Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awards $100 million “catalytic investment” to UNCF to aid Black colleges and universities

Arkansas Delta Informer – Sept. 16, 2022 – UNCF, commonly known as the United Negro College Fund, is spearheading efforts to aid historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the U.S. after receiving a $100 million gift from Microsoft billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates.

On Thursday (Sept. 15), UNCF announced that it had received “a catalytic investment” to accelerate institutional transformation efforts from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to initial details, the funds will help HBCUs undergo fundamental changes to increase success for all students dramatically.

The first of its kind—at this scale—in American higher education, this systemic transformation will provide UNCF, along with five other intermediaries, $100 million over five years to power higher education as a racial and socioeconomic equity engine. These investments were awarded based on each organization’s demonstrated expertise and potential to disrupt generational poverty.

“Advancing Black higher education through institutional transformation is in UNCF’s DNA,” said Dr. Michael L. Lomax, president and CEO of Atlanta-based UNCF. “This grant will further the proven strategies of UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building in ushering the next phase of Black colleges and universities.”

In 2021 the Gates Foundation funded grantees in 50 states and the District of Columbia. Internationally, the Silicon Valley philanthropic group funded work in 144 countries. Altogether, the foundation handed out 2051 grants totaling more than $6.7 billion and has awarded more than $3.2 billion through the first half of 2022.

As co-chair of one of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations, Bill and Melinda Gates have awarded nearly $66 billion in charitable gifts since 1994. Despite finalizing their divorce in August 2021, the billionaire couple has stated publicly they remain committed to continuing philanthropic work through the foundation.

Like many corporations and foundations that made pledges intended to advance racial justice and address racial inequities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the George Floyd murder in the summer of 2020, the Gates Foundation has upped its contributions to HBCUs over the past two years.

As part of the foundation’s ongoing work to combat racial inequality and its impact, the foundation in October 2020 funded a series of three-year grants totaling $15 million to provide critical diagnostic testing infrastructure for up to 10 HBCUs.

Through its transformation work via its Institute for Capacity Building (ICB), UNCF counts 41 institutional partners, a network purposely designed to represent a diversity of HBCUs and predominantly Black institutions (PBIs) that vary in size, type and transformation focus. As UNCF plans to expand to more than 50 institutions in 2023, the impact of the intermediary efforts is already apparent with partners reporting increased rates in enrollment, retention, graduation, internship and post-graduation placement in career-related jobs or graduate studies.

“Research shows our schools have historically done and continue to do a lot more with a lot less. They graduate more Black students who go on to lift, not only their families, but entire communities,” said Ed Smith-Lewis, vice president, strategic partnerships and institutional programs at UNCF.

“Now, we’re about to show the world just how much Black colleges and universities can teach the rest of higher education to support the success of all their students in institutionalizing educational equity,” said Smith-Lewis, who oversees UNCF’s capacity building institute.

According to a recent survey, nearly three-fourths of college presidents say that to thrive in an increasingly complex, tech-driven world, they must rethink their business models and campus cultures for greater inclusivity and mobility—and they seek intermediary partners to guide that change.

UNCF was selected for its leadership in bolstering HBCUs as student-success engines, community lifelines and poverty disruptors. In doing so, they are also helping Gates to redefine institutional transformation. This new phase of Gates investments is designed to accelerate and expand institutional transformation by building on a decade of work and learning with intermediaries and their higher-education partners.

“Our six-year partnership with UNCF could not have been more opportune for Benedict College. They were the force multiplier for realizing our business plan sooner and with greater impact, ensuring our students are not just career-ready at graduation, but career-engaged,” said Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, Benedict College president and CEO.

Benedict’s participation in the development of HBCUv, the shared online platform for HBCUs, and new collaborations like the South Carolina Cluster is sparking other systemic changes—all to the benefit of its students, most of whom represent first-time college goers from disenfranchised neighborhoods.

“This award recognizes on a national scale the tremendous effort and vision of Dr. Lomax to re-energize UNCF’s founding purpose of championing Black colleges and universities and their higher-education innovations.” said UNCF Board Chair Milton Jones Jr., founding member of Peachtree Providence Partners. “Along with The Gates Foundation, other major funders are seeing the wisdom in investing in UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building and its next phase of transformation efforts.”

National, UNCF member institutions educate more than 60,000 students each year and have produced more than 500,000 graduates with the help of UNCF. Philander Smith College in Little Rock is one of 37 UNCF members nationally, and the lone member in Arkansas.

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