Education Focus Areas

The Bush Foundation’s support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) began in 1976 when Board decided to open alumni challenge grants to selected private HBCUs. As the program grew, the Foundation expanded the universe of recipients to include all of the private United Negro College Fund colleges and universities.
 
In 1986, the Board decided to extend its faculty development program and eventually, the capital grants program, to HBCUs in partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, California. Reasoning that national leadership in African American communities came disproportionately from these institutions, the Board approved a plan that was similar to that for the regional (Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota) program for private colleges.
 
The Bush-Hewlett Collaboration supported several programs for HBCUs in the United States that were members of the United Negro College Fund, including:

		Alumni Challenge grants to support fund-raising campaigns,
		Faculty development grants to improve undergraduate student learning through improvement of teaching,
		Leadership development grants for HBCU administrators, and
		Matching capital grants for major building construction, renovation and purchase.

Because of a concern, in part, that too much Bush money might be leaving the Foundation’s primary geographic area of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, revised guidelines called for careful selection of participating colleges outside of these regional boundaries. In a competitive process, only six colleges per year could enter the program annually, with a total of 18 participants in all.

In addition, the Foundation funded the development of the HBCU Faculty Development Network that has since expanded to all private HBCUs and is supported by several other sources, including the United Negro College Fund.

In 2006, the Bush and Hewlett Foundations each granted $1 million to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) to develop and implement an enrollment management program to increase enrollment and improve graduation rates at selected private HBCUs. This grant signaled the end of the Bush-Hewlett partnership for grants to HBCUs.