ECMC Foundation invests in ideas, institutions, and innovations that strengthen postsecondary education and expand opportunity for learners nationwide. Driven by their mission to improve higher education for career success among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation, they focus their resources on approaches that create meaningful, lasting improvement across the postsecondary landscape. At the center of their work is ECMC Foundation's North Star: "By 2040 gaps in postsecondary completion are eliminated, so that all learners have greater opportunity for thriving careers and economic mobility". Their funding approach brings this North Star to life through a combination of responsive grantmaking, long-term initiatives, and catalytic investments.
While each portfolio operates with distinct purpose, all three are united by a shared set of strategic priorities. These priorities are the core of ECMC Foundation's strategic framework and guide their grantmaking and investing efforts. They help ensure that their resources are directed toward the approaches most likely to strengthen postsecondary education, drive meaningful improvement, and advance their North Star goal. Together, these priorities create a coherent, mission-driven structure for how they select, learn from, and support the work of partners across the nation.
- Remove Barriers to Postsecondary Completion: The Foundation supports solutions that help learners persist and complete postsecondary programs, particularly when obstacles stand in the way of progress. This includes efforts that strengthen academic and non-academic supports, and streamline pathways that lead to completion.
- Build the Capacity of Institutions, Systems and Organizations: Strong institutions are essential to strong learner outcomes. The Foundation invests in efforts that enhance organizational effectiveness, strengthen leadership infrastructure, improve data use, and help systems better serve their students. These investments create the foundation for long-term improvement.
- Transform the Postsecondary Ecosystem: Lasting progress requires rethinking how systems work together. The Foundation supports innovations, partnerships, and policy-informed efforts that evolve the postsecondary ecosystem into one that is more adaptive, resilient, and responsive to learners. This priority aims to spur systematic change that affects the field at scale.
Previous awardees can be found here: https://www.ecmcfoundation.org/news-insights/granteeinvestee-spotlights/