Bottom Line was founded in 1997 to improve the Boston community by helping disadvantaged youth get in to college, graduate from college, and go far in life. Since then, we have helped thousands of students improve their lives and build stronger communities as role models, leaders, parents and friends.

Bottom Line was started by Dave Borgal, a former high school guidance counselor. As a counselor for primarily low income students, Dave met students who wanted to go to college, but didn’t know where to start. They came from families that knew very little about college or saw it as something they could never afford. They went to schools where teachers and guidance counselors were overwhelmed. And they lived in communities where college was the exception, not the rule. He helped students get in to college, but even the students who made it there were dropping out and not graduating. Dave realized that getting in to college was important, but graduating was the Bottom Line.

With an idea to create a community-based organization that could help students at the beginning of the college application process and continue to support them until they earned a degree, he came to Boston. In 1997, he worked with his first class of 25 high school seniors. In a time when very few urban students were going to college and as few as 1 in 7 low-income students who started college would ever finish, he helped all 25 students get accepted to at least one college and 80% graduated in six years or less. We have maintained that level of success ever since.

By giving personalized attention and support to low-income and first-generation-to-college students who are motivated to earn a degree, our students are graduating from college at the same rate as the wealthiest and most supported students in the country.

Every young person needs support, guidance and mentoring. Once we give that to our students, we tell them that ‘Success Depends on you.’ Any student who understands that message and is willing to work hard can and will succeed. We have had the privilege to see the results of that success in the lives of our students, their families and the communities where we live and work.