OVERVIEW: The ECMC Foundation broadly funds organizations and initiatives that aim to prepare students from underserved and marginalized backgrounds for college and support them as they complete their degree programs.
IP TAKE: ECMC’s supports nonprofit organizations and academic institutions of all sizes. This funder accepts letters of inquiry, from both schools and nonprofits, on an ongoing basis via its online portal. To be successful, programs must be centered on using evidence-based approaches that address low-income or first-generation students. Proposals that focus on facilitating the post-secondary education and career readiness of single mothers or formerly incarcerated persons have a particular funding edge here. This is an accessible organization that funds at various levels, is transparent, and welcomes contact.
PROFILE: Based in Los Angeles, California, the ECMC Foundation was established in 2000 as the charitable arm of ECMC Group, a student loan and financial aid nonprofit headquartered in Minneapolis. ECMC Foundation shifted its focus to strategic grantmaking in 2014 and currently works to “inspire and to facilitate improvements that affect educational outcomes—especially among underserved populations—through evidence-based innovation.” It is a sizable organization with current assets totaling over $350 million. The foundation invests in college success, career readiness and education innovation.
The ECMC Foundation believes that the foundation of success in both college or technical school, and the transition into work, starts with a strong knowledge base rooted in education.
Grants for College Readiness and Higher Education
The ECMC Foundation supports college readiness through its college success program, which seeks to “increase the number of students from historically and presently underserved backgrounds who persist through and graduate from an institution of higher education with a bachelor’s degree.” ECMC understands that many students’ postsecondary journeys start with community college or technical school, so it actively engages opportunities to invest in transfer success. The college success program ultimately funds postsecondary programs and initiatives that:
Improve and scale systemic reforms and supports to increase student success at postsecondary institutions.
Increase currently enrolled students' persistence toward a degree.
Support on-time transfer from two-year to four-year institutions.
Enhance students’ pathways to graduation with career-ready skills.
Elevate new research findings and publications that promote student success outcomes.
This program – while focusing on first-generation, low-income, and PoC student populations – seeks programs that particularly address the education of single mothers or previously incarcerated persons. ECMC Foundation also manages several related initiatives through the Learning & Evaluation program, as well as Education Innovation Ventures (EIV). Past college access grantees grantees include the University of California, Riverside; UCLA; and the Foundation for California Community Colleges. And in 2021, ECMC pledged $1.125 million to the American Indian College Fund to support healthcare and education programs at tribal colleges and universities in North Dakota and Montana. College success grantees are supported nationally and tend to support established organizations and programs using evidence-based innovations. Explore other college success grantees here.
To raise funds for its education-based programs, ECMC manages a program-related investment portfolio, Education Innovation Ventures (EIV), in order to make “below-market-rate investments into nonprofit and for-profit ventures that seek to generate both social impact and financial returns.” EIV uses a spectrum of “program-related investments—including debt and equity instruments—to improve educational outcomes and economic mobility among students from underserved backgrounds.”According to ECMC, EIV investments enable the Foundation to tap into the “creative power of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, unlock innovative ideas and build evidence-based practices.”
Grants for Economic Development and Opportunity
ECMC’s college success program is dedicated to “improving postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) outcomes for students from underserved backgrounds.” It generally prioritizes programs that:
Build the capacity of institutions and organizations to provide accredited, credit-bearing, industry-informed and transferable postsecondary CTE pathways.
Conduct research and evaluations to inform the field and promote postsecondary CTE programs that are part of educational pathways that lead to portable certificates or degrees.
Support adult learners’ postsecondary CTE advancement toward a certificate or associate degree with the inclusion of learner-centered approaches and academic and non-academic wraparound supports.
The program also prioritizes funding programs centered on underserved demographics such as single mothers and the formerly incarcerated.
Special initiatives include the CTE Leadership Collaborative, which works on “bringing together diverse perspectives and equipping CTE leaders with the tools, resources and skills needed to advance postsecondary CTE,” and Zenith Education Group, a nonprofit CTE provider that is using foundation funding to “add new programs in high-demand industries, design quality curriculum, modernize program delivery with new technologies and build simulated learning environments to match real-world experience.”
Important Grant Details:
Grants widely range from $25,000 to $1 million, but tend to be generous. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s grants database for more information on the foundation’s giving habits. Recent grantees include Jobs for the Future, College Unbound, and The Opportunity Institute.
This funder accepts letters of inquiry, from both schools and nonprofits, on an ongoing basis via its online portal. Applications are by invitation only, but the foundation accepts letters of inquiry on a rolling basis through its online portal.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS: