The face of the American landscape is overwhelmingly metropolitan, making metro areas important spaces for philanthropy to explicitly consider when crafting postsecondary funding strategies. This is the case for two primary reasons. First, metropolitan areas are drivers of economic activity and innovation. Second, four out of every five Americans--nearly one-quarter billion individuals--live in a metropolitan area; locations that are expected to grow well into the next decade. With the importance of metropolitan areas in mind, this report offers a unique and innovative approach for assisting national and community foundations in crafting answers to critical questions such as: (1) "Where" to engage in funding activities; (2) For "how long"; and (3) "What types of activities" are likely to succeed in specific metropolitan areas. Intended to inform philanthropic decision making, the empirical analysis presented in this report describes how metropolitan areas offer distinct opportunities for private philanthropy to support postsecondary education practice and degree attainment goals. Toward this end, the report maps the nation's metropolitan areas into designated "quadrants" (or action zones) and articulates how this placement should inform philanthropic efforts in these areas. Appended are: (1) Selected Descriptive Statistics of MSAs by Quadrant; (2) List of MSAs by Quadrant, Region, and Degree Attainment, 2000 and 2009; (3) Explanation of Analytic Models; and (4) Examples of Existing Interventions. (Contains 2 tables, 14 figures and 26 footnotes.) [For the fact sheet, "Smart Money: Informing Higher Education Philanthropy," see ED524826.]