Learn To Be at a Glance
Learn To Be is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2008 that provides free, one-on-one online tutoring to K-12 students who cannot afford it. Every session is delivered live via Zoom by a volunteer tutor, typically one hour per week. More than 16,000 volunteers have served since our founding, recruited from high schools, colleges, and the broader community. LTB covers math (K-12, including AP), reading, and writing.
Our volunteer-powered model keeps costs radically low while delivering high-dosage, relationship-based tutoring at national scale. In the last 12 months alone, LTB has served nearly 7,000 students and delivered over 112,000 hours of tutoring.
OCCF History
Learn To Be has a meaningful history with the Orange County Community Foundation. We are excited to reconnect with the OCCF team and build on the foundation of support that has made a real difference in our work.
Carol Ferguson, OCCF
Carol Ferguson was our primary contact at OCCF. She championed LTB's mission and helped facilitate support through the foundation. Carol has since retired, and we are eager to build relationships with the current OCCF team.
Krout Charitable Gift Fund: $100,600
The Jeremy and Emily Krout Charitable Gift Fund granted $100,600 to Learn To Be through OCCF. This funding supported a dedicated program coordinator position, enabling LTB to strengthen its operational capacity, improve tutor-student matching, and expand outreach to underserved communities.
Reconnecting and Growing
We are here to reintroduce Learn To Be, share our growth, and explore how we can deepen our presence in Orange County. We would also welcome the opportunity to connect with other OCCF donor-advised fund holders who care about education equity.
26x Student Growth in Six Years
LTB has grown from 271 students in 2019 to over 7,100 in the current school year. This growth is powered entirely by volunteers. 100% of LTB tutors are unpaid volunteers: high school students, college students, and adults who give their time because they believe every student deserves access to quality academic support.
Students Served Per Year
Tutoring Hours Per Year
All-Time Impact (Since 2008)
Our Footprint in OC
Learn To Be has served students across Orange County since establishing a presence in the region. Our online model means we reach students in communities throughout OC without requiring physical infrastructure. There is significant room to grow, and we see Orange County as a key opportunity for expansion.
New Programs and Innovations
The past two years have been a period of major development for Learn To Be. We have launched new programs, built proprietary technology, and expanded our approach to meet growing demand.
LTB Academy
Launched in the 2024-2025 school year, LTB Academy is our custom-built AI-powered learning platform. It features mastery-based curriculum across math, reading, and writing with thousands of lessons. The platform uses FSRS-based spaced repetition to ensure students retain what they learn. Diagnostic assessments identify prerequisite gaps so tutors can target the right skills from the start.
Tutor Corps
A formalized paid tutor program for high-dosage tutoring, funded by a $225,000 grant from the Leon Lowenstein Foundation. Tutor Corps places trained, compensated tutors with students who need the most intensive support, complementing our volunteer model with a professional track for high-need cases.
AI Integration
LTB uses AI to enhance human tutoring, not replace it. AI powers our curriculum development, generates personalized practice content, provides in-session hints for students, and drives the spaced-repetition scheduling that makes learning stick. The human relationship remains at the center of every session.
University Chapters
Student-led chapters at colleges nationwide serve as both a recruitment pipeline for volunteer tutors and a leadership development opportunity for college students passionate about education equity. Chapters organize locally and connect to LTB's national infrastructure.
Foster Youth Track
Specialized programming designed to serve foster youth, a population with unique academic challenges and limited access to consistent support. LTB provides stable, ongoing tutoring relationships that persist regardless of placement changes.
How We Measure Impact
Impact measurement is one of our highest priorities. We are building a layered approach that combines the gold standard of standardized testing with scalable alternatives that give us signal at every level.
Standardized Testing (Gold Standard)
Our goal is to measure student progress through nationally normed standardized assessments. This is the most rigorous way to demonstrate academic gains, and we are actively working with school partners to access pre/post testing data for LTB students. Where we can pair our tutoring hours with test score movement, we will have the strongest possible evidence of impact.
In-House Standards-Aligned Curriculum
LTB Academy, our custom-built learning platform, delivers thousands of lessons in math, reading, and writing that are aligned to state and national standards. The platform tracks mastery through spaced repetition, so we can measure how many skills a student has learned and retained over time. This gives us a continuous, granular view of progress that does not depend on external test windows.
Self-Reported Data
We collect feedback from students, parents, and tutors on perceived academic improvement, confidence gains, and study habits. While less rigorous than testing, self-reported data captures outcomes that standardized tests miss: a student who now asks questions in class, a parent who sees their child voluntarily doing homework, a tutor who watches a student go from counting on fingers to solving problems fluently.
Where We Need Help
LTB is in a strong position, but rapid growth brings real challenges. These are the areas where strategic support and partnerships would have the greatest impact.
Demand Outpacing Supply
Student demand is growing faster than our volunteer tutor pipeline. We need to expand recruitment channels to match the nearly 7,000 students we serve, especially in regions like Orange County where we have room to grow.
Long-Term Outcome Measurement
We track session hours, dosage, and mastery progress, but measuring long-term academic outcomes (GPA, test scores, graduation rates) requires deeper data partnerships with schools and districts.
Funding Diversification
Reducing reliance on any single major donor is critical for long-term sustainability. Broadening our base of institutional supporters, including community foundations like OCCF, strengthens our financial resilience.
Scaling Infrastructure
Maintaining quality at 7,000+ student scale requires investment in technology, staff, and systems. Our platform and operations need to stay ahead of growth to keep the student experience consistently strong.
Where OCCF Support Could Help
Deepen OC Partnerships
Connect LTB with Orange County schools, districts, and community organizations that serve students who need free tutoring. OCCF's local network could significantly accelerate our OC growth.
Donor-Advised Fund Connections
Introduce LTB to other OCCF donor-advised fund holders who care about education equity. The Krout grant demonstrated the impact DAF support can have on our work.
Program Funding
Direct grants or DAF recommendations could fund specific initiatives: expanding the OC footprint, supporting the Tutor Corps paid tutor program, or investing in LTB Academy technology development.
Foster Youth Connections
OCCF's community connections could help LTB reach more foster youth in Orange County, a population that benefits enormously from the stable, ongoing tutoring relationships LTB provides.