About the Site

Helping Communities Build Sustainable Career Pathways

The Career Pathways Financing AI Funding Navigator is an interactive planning and research tool designed to help education, workforce, healthcare, and community leaders identify, align, and sustain investments in career pathway initiatives.

Developed by Rodel in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the AI Funding Navigator brings together a comprehensive financing playbook (add link to new resource, new content will be in Learning Center), state specific federal and state funding research (add link to Learning Center, new content will be in Learning Center), community-specific philanthropic resources (add link to Learning Center, new content will be in Learning Center), and artificial intelligence (AI) to help local leaders make informed financing decisions.

The AI Funding Navigator is grounded in a simple principle:

Vision drives strategy. Strategy drives investment. Investment drives outcomes.

Funding is not the goal. It is a tool for achieving better outcomes for students, workers, employers, and communities. Rather than focusing exclusively on individual grants, the AI Funding Navigator helps communities develop coordinated financing strategies that support long-term implementation and sustainability.

What Can the AI Funding Navigator Help You Do?

The AI Funding Navigator serves as a strategic planning tool, helping users move from ideas and funding questions to practical strategies and next steps.

It can help you:

• Develop a financing strategy: Define goals, assess existing resources, estimate costs, and identify funding gaps.
• Research funding sources: Explore federal, state, and philanthropic resources that may align with your initiative.
• Coordinate investments: Identify opportunities to braid funding streams while recognizing the requirements of each source.
• Strengthen partnerships: Clarify the roles of schools, employers, healthcare providers, workforce organizations, and other partners.
• Prepare for funding opportunities: Assess readiness, organize development activities, and prepare planning materials.
• Plan for sustainability: Build financing strategies that support programs beyond individual grants or funding cycles.

The AI Funding Navigator is designed for K–12 school systems, career and technical education centers, colleges and universities, healthcare providers, employers, workforce development boards, community organizations, intermediaries, state agencies, philanthropic organizations, and regional partnerships.

Explore the Career Pathways Financing Playbook

The AI Funding Navigator’s primary knowledge source is Rodel’s Toolkit for Financing Career Pathway Systems (2026 Edition, Version 2.0).

The playbook provides a practical, six-part framework for designing, financing, and sustaining career pathway systems.

Strategy and Planning

• Part 1: Career Pathways Investment and Sustainability Framework — Establish a shared vision, define measurable outcomes, identify strategies, and understand resource needs.
• Part 2: Development Planning — Organize partnerships, establish financing priorities, and create coordinated development plans.
• Part 3: Fundraising and Sustainability — Strengthen fundraising capacity, braid resources, and build long-term sustainability strategies.

Funding Research and Action

• Part 4: Federal Funding — Understand federal funding programs, budget processes, funding research, and potential access routes.
• Part 5: State Funding — Navigate state budgets, identify potential investments, and understand opportunities for public funding and advocacy.
• Part 6: Philanthropic Funding — Research prospective funders, understand giving priorities, build relationships, and develop philanthropic financing strategies.

Users can access the playbook directly in the Learning Center page or use the AI Funding Navigator to explore relevant sections and apply its frameworks to their own initiatives.

Explore Federal, State, and Philanthropic Fiscal Maps

In addition to the playbook, the AI Funding Navigator draws on fiscal research maps that help participating communities better understand potential sources of investment.

Federal Funding Maps identify by state, federal programs and funding streams that may support career pathways and healthcare workforce development. The maps help users understand program purposes, potential uses, funding structures, and possible access routes.

State Funding Maps provide state-specific research on public investments, funding streams, and agencies that may support career pathway development and sustainability.

Philanthropic Fiscal Maps provide community-specific research on foundations, historical investments, giving priorities, and potential philanthropic partners.

Federal and state fiscal maps are available for nine participating states: Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. Philanthropic maps cover 13 participating communities and regions within those states.

Access to funding maps is tailored to the state or community selected for each project. The AI Funding Navigator prioritizes resources relevant to that geographic area to provide more targeted funding research and recommendations. Users can explore funding maps for other states or communities by updating their project’s geographic settings.

Important: Fiscal maps are research and planning resources, not listings of guaranteed or currently open funding opportunities. Users should independently verify funding availability, eligibility, deadlines, allowable uses, and application requirements with the responsible agency or funder.

