The Foundation

In 2004 a small group of colleges and universities came together to reimagine the experience of administrative software for higher education. Fed up with poorly-designed administrative software and difficult vendor relationships, they were determined to find a better path.

Kuali Timeline

2004

Indiana University, University of Hawaii, NACUBO, rSmart, Cornell University, Michigan State University, San Joaquin Delta Community College, University of California, Davis, & University of Arizona create a consortium to develop the Kuali Financial System.

2005

The Kuali Foundation is incorporated with a large grant from the Mellon Foundation with the mission to leverage resources from colleges and universities to build better software to serve higher ed’s unique needs. Many Kuali schools also need a better option for a research administration system, so the Kuali Research project is established, based on MIT’s Coeus software.

2006-2014

Additional projects emerge with contributions from various Universities. The Kuali Community grows. Adoption of Kuali software increases with implementations on campuses across the US.

However, in addition to growth and success, the Foundation faces key challenges. While schools contribute technical and functional expertise toward software development, the Foundation doesn’t have sales and marketing capability or the ability to design, develop, and deliver Software as a Service (SaaS) on a scale to compete with traditional commercial vendors. A new path forward is needed.

2014

The Kuali Company is formed to assume responsibility for design, development and SaaS delivery of Kuali software and to provide professional sales and marketing. The Kuali Foundation remains a separate 501C3 organization as a continued means for institutional collaboration and resource sharing.

2015-2022

The Company grows and expands the Kuali toolset with new products, features and services, with continued input and support from the Kuali Foundation. Product adoption increases even further.

2015-2022

The Company grows and expands the Kuali toolset with new products, features and services, with continued input and support from the Kuali Foundation. Product adoption increases even further.

2023

By the end of 2023, more than 230 colleges and universities are using Kuali products. With a 20-year history of institutional collaboration, community growth, and software development, the Kuali Foundation considers its mission fulfilled, and transfers the continued stewardship of the mission and vision of software by and for higher education to the Company.