The Future Of College Isn't Transactional

Forbes

10-05-2025

The First Twenty Hope Forward Graduates, The Pioneers Re-Inventing How A College Education Can Be ... More Funded.
What if the best way to shape responsible, generous graduates isn't through contracts or debt—but through trust?
Last week, the college I lead, Hope College, celebrated a historic milestone: the first-ever graduating class of pay-it-forward students. Twenty young adults walked across the stage with a diploma in hand and zero tuition debt. But this wasn't just a financial experiment or a philanthropic gesture. It was a living, breathing demonstration of what can happen when education is rooted, not in transactional contracts but in trust, generosity, and hope.
When we first launched Hope Forward in 2021, we knew it would face scrutiny. The idea was simple enough: Students shouldn't have to pay tuition. Instead, each student should receive an education paid in full by someone else. In return, these students would commit to give back someday, but without any legal obligation to do so.
The concept is easy to understand. Many felt that it was also too idealistic to be practical. We heard every version of it:
These concerns were expected. For decades now, higher education has operated on this transactional logic. Students are conditioned to believe that debt is a necessary burden, a rite of passage even. We've come to see financial obligation as the only reliable path to commitment. And yet, paradoxically, the weight of that obligation often breeds anxiety, burnout, and disengagement. So despite the naysayers, we felt like the time had come to try something new. And so, we began with beta-testing.
Our first pay-it-forward cohort was small by design—twenty students who represented a wide range of socioeconomic, racial, geographic, and cultural backgrounds, all funded by a single anonymous donor. 30% of them came from overseas, and 20% of them were the first member of their family to attend college. But they weren't chosen because they looked good on paper; they were chosen based on a prompt - 'name an area of hopelessness you want to bring hope to.'
Over the past four years, this group has become a kind of living laboratory—not just for financial aid reform, but for cultural transformation. We had already started to notice interesting trends in terms of academic performance and engagement: Our Hope Forward students had a higher average GPA than the rest of their class - 10% higher. They also had higher-than-average participation in campus life, from student government to service organizations to peer mentoring roles. But it wasn't until after graduation that we were able to report on two of the most astounding outcomes.
The first outcome is related to retention. The graduation rate for this cohort was nearly 90% — well above national averages, and also above our own college's average graduation rate. But it's actually the second outcome – related to financial giving – which seems to be the most significant indicator yet that this model might actually work, perhaps better than we had ever dreamed.
Upon matriculation, every Hope Forward student signs a covenant, promising to give back to their alma mater every year for the rest of their lives, beginning the year after graduation. We call this a covenant instead of a contract because although it's not legally binding, it's still relationally binding. And we expected the students to treat it as such, and to take their obligation seriously.
What we did not expect was for students to stop seeing giving as an obligation altogether, but rather a privilege – something they couldn't wait to do. Yet that's exactly what seems to have happened. When Commencement arrived, 85% of this graduating class had already made a voluntary, financial gift to our college prior to graduation. One student even set up a recurring monthly donation. Not because he had to, or was expected to, but because he wanted to.
To state the obvious, this is simply unheard of in the world of higher education fundraising. The average alumni giving rate in the US is less than 8%, and that's after graduation. In terms of giving rates prior to graduation, the number falls so low as to be virtually non-existent. Who would ever want to make a donation to a college they are still attending?
But that dynamic is precisely what we've witnessed. And it's a trend that looks to be holding true for subsequent classes of Hope Forward students as well – looking at the next three graduating classes, 70% of those students have already made a gift as well.
All of that to say: in launching this new model, we got more than we bargained for. Pay-it-forward didn't just create financial relief; it created an entirely new culture—one where trust begets trust, and generosity multiplies. These students proved that generosity, once ignited, becomes self-replicating. That receiving freely leads to giving freely, as a matter of course. That hope is not a fragile dream, but a durable engine.
At the heart of Hope Forward is a radical claim: when people are trusted, they rise to the occasion. Trust isn't just a 'value' — it's a strategy. This represents a small but seismic shift, from scarcity to abundance, from contract to covenant, from debt to devotion.
Traditional financial models operate on enforcement. Hope Forward operates on formation. It forms students not just intellectually, but relationally and spiritually. It teaches them, from day one, that they belong to a story that is bigger than themselves—and that their response to receiving is to become givers in turn.
As one of these students put it recently, 'I don't 'deserve' my education: It's a gift given to me by someone I don't even know. It's grace. It could have been given to someone else. Our natural response to something given to us should be to share it.'
Behavioral science backs this up. People give more, not less, when they feel trusted. Psychology tells us that voluntary commitment is more powerful than coerced obligation. Neuroscience shows that generosity activates reward centers in the brain. Which is essentially what Jesus already tried to tell us a couple of millennia ago: 'It's more blessed to give than receive.' Turns out that's not some sort of moral standard to aspire to, but rather a basic law of human nature.
Hope Forward is still young, and we are still learning. But if this first cohort is any indication, we're learning in the right direction.
We're well aware that there's still a long road ahead, and we'll need to continue making adjustments as we grow. We'll need to measure more, listen more, and adapt as needed. Sustaining and scaling this model will require long-term vision, disciplined stewardship, and a generous community of supporters. But those supporters are growing. Because they see what's happening, and they want to be part of it. Which is why I'm confident that even as this model scales, its core purpose will remain intact: to educate students through generosity, and to invite them into lives marked by the same.
This is not just about how we fund college. It's about what kind of people we believe a college can shape. It's just the beginning. But already, the future feels different.