Additional Research and Planning Resources

Beyond the financing playbook and fiscal maps, the AI Funding Navigator draws on a broader collection of research and planning resources to help users make informed decisions. These include guidance from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) on state budgeting and fiscal processes, grant readiness and proposal development tools from the Center for Assessment (CFA), and curated directories of federal, state, and philanthropic research resources.

Together, these materials form a tiered knowledge base that helps the AI Funding Navigator connect strategic planning with funding research, grant preparation, and implementation. The Navigator may also direct users to specified external websites to explore current funding opportunities, verify program requirements, and conduct additional research. The AI Funding Navigator does not direct users to unspecified websites.

Examples of external resources include:

• Grants.gov — Search federal grant opportunities and review application requirements.
• USAspending.gov — Explore federal spending, awards, and funding recipients.
• SAM.gov — Access federal assistance listings, entity registration information, and related resources.
• National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) — Research state budget processes, fiscal conditions, and public finance practices.
• Candid — Research foundations, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic giving.
• U.S. Department of Labor — Explore workforce development programs, apprenticeship resources, and federal workforce policy.
• U.S. Department of Education — Research federal education programs, career and technical education, and related funding guidance.
• Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) — Explore healthcare workforce programs, grants, and related funding resources.

These external resources complement the AI Funding Navigator’s existing knowledge base. Because funding programs, budget decisions, application requirements, and deadlines can change, users should consult the most current information from the responsible agency or funder before making financing decisions.

How the AI Funding Navigator Works

The AI Funding Navigator uses AI to connect information from the playbook and supporting research resources with the goals and needs of each user. Its knowledge is organized into five complementary areas:

1. Career Pathways Financing Playbook: The core framework for strategy, partnerships, development planning, funding, and sustainability.
2. Research Directories: Resources for exploring government budgets, funding programs, philanthropic organizations, and related research.
3. Planning and Readiness Resources: Guidance on state budgeting, grant readiness, proposal development, and post-submission planning.
4. Federal and State Fiscal Maps: Geographic research on potential public funding sources, available according to authorized access.
5. Community Philanthropic Maps: Local philanthropic research, available according to authorized community access.

When you begin a conversation, the AI Funding Navigator may ask about your organization, location, initiative, partners, current funding, implementation stage, and desired outcomes. This information helps it provide more relevant recommendations.

The AI Funding Navigator is designed to prioritize strategic planning, identify relevant source materials, distinguish documented information from assumptions, and recommend practical next steps.

It may help users develop funding matrices, cost estimates, development plans, partnership strategies, and other planning materials.

AI-generated guidance is intended to support—not replace—professional judgment. The AI Funding Navigator does not award funding, establish eligibility, or provide binding legal or financial advice. Users should review generated materials and confirm important funding information through current official sources.  The AI Funding Navigator does not replace fiscal or legal advice or guidance.

Data Use, Privacy, and Security

The AI Funding Navigator is intended to support organizational and community planning, not the collection or analysis of individual student records.

Users may share general information about their initiatives, organizational priorities, partnerships, budgets, and funding needs to help the AI Funding Navigator provide relevant guidance.

Please do not enter or upload personally identifiable information (PII) about students, workers, patients, or other individuals. This includes names linked to confidential records, student identification numbers, education records, medical information, and other sensitive personal data.

The AI Funding Navigator’s design incorporates requirements for responsible AI use, data protection, and controlled access to restricted research materials. These include limiting access to authorized users and geographic resources, minimizing sensitive data collection, and establishing appropriate security and data-management safeguards.

As with any AI-powered research tool, responses may contain errors or reflect information that has changed since a source was published. Users are responsible for reviewing recommendations and verifying information before making financial, legal, or programmatic commitments.

For more information about the site’s data practices, including collection, storage, access, and retention, please review our Privacy Policy.

Get Started

Whether you are launching a new healthcare career pathway, expanding an existing initiative, researching funding opportunities, or developing a long-term sustainability plan, the AI Funding Navigator can help you identify a starting point and build a strategy for moving forward.

Start a New Project to explore your initiative with the AI Funding Navigator, or visit the Learning Center to access additional planning resources.

Our goal is to help communities move beyond fragmented funding approaches and build coordinated, sustainable investments that create lasting opportunities for students, workers, employers, and communities.