Portland – September 08, 2026 -- Lemnis, a public charity, has acquired Wayfinder, a Bend, Oregon-based PreK-12 curriculum provider reaching 1.5 million students across nearly 5,000 schools and districts, converting the for-profit company into a nonprofit division.
Lemnis completes third acquisition in eight months under nonprofit strategy
The Wayfinder deal follows Lemnis' February acquisition of InsideTrack, a nonprofit success-coaching provider with 3.6 million learners served over 25 years, and its March acquisition of Mainstay, an AI-enabled student support technology used by more than 200 colleges and universities. Nfluence Partners acted as exclusive investment banker to Wayfinder in the transaction.
Stanford-born curriculum shows measurable gains in student engagement
Founded in 2015 at the Stanford d.school K-12 Lab, Wayfinder has built 14 years of PreK-12 curriculum based on adolescent development research. An independent evaluation by Stanford researcher Dr. Heather Malin found students completing the curriculum showed an 11-times increase in a key measure of purpose versus a control group, alongside 55% growth in school engagement and 64% growth in social awareness. One elementary school in Des Moines Public Schools reported chronic absenteeism fell from 33% to 16% after adopting the program.
Curriculum targets six core skills through daily classroom lessons
Wayfinder's lessons run through advisory periods, elective courses, and counseling sessions, guiding students to build Self-Awareness, Adaptability, Empathy, Collaboration, Agency, and Purpose. School districts using the platform include the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, Des Moines Public Schools, The School District of Philadelphia, Minneapolis Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools, Douglas County School District, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Portland Public Schools, and Cumberland County Schools. The platform's Portrait of a Graduate feature allows districts to map the Core Skills to their own statewide success frameworks.
Founder frames deal as shield from shareholder pressure
Wayfinder founder and CEO Patrick Cook-Deegan said joining Lemnis allows the company to scale without being steered by shareholder pressure or quarterly earnings targets, citing shared conviction that the mission takes priority. Wayfinder will continue operating its existing programs and services to PreK-12 schools and districts as a division of Lemnis.