ECMC Foundation Grants More Than $6.4 Million to Postsecondary Education Programs
April 11, 2019
By Julie Bos, ECMC Foundation Contributing Writer
ECMC Foundation announced that it recently committed $6,466,394 to support grantees’ efforts ranging from piloting new initiatives, supporting national training, evaluating existing programs, and designing new systems and processes. These investments reflect the Foundation’s ongoing commitment to advancing postsecondary educational outcomes for individuals from underserved backgrounds across its College Success and Career Readiness portfolios.
A selection of grants made are listed below. For a full list of grants made by the Foundation please visit ECMC Foundation’s website at https://www.ecmcfoundation.org/what-we-do/grantsinvestments
- A grant of $500,000 was made to Arizona State University (ASU), which offers 800 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to over 100,000 enrolled students across Arizona campus locations and online. ECMC Foundation funding will offset pilot costs for Arizona State University California, a clear and affordable path to a four-year bachelor’s degree by combining the scalability of an online learning environment with in-person support. The goal is to significantly expand postsecondary access and affordability for students in California with the goal of serving over 48,000 students by 2028.
- A grant of $500,000 was made to The Campaign for College Opportunity (the Campaign), a coalition committed to addressing problems of access and inequality in California’s public postsecondary systems. ECMC Foundation funding will support the Campaign’s Student Pathways initiative, which will highlight transfer and remedial education reform, and also their Graduate Fellowship Program, which will give graduates students the opportunity to contribute to the Campaign’s research and policy work.
- A grant of $250,000 was made to Graduate NYC (GNYC), an organization that increases college degree attainment rates among students throughout New York City. ECMC Foundation’s funding will continue to support GNYC’s College Completion Innovation Fund, the first collaborative fund focused exclusively on college retention and completion in New York City.
- A grant of $209,401 was made to RAND Corporation an organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer, healthier and more prosperous. ECMC Foundation’s funding will support RAND’s analysis of New Jersey’s Higher Education Student Assistance Authority’s primary student aid program, the Tuition Aid Grand (TAG), to explore where the marginal dollar of TAG has the greatest impact for the 2019-20 school year and beyond.
- A grant of $750,000 was made to Seattle Jobs Initiative, a workforce development intermediary committed to improving the Seattle area workforce development system to benefit low-income job seekers. ECMC Foundation funding will support the development of a Student Centered Design consulting program that will assist at least four postsecondary education clients in pinpointing and applying interventions in areas where outdated assumptions and structural bottlenecks are negatively affecting student access and outcomes.
- A grant of $150,000 was made to USC Rossier Center for Urban Education (CUE), which works to bring equity-mindedness to institutions of higher education through socially conscious research, tools and learning institutes. Funding from ECMC Foundation will support CUE’s work with 28 California Community Colleges, where it will provide technical assistance to develop and implement student equity plans that align with goals set forth by the California Community Colleges Office of the Chancellor. CUE will provide the data and technical assistance necessary to develop these plans and train campus administration and faculty in their proper and effective execution. The goal is to increase total number of students transferring to a four-year institution and improve the time transfer rate for students from underrepresented backgrounds. ECMC Foundation funding will provide support for professional staff, consultants and travel.