The HBCU Transformation Project, a collaborative effort to drive tangible, long-term progress across historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and boost the Black economy, has announced a $124 million investment from Blue Meridian Partners.

The latest investment, which boosts Blue Meridian’s total investment in the effort to $184 million, will expand the Transformation Project’s work to drive systemic improvements among HBCUs nationwide. The HBCU Transformation Project is a collaboration between UNCF (United Negro College Fund), Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), and Partnership for Education Advancement (Ed Advancement). Forty HBCUs are currently working intensively with the project. Blue Meridian Partners made the additional investment after HBCU Transformation Project leaders and individual campuses reported positive results from the project’s initial phase.

Most of the funding will be invested in high-return initiatives at individual HBCUs, such as building technology infrastructure, developing and testing transformative curricular and administrative strategies, and piloting platforms to work together on staff development, shared procurement, and related approaches. During the next three years, the HBCU Transformation Project aims to reduce the growing wealth gaps between HBCUs and other higher education institutions, while increasing the number of students enrolled at HBCUs by 90,000 and increasing the number of HBCU graduates by 22,000. 

“The HBCU Transformation Project will deliver permanent, sustainable, and systemic improvement: more students, more graduates, bigger endowments, and new opportunities to advance economic mobility,” said Ed Advancement co-founder and CEO James Runcie. “HBCUs will be at the leading edge of transformation and infrastructure enhancements that will impact student outcomes well into the future.” 

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