Michelson 20MM Foundation

It All Started With “The Big 5” **The Vision** Dr. Gary Michelson and his wife, Alya Michelson, formed the Michelson 20MM Foundation in 2010 (formerly The Twenty Million Minds Foundation) with one goal in mind: To tackle a broken textbook publishing model controlled by “The Big 5” (the nickname for the major trade book publishing companies in the United States). The vision was lofty: Create and provide for the use of a comprehensive, digital, higher education textbook library in an open-architecture platform to mitigate students’ expenses and, eventually, replace the costly commoditized textbooks of all high-enrollment general education courses. In other words, build a new scalable publishing model to provide [low-cost or free textbooks](https://openstax.org/). **The Inspiration** Dr. Gary Michelson first became involved in this effort when he learned from a group of professors at Santa Ana College, a two-year public institution in Orange County, California, that each term, several bright and qualified students failed to complete their degrees simply because they could not afford the increasingly expensive course textbooks. After learning that a group of professors were pooling their own money to create a textbook scholarship, Dr. Michelson was inspired to join the cause since he, too, had experienced financial hardships as a college student that pushed him to work up to 2 jobs at a time while in school. He began by contributing his own funds towards the textbook scholarship, but was committed to finding a more enduring solution to the textbook affordability crisis. Thus emerged the Twenty Million Minds Foundation, on a mission to increase educational access, foster academic success, and reduce cost obstacles associated with higher education. About Us Michelson 20MM is a private, nonprofit foundation working toward equity for underserved and historically underrepresented communities by expanding access to educational and employment opportunities, increasing affordability of educational programs, and ensuring the necessary supports are in place for individuals to thrive. To do so, we work in the following verticals: Digital Equity, Intellectual Property, Smart Justice, Student Basic Needs, and Open Educational Resources (OER). Co-chaired and funded by Alya and Gary Michelson, Michelson 20MM is part of the Michelson Philanthropies network of foundations.