Vince Roig

To the Risk Takers, We Say Thank You

Message from our Founding Chairman

One of our fundamental beliefs at Helios is that we will achieve our mission through partnership and collaboration. Our beliefs aren’t just words on paper - they reflect, very tangibly, the way Helios does business. We have learned since we began investing in education in 2006 that collaboration is essential to improving educational outcomes for the students about whom we are most passionate.

Since inception, Helios has invested close to $190 million in Early Grade Success, College and Career Readiness, Postsecondary Completion, Innovative initiatives, and other charitable contributions toward education in Arizona and Florida. All of these investments have involved our engagement with like-minded organizations who have become beacons in their communities for educational equity, system reform, and improved academic outcomes.

While financial resources play an important role in moving the needle forward in education, so does the intellectual capital exchanged between Helios and its partners as we tackle complex issues. Helios has never been just a checkbook in the world of education reform. We have been an actively engaged partner seeking innovative solutions to education’s most pressing problems.

By its nature, philanthropy involves taking risks, and I want to thank our partners for being risk takers alongside us, changing lives and making communities better through education. Make no mistake; our partners are vital to ensuring that the investments we make in education impact the students most in need and catalyze their efforts to succeed across the education continuum.

While our list of partners is too long to include here, I want to highlight several of them, many of whom have stood aligned with Helios since the beginning. For some of our partners, 2016 marked a decade of partnership, collaboration, and impact with Helios. Like us, these organizations, and many others, believe that every student, regardless of zip code, deserves a high-quality education. Our ongoing collaboration with longstanding partners such as Stand for Children Arizona, Florida College Access Network, Expect More Arizona, Teach For America, Take Stock in Children, TGen, and College Success Arizona speaks to our belief in the promise of change they and our other partners each hold.

To all of our partners we say thank you for your commitment. Thank you for being the disruptors and risk takers in improving our education system, and thank you for helping prepare our students to be the successful leaders our communities and our country will need in the future.

To the Risk Takers, We Say Thank You

$3.45 million

$7.2 million

$7.5 million

$6.4 million

$3.7 million

$7.4 million

$15.4 million

$7.2 million

Community Impact