As part of our commitment to improving higher education for career success among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation, ECMC Foundation is proud to announce a new series of grants and program-related investments made from November 30, 2022, to February 2, 2023. This round of recently approved grants and investments aims to improve postsecondary career and technical education (CTE), accelerate student success and advance critical education-to-career pathways. The total funding is $7,415,000.

A selection of grants and investments made are detailed below. For a full list of the Foundation’s active and inactive grants, please visit ECMC Foundation’s website at https://ecmcfoundation.org/grants/grants-investments.

Achieving the Dream ($750,000) to increase adult learner completion of credit-bearing credentials with labor market value and develop practices and policies needed to implement evidence-based strategies.

Community College Baccalaureate Association ($500,000) to support states and community colleges in implementing community college baccalaureate (CCB) degrees and identify indicators of program quality and high-value degrees offered in career and technical education (CTE) CCB pathways.

Family Scholar House, Inc. ($450,000) to identify best practices for supporting single mother students, analyze the value of programmatic interventions, and expand the organization’s affiliate model.

Future Link, Inc. ($200,000) to expand the Career Coaching program, which combines academic and professional supports to drive degree persistence and completion for students in Montgomery County, Virginia.

Graduate NYC ($75,000) to support the College Completion Innovation Fund (CCIF), a collaborative fund that aims to spur innovation and the adoption of policies and practices to increase college persistence and degree completion in New York City.

Jewish Vocational Service Inc. ($400,000) to provide launch support for the credit-bearing substance addiction pathway and help meet rapidly rising demand for Boston-area substance addiction professionals.

National Association of System Heads (NASH) ($500,000) to increase college completion rates, reduce student debt and increase social mobility through learning, talent, equity and investment.

National Center for Inquiry and Improvement ($500,000) to develop strong leaders at colleges to provide the vision and rationale for student success reforms and the skills to manage the change process over time.

New America ($1,400,000) to elevate more actionable childcare solutions for community college practitioners and policymakers.

RAND Corporation ($500,000) to develop a set of best practices on how to establish a consortium of community college-industry partnerships with strong, sustainable collaboration and successful student interventions aligned with labor market needs.

The Center to Advance CTE ($540,000) to improve state capacity to collect and utilize data to advance postsecondary CTE.

The Reinvestment Fund, Inc. ($300,000) to launch the HBCU Brilliance Fund to demonstrate the type of technical and financial support that will position HBCUs to make critical investments in their facilities, financial stability, and long-term growth, enabling them to improve their sustainability, attract prospective students, and better serve their existing student body.

Education Innovation Ventures

Beyond 12 ($800,000) to expand its reach with community colleges and higher education institutions and validate its evolving model’s impact on student outcomes, which will position the organization for national scale. This support was both through a grant and a program-related investment.

Ruthless for Good ($500,000) to make pre-seed and seed stage impact investments in founders of color and women within the education and workforce development sectors.