ECMC Foundation uses a range of funding methods, including strategic grantmaking and program-related investments to support nonprofit and for-profit organizations that are working to improve postsecondary outcomes for students from underserved backgrounds.

We make grants and investments that fit within one of our three strategic priorities, and we are particularly interested in those proposals that focus on implementing systemic reforms to improve postsecondary outcomes for students from underserved backgrounds.

Expanding Our Impact

In 2022, ECMC Foundation leadership engaged in a strategic planning process to support the Foundation’s continued growth in size and impact on systemic change to improve outcomes for underserved populations in postsecondary education.

Staying True to Our Mission

The Foundation is focused on improving higher education so that it is equitable and student-centered, with a lens toward career success.

Strengthening Our Strategic Priorities

The Foundation aims to drive systemic change, getting at the root causes of complex challenges in higher education, not just the symptoms. This may mean tackling the biases, institutional, system-level or state or federal policies, resource allocation and flows, and financial and life circumstances that create barriers to success for underserved learners.

Our strategic priorities represent a three-pronged approach to creating systemic change in higher education that includes creating immediate change by removing obstacles that stand in the way of learner success right now; equipping institutions and organizations to better serve learners; and evolving the postsecondary ecosystem over time to become more adaptive, resilient, and capable of delivering more equitable outcomes.

-Removing barriers to postsecondary completion

We bolster programs that directly support learner success by meeting the unique needs, goals and aspirations of today’s diverse learner populations.

-Building the capacity of organizations, systems and institutions

We strengthen the capacity of higher education institutions, systems, and other support and service organizations to improve outcomes for today’s learners and evolve to meet the changing needs of learners.

-Transforming the postsecondary ecosystem

We support large-scale, cross-sector collaborations and innovations that have the potential to transform the postsecondary ecosystem in service of more equitable outcomes for the learners of today and tomorrow.

Our Initiatives:

-Addressing Basic Needs Insecurity: ECMC Foundation defines basic needs insecurity as the lack or fear of the lack of resources like food, housing, childcare, transportation, technology, physical safety, mental health services and more. Basic needs insecurity pervades postsecondary education, disrupting learning, persistence and completion. To thrive academically and succeed in their careers, students need support both inside and outside the classroom.

-CTE Leardership Collaborative Initiative: The CTE Leadership Collaborative (LC) Initiative brings together diverse perspectives and equips postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) leaders with the tools, resources and skills needed to advance the field.

-Men of Color: Over the past two decades, experts have turned their attention toward improving K-12 educational policy to address inequities for historically underserved communities of students and families. As a result, significant progress has been made to get more young men of color into college.

-Rural Impact Initiative: The Rural Impact Initiative aims to enhance the field’s understanding of the unique opportunities, assets and challenges of rural postsecondary institutions and learners and to ultimately increase completion rates and build the capacity of organizations, institutions and systems to support rural learners.

-Single Mother: Ensuring that single mothers can pursue their educational dreams also produces measurable progress on racial and gender equity, not just in higher education, but in society as a whole, reducing poverty and boosting economic mobility.

-Transfer and Credit Mobility: The Transfer and Credit Mobility Initiative works to identify and support effective and equitable transfer of credits between and among all postsecondary education institutions, including CTE programs, community colleges and four-year institutions.

LOIs that most closely reflect ECMC Foundation's strategic priorities will be invited to submit a full grant proposal.

To support our evaluation efforts and provide ECMC Foundation staff, grantees and the field with information about the implementation and impact of projects funded by the Foundation, we monitor grants regularly and collect information in a formal reporting capacity annually.