Help us build the bridge.
Future academy founders
If you served a mission and came home wondering what to do with everything it gave you, Starbridge may be one answer. Women and men are equally eligible. We’re looking for returned missionaries in developing regions who want to build and own an academy in their own community. We provide the model, curriculum, technology standards, and startup guidance.
You keep 100% of your academy’s profit. Before you write to us, read what it takes — we’re direct about the commitment. What it takes to open an academy →
Partners & advisors
NGOs, educators, and funders who can help us refine the model, measure impact, and reach the next city.
You’ll find our governance standards, safeguards, and measurement commitments on the Mission page. We publish what we have and flag what we don’t.
Employers
Companies that need English-speaking, digitally literate talent and want a pipeline of motivated graduates.
Our graduates are trained for work that assumes English and computer fluency — cross-border trade and logistics, mining services and the suppliers around them, hospitality, NGOs, and administrative roles, alongside digital-first work. We make no placement promises — we make capable candidates.
Where philanthropy fits
We say a lot on this site about not depending on donations, so it’s worth being precise about what support actually does. Tuition keeps an academy running. Philanthropy makes an academy exist in the first place. There is a returned missionary in a city like Tete right now with the English, local knowledge, community trust, and work ethic to run an excellent school — and no way to fund the start-up costs. Your support is the difference between that person having a capability and that person having a life sustaining business. Fund the bridge once; it carries traffic for years.
You give once
A philanthropic gift funds a founder’s startup loan.
An academy opens
The founder builds the academy and runs it on fair tuition.
The loan is repaid
Repayments come from operations — a loan, not a stake.
The next city
The same dollar goes back out to open another academy.
Common questions
Is Starbridge affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
No. The Starbridge Foundation is an independent organization and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our founders are returned missionaries of the Church, and we honor what their service gave them — but the Foundation and its academies are independent.
How is my donation used?
Philanthropic capital funds startup loans for new academies — the space, the Chromebooks, the Starlink connection, the launch. Once open, academies sustain themselves on tuition, and loan repayments go back out to fund the next academy. Your gift is not absorbed into operating costs; it keeps opening schools.
What happens if a loan isn’t repaid?
The loan is repaid from academy operations on terms designed to be sustainable, and we work with founders through slow periods rather than against them. If an academy ultimately fails, the Foundation absorbs the loss — the risk sits with us, never with the founder’s family. We publish what we learn either way.
How are founders selected?
We look for returned missionaries who live in the community where the academy will open, with strong English, a record of teaching or leading, and the commitment to run a school every day. The Tete pilot sets the bar: we grow only as fast as we find the right people.