A Return to Its Roots: CAEL To Resume Status as Independent 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization in January.

In 1974, CAEL began its mission as the Cooperative Assessment of Experiential Learning. It had 10 members and tentative funding for 16 months. Fifty-one years and more than 150 additional grant partners later, CAEL’s network spans the country and includes several international members. 

As a membership organization, CAEL relies on passionate stakeholders to expand its reach from individual wins to systemic improvement. The CAEL community has always been powered by a complementary combination of diverse perspectives united around a common mission. 

That collaboration has been critical to finding the way forward amid the continually shifting landscapes of education, training, and other key workforce development spaces. It fosters the agility and innovation it takes to meet adult learners not just where they are, but to work together and help them get where they aspire to be.

This collaboration emerged from a once-revolutionary principle CAEL pioneered: college-level learning is not limited to classroom experiences. But this revolution was never about pitting competencies against credentials, training against education, hard skills against soft skills, or learning vs. doing. Instead, it was about reimagining them as part of a complementary continuum. It was about configuring education and employment pathways to the aspirations, needs, and totality of each learner who travels them. Most of all, it was about reimagining a zero-sum equation into a win-win solution 

At the heart of this concept is the recognition that education and employment are two sides of the same coin—a coin that can and must be the currency of the developing knowledge-based economy. But holistic alignment can only reach its potential when scaled among cross-sector partnerships across various regions and sectors. Only a diverse and empowered community of practice can bring siloed sectors together to achieve outcomes based on the shared belief that adult learners are the key to equitable economic mobility and prosperity.

In 2018, CAEL joined a collaboration of Strada-affiliated organizations working to improve student success and strengthen college-to-career pathways. This arrangement, during which CAEL’s national nonprofit designation was consolidated within the Strada network, helped scale CAEL’s work.

CAEL's phase as a Strada affiliate included a spurt of growth. During that time, CAEL tripled its membership while doubling its revenue and impact. It has also partnered with hundreds of colleges and universities and dozens of workforce organizations to help them improve their effectiveness in serving adult learners and, by extension, employers and the communities that depend on them to link adult learners to learning and work

Why was CAEL able to achieve this expanded impact? In part, because Strada provided funding as well as access to shared resources that helped the organization change the way it operates. That included enacting better processes and policies to streamline operations. 

CAEL became a remote workplace before COVID compelled much of the world to do the same. It broke down internal silos among higher education, workforce development, and employer units, enabling a more holistic approach.

These improvements made CAEL stronger than ever. CAEL now has the agility needed to serve the vital role of a trusted intermediary that can bring growing numbers of diverse partners to the table. 

With these improvements remaining in place today, CAEL has announced that effective January 2026, it will resume operating as an independent 501(c)(3). This milestone marks a new beginning. But it also marks a return to the roots that gave rise to five decades of adult learner advocacy. 

CAEL is grateful for Strada’s support. Over its past nearly eight years as a Strada Collaborative member, CAEL completed numerous complementary initiatives with Strada and its other affiliates, including research publications, regional and national grant-funded programs, and educator-employer partnerships. 

CAEL is already finalizing partnerships that will be in effect under its return to an independent national nonprofit. This includes new funding from Strada that will support CAEL’s work after the new operating structure becomes effective in January of 2026. In addition, CAEL has received commitments and offers of support from several other funders. More details will be shared after the transition is completed in January.