Think Together, a provider of after-school programs for underserved kids in the state, has changed its name to Think Education.
The new moniker highlights the nonprofit’s ongoing expansion beyond after-school programming and into directly supporting school systems, according to Chief Executive Randy Barth.
The Santa Ana-based organization is currently making investments in educator development and AI technology to give the education sector a boost.
Barth said the name change also reflects the organization’s “growing suite of services” from the last decade, such as the Orenda Education platform focused on school improvement and Think TalentEd used for district staffing services.
Think Education merged with the consulting firm Orenda in 2022 for its data-driven school improvement model and launched Think TalentEd, formely known as the California Schools Talent Collaborative, one year later to deal with the leadership crisis in education, according to Barth.
“We saw that these tools work, but really, those tools work in the hands of good leaders,” he told the Business Journal.
The nonprofit, established in 1997, works with close to 120 school districts across California. Barth said that by working on school campuses, Think Education has been able to “see what’s working and not working” among its partners.
“‘Think Education’ created the opportunity to have this parent brand that holds these different strategies,” Barth said.
The Game Plan
Think Education will continue to increase the reach of its after-school programs while also launching two new divisions in time with the name change. Think Transcend will lead the nonprofit’s leadership program designed for public education officials and Think Digital will provide AI tools and training for district administrators.
The Think Transcend team, formed in 2025, is preparing to collaborate on the professional development program for the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) in 2026. The plan is to instruct and coach three cohorts of 30 superintendents per year in Southern, Central and Northern California.
For the Think Digital initiative, Barth pointed to a project focused on California’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) which requires schools to create a spending plan for money received from the state. The LCAP started off as “a relatively simple document” but has turned into a 175-page template which can produce plans up to 600 pages, according to Barth.
He believes an AI model can be built to help administrators create these plans by researching relevant data and effective strategies that address each school’s pain points. Work will begin this year.
“You can leverage AI as a tool for these leaders in the system to then optimize their practices and remove some of the toil,” Barth said. “Then focus that executive talent on other areas and help drive performance in the whole ecosystem.”
“We’re really an education services (and technology) organization,” Barth added. “We’re providing a variety of services; some are direct to students, and some are working with the adults in the system.”
HQ Project Update
Think Education ranks as Orange County’s second largest nonprofit with 12-month OC revenue of $244.5 million for the year ended June 30, 2025, according to the Business Journal’s annual list.
Last year, the group announced plans to convert its Santa Ana headquarters into a $150 million workforce housing project, proposing 270 residential units. It might be worth $175 million now with rising costs, according to Barth.
The nonprofit is preparing to raise approximately $70 million of equity for the development once approved, hopefully this year.
“It helps the rents. The more equity we could raise for that, the more the rents will cash flow. And then we see the rents funding our innovation,” Barth said.
While initially on the hunt for a new headquarters, Barth noted that the nonprofit could stay on-site and possibly take up the first two floors of the redeveloped building.
