Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention recently announced nearly $15 million in grants, including $360,000 for Improve Your Tomorrow.
Improve Your Tomorrow is a nonprofit that looks to improve outcomes for students of color through mentorship and exposure to post-secondary education to help them attend colleges and universities. Its Wisconsin branch launched in October 2025 and has consistently made waves with its impact on students in the schools Improve Your Tomorrow is in. Improve Your Tomorrow-Wisconsin is currently in Madison’s and Verona’s school districts, with talks of expanding their reach in the respective districts and more across the state.
The grant Improve Your Tomorrow received is part of a larger program aimed at reducing crime and violence and keeping kids, families and communities safe. Grants are awarded to initiatives and programs in school districts, law enforcement agencies, domestic violence organizations, local governments and firearm retailers that work to prevent violence across the state.
Improve Your Tomorrow is one of 73 recipients of the grant, which received $360,646.
“It feels absolutely amazing. Earlier this week, our CEO Michael Lynch flew into Wisconsin. He wanted to see our programming live in action,” said Korbey White, Improve Your Tomorrow-Wisconsin’s executive director. “We talked with site leaders, with Principal Thompson from La Follette, with Principal Victor from Capitol, and we met with them to tell the story of what we’ve seen, and one of the most telling moments.”
In the meeting with Lynch, Capitol High School’s Principal Victor Chukwudebe gave testimony on how Improve Your Tomorrow has directly impacted the school and students.
Typically, the school has one student on track to attend college post-graduation. Since Improve Your Tomorrow entered the school, the implementation of its programming has now led to six students on track to attend college after they graduate.
“He credits all six of these brothers who participate in our program; he credits us for that,” White said. “When he told me that story, that really sat with me and my program director, Aaron Broadwater… We’ve only launched in October 2025, but we’re already generating life-changing paths for brothers. That’s incredible.”
Broadwater said to White to think about where Improve Your Tomorrow will be a year from now with its already explosive results in a bit over five months of operating in Wisconsin.
The funding it was awarded will help with its expansion efforts. Improve Your Tomorrow currently works to launch in Milwaukee and other school districts, along with an increase in its presence at districts it currently operates in.
Improve Your Tomorrow will use the funds to cover staffing, its cost for its per-pupil spending and be able to make more trips out to colleges it takes students on — like its planned ones to Madison College this coming Wednesday and Edgewood College on May 22.
