This year has been a transformative one for ECMC Foundation. For example, we announced our North Star goal, and introduced a new initiative dedicated to serving rural learners. In addition, we deepened our commitment to underserved learners throughout the nation as a result of our other initiatives, strategically responsive grants and Education Innovation Ventures investments. We are committed to ensuring that our learners have the tools and opportunities to succeed in postsecondary education.

To that end, we are excited to announce our latest grantees and investees who are at the frontlines of driving innovation in postsecondary education. Since our last report in May 2024, we have awarded over $44 million in additional grants and investments. A selection of those grants and investments is detailed below. For a complete list of the Foundation’s active and inactive grants and investments, please visit ECMC Foundation’s website.

Reflecting on our grantmaking and investing in 2024, we are filled with gratitude for our partners' dedication, skill and fortitude in serving the postsecondary education needs of students from underserved groups. We cannot wait for what’s to come in 2025!

Initiatives

Basic Needs Initiative

California State University, Long Beach Research Foundation ($500,000) to conduct student-led research studies on the current experiences of postsecondary students with basic needs insecurity through the establishment of the SPARK program across California institutions.

State Higher Education Executive Officers Association ($3,449,045) to support seven states to integrate and use basic needs data of postsecondary students into their states longitudinal data systems.

Swipe Out Hunger ($160,000) to convene a coalition of twenty national and regional postsecondary student food security partners to align strategies, coordinate efforts and implement parallel messaging for a unified vision for postsecondary student food and basic needs security.

The Texas Community College Education Initiative ($750,000) to integrate, with the support of the Texas Success Center, comprehensive basic needs services into the Talent Strong Texas Pathways strategy that all community colleges are following.

Men of Color Initiative

Education Writers Association ($450,000) to develop and launch a fellowship focused on producing in-depth journalism on men of color student success.

Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development ($800,000) to develop and implement an adult learner re-enrollment campaign that is squarely focused on reaching and supporting men of color who have some college but no degree.

Southeast Asia Resource Action Center ($210,000) to release a series of reports and webinars that uplift the educational experience of Southeast Asian American men.

University of Southern California Race and Equity Center ($2,641,123) to expand Takeoff to fifteen four-year colleges and universities that will pilot, implement, and scale campus-wide efforts to support men of color college students.

Rural Impact Initiative

APIA Scholars ($453,400) to collaborate with postsecondary institutions in Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific Islands to facilitate, conduct, and support five research projects on transfer pathways.

Appalachian State University ($456,208) to develop a typology of rural serving institutions based on school, community, and learner characteristics and examine how various types of rural serving institutions integrate into their local communities.

Center on Rural Innovation ($457,200) to examine how rural postsecondary institutions engage within the local entrepreneurial ecosystem to achieve economic growth and social equity.

Empower Schools ($454,800) to define and evaluate the effectiveness of formalized regional Rural Collaboratives as a strategy to improve postsecondary success for underserved rural students.

National Center for Higher Education Management Systems ($451,454) to rethink state funding approaches for rural institutions and learners by examining state-level definitions of rural, how these existing rural definitions impact state funding models, and the impact of rurally focused funding incentives on institutional appropriations.

The RP Group ($405,000) to understand the experiences of transfer-motivated rural learners living in university education deserts in California.

WestEd ($438,677) to identify effective practices that provide adult learners with postsecondary curricular content and training that prepares them for living-wage careers and aligns with local and regional economic opportunities.

Single Mother Student Success Initiative

Believe in Students ($560,000) to develop, pilot, and evaluate a new #RealCollege professional development course, Supporting Student Parents.

Education Design Lab ($747,911) to establish a national Parenting Learner Community of Practice through the development of an online platform called the Hub.

Higher Learning Advocates ($650,100) to engage The Today’s Students Coalition in assessing existing state policies which support student parents, hosting roundtables and interviews with experts to identify effective policies and programs, publishing two briefs on state and system level best practices, and uplifting student stories.

Scholarship America ($849,610) to launch and sustain the first national emergency aid fund for single mother students.

Strategically Responsive

Bellwether ($660,100) to lead a community of practice for ten direct services postsecondary advising nonprofits focused on creating and launching systemic impact campaigns.

Community College Baccalaureate Association ($760,000) to complete a quality framework to guide the creation of community college bachelor’s degree programs; expand the number of community colleges that offer community college bachelor’s degrees; and engage policymakers in at least two states to consider offering community college bachelor’s degrees.

Communities Foundation of Texas ($1,000,000) to redesign career pathways at eight community colleges in Texas, elevate policy approaches that improve work-based learning, and share pathway enhancement strategies with the field.

Complete College America ($966,900) to facilitate workshops and convenings to help eight large systems and/or open access institutions identify key performance indicators, determine the data required to track progress, design data dashboards, measure student success, and develop management structures that facilitate continued conversations around the student success metrics at all staffing levels.

Fort Hays State University ($461,840) to hire a project manager who will oversee the work of up to twenty-five separate cross-institutional committees that are charged with consolidating three colleges into a single postsecondary education institution.

Institute for Citizens & Scholars ($500,000) to expand the number and composition of faculty institutes, which are focused on the development of civics-related curricula and extra-curricular strategies at participating colleges and universities.

Jobs for the Future ($800,000) to support implementation of a new statewide advising technology platform at five Washington State community colleges, develop a framework for adoption at all Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) institutions, and refine state-level policies for the platform.

National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education ($297,000) to launch the Future Vista Impact Initiative, a series of convenings and publications for higher education diversity professionals.

Public Agenda, Inc. ($1,000,000) to conduct both quantitative and qualitative research on postsecondary education institutions' role in advancing student social and economic mobility.

Research Foundation of The City University of New York ($516,450) to develop a tool assessing impact and return on investment, create a playbook focused on state scaling of student success interventions, and launch a research community, all focused on state-level replication of the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs and the Accelerate, Complete, Engage program.

Southern Education Foundation ($2,000,000) to help four regional community foundations in the southern United States support up to sixteen small, postsecondary education-focused nonprofit organizations.

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities ($1,363,504) to implement the Mentor Collective near-peer mentorship approach at six member institutions and help them use program data insights to identify and execute policy and practice changes impacting all students.

The Institute for Higher Education Policy ($1,250,697) to establish a Postsecondary Data Champions Network, a series of skill-building trainings and network affiliation meetings, to strengthen the capacity of institutional research (IR) professionals to obtain, calibrate, and apply student data.

The Ohio State University ($975,054) to implement, evaluate, and integrate student support into the Ford Automotive Student Service Educational Training (ASSET) program across forty community colleges.

The Regents of the University of California, Riverside ($300,000) to create the Center for Strategic & Inclusive Governance (CSIG) at UC Riverside, which will produce and share timely resources, trainings, and support for trustees to be better equipped to address any attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Program-Related Investments

Daivergent ($250,000) to develop a virtual job coaching platform focused on serving people with neurodivergent conditions and disabilities.

Julius Education ($250,000) to educate, train, and diversify the recruitment pool for green jobs by supporting jobseekers with holistic career navigation and skills training.

Mirza ($500,000) to remove childcare as an obstacle for low-income families and students by matching individuals with government-sponsored childcare dollars through a simple application process.

Maycomb Capital ($1,500,000) to provide working capital to mission-driven providers of education, workforce development, and health equity services.