Dear ECMC Foundation Community,

As we near the end of 2024, it is fitting, indeed traditional, to reflect on the immediate past year. It would be fair to argue that 2024 was a consequential year on several fronts within our great nation and across the globe. This was certainly the case at ECMC Foundation.

During December, I take time to acknowledge whatever professional successes the year has brought to ECMC Foundation (but not too much time). I also contemplate the missteps that may have occurred and the lessons I have learned as a result. But dwelling on that too long can also paralyze behavior rather than motivate it. More than anything, I focus on the future with renewed commitment and a hope that Martin Luther King Jr.’s long arc of justice will soon be fulfilled.

Though the year is not yet finished, 2024 will be a memorable one for ECMC Foundation. When the final accounting is done, ECMC Foundation will have completed its largest year of giving in its history. We are deeply gratified—and humbled—by the interest of individuals from around the country who engage us daily in important conversations about the needs of underserved learners and who share with us their innovative ideas to address those needs. We are mindful that we receive far more requests for support than we can possibly fund, but we are nonetheless thankful for the care, commitment and trust that you place in our Foundation. It is a privilege to work with colleagues throughout postsecondary education who share our goal of a nation that graduates all its students with degrees and credentials that will improve the lives of those learners, their families and their communities.

Earlier this month, we assembled the entire ECMC Foundation team at our Los Angeles office for something we call “home week.” It is a time when our colleagues from across the country assemble to share ideas, assess our collective progress and immerse themselves in planned learning opportunities. (Equally important, however, is that we are able to do this in person. Whatever remote-work advantages Zoom and other online platforms have brought us, I believe there is no substitute for gathering with colleagues collectively, personally and in the present moment).

This quarter’s home week focused on the continued growth and transformation of ECMC Foundation. In February, we announced our North Star goal, an ambitious effort to galvanize the nation around the need to eliminate equity gaps in college completion by 2040, especially for learners from underserved groups. Since then, the majority of 2024 has been spent thinking about how we will monitor that goal and focus the daily work of the Foundation in ways that advance all students toward the completion of a postsecondary credential or degree. It is not enough to bring attention to a problem, we must create a way to track our progress—not simply ECMC Foundation’s progress, but that of the nation.

Our home week was also devoted to highlighting the pivotal roles our current staff play in advancing the North Star. To grow our grantmaking and advance our North Star, we have been fortunate to recruit a cadre of committed and skilled professionals from around the country who work in our Los Angeles, Minneapolis and newly opened Washington, D.C. offices. We also took time to discuss the need to recruit professionals with new skill sets to support the work ahead. Early in 2025, I will announce several new members who will join an already extraordinary ECMC Foundation team.

Despite these transformative changes at ECMC Foundation, let me assure you that our key commitments will not change:

· Our focus on the postsecondary success of learners from underserved groups.

· Our pledge to the North Star goal to eliminate equity gaps in college completion.

· Our commitment to data-informed solutions and interventions that give us the greatest hope to improve postsecondary education in the U.S.

· Our openness to new ideas from our colleagues throughout the country who, like us, seek solutions that will advance more students to achieve credentials and degrees.

· Our emphasis on the individual assets that every individual brings to postsecondary education and our desire to help remake our postsecondary structures to align those assets with outcomes.

· The devotion of our Board of Directors and ECMC Group leadership team in making investments that signal confidence in and commitment to ECMC Foundation’s mission.

On behalf of the ECMC Foundation team, I wish you a festive holiday season and best wishes for 2025. We are grateful to be working alongside you.

Sincerely,

Jacob Fraire
President
ECMC Foundation