How We Work

Increasing Access to Education. Enabling Completion.

The endowment is focused on improving access to postsecondary education, going beyond scholarships and working with underrepresented students to complete their education, and opening pathways towards a productive future. To achieve these goals we cultivate strong, collaborative partnerships with organizations that share our passion and belief in education as a means to a more fulfilling career and creating an avenue toward a stronger workforce in North Carolina. We empower these like-minded organizations to achieve our mutual goals through funding, knowledge-sharing, and hands-on collaboration.

In 2014, the John M. Belk Endowment began allocating resources toward eliminating barriers to postsecondary education for underrepresented students across North Carolina by focusing on Access, Completion and Workforce Relevance. Based on research, we define underrepresented populations as groups where there is a clearly demonstratable gap in educational attainment. These include, but are not limited to, low-income, rural, first-generation, minority students and military veterans.

JMBE will award grants to qualified nonprofit organizations that address these issues across North Carolina. We aspire to partner with outcome-driven organizations that build stronger student pathways toward accessing and completing postsecondary education, all leading to gainful employment. We will also invest in institutions that focus on attainment and support a new generation of non-traditional students in a changing economy.