PossibleNear-peer AmeriCorps coaches guide low-income students to college and through it, from junior year to a degree. It now also runs College Possible Texas (formerly College Forward).
Official source ↗InsideTrackProfessional coaching for colleges, focused on keeping enrolled students progressing and finishing, with short check-ins that catch problems early.
Official source ↗ReUp EducationFinds people who stopped out of college and coaches them back to enrollment and a finished degree. If you stepped away, you can come back.
Official source ↗One Million DegreesWraps Chicago-area community college students in scholarships, coaching, tutoring and professional development all at once.

◆ Made for students like me

Official source ↗Immigrants RisingGuides, scholarship lists and support for undocumented students and young people, whatever their status.
Official source ↗JED: mental health for young adultsReal guides on stress, loneliness, anxiety and helping a friend, made for teens and college students.
Official source ↗FirstGen ForwardThe national network for first-generation student success, and its FirstGen Forward Network of colleges committed to first-gen outcomes. Ask whether your college is a member.
Official source ↗Foster Care to Success (FC2S)The oldest national nonprofit working only with college-bound foster youth: scholarships, coaching, mentoring, care packages and emergency funding.
Official source ↗SchoolHouse ConnectionFor students experiencing homelessness, from early childhood through college: how to get help, your rights, and scholarship support for homeless youth applying to college.

∞ Family & friends

Official source ↗Your student's privacy (FERPA)Once your student is in college, the school can't share grades or a balance with you unless your student agrees. What that means, from the Department of Education.

✺ Lead & give

From EFFREACH WorkshopsLive workshops where the whole room plays along on their phones. Join with a code, or host one from MyEFF.
From EFFREACH on Tour 2027Bring REACH to your school, college, church or community in person, partner with a chapter, or sponsor a stop.
From EFFREACH for CampusesColleges, departments and professors: partner with EFF for free on college dropout prevention. Get a campus link, graphics, captions and a syllabus statement.
ToolCampus Event BuilderCreate a useful 60-minute REACH event in under three minutes.
GuideReach Your CampusRun a workshop, request support, host a scholarship search party, or become an EFF ambassador.
Official source ↗The Hope Center: student basic needs researchResearch and practical guides on food and housing insecurity among college students, for staff who want to act on it.
Official source ↗Swipe Out HungerStart or grow a campus meal-sharing and anti-hunger program.
From EFFPartner with EFFSponsor, volunteer, bring REACH to your organization, or open a door for students. 100 ways to partner.
Official source ↗Complete College AmericaA national alliance pushing states and colleges to raise completion, with strategies like 15 to Finish and corequisite support.
Official source ↗Achieving the DreamA network of community colleges coached to use their own data to close equity gaps and raise completion.
Official source ↗The Education Trust (EdTrust)Research and advocacy on equity in education, including the gaps in degree attainment our students sit inside.
Official source ↗StriveTogetherA national network of cradle-to-career partnerships: whole communities aligned on shared student outcomes from birth to a job.

Your campus, on the map

Partner campuses get their own REACH link and a share kit, and EFF chapters can partner on events.

Join REACH for CampusesSponsor REACH

REACH by Esther Funds Foundation · reach.estherfundsfoundation.org · In crisis, call or text 988.