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Gratitude Series: John M. Belk Endowment

Without the John M. Belk Endowment, myFutureNC would not exist. It was MC Belk Pilon, the President and Board Chair of the John M. Belk Endowment, and Margaret Spellings, the then president of the University of North Carolina system, who recognized the need to set an ambitious target for postsecondary educational attainment in North Carolina, identify places in the education pipeline where students were being lost, and determine the solutions leaders from across the education continuum should collectively advocate for.

Since then, the John M. Belk Endowment has stood steadfast as one of our strongest supporters, working passionately to help us increase educational equity within the state. Through their generosity, myFutureNC has established 15 Local Educational Attainment Collaboratives with the programmatic support of strategic partner UNC School of Government ncIMPACT Initiative, serving 38 counties across North Carolina that seek to significantly increase the number of students attaining postsecondary degrees or high-quality credentials. They have supported our FAFSA initiatives, which are designed to increase North Carolina’s FAFSA completion rate to 80% by 2030. The John M. Belk Endowment has also supported various data collection efforts by myFutureNC to help the state and local communities measure and improve their postsecondary educational attainment through novel dashboards and county attainment profiles.

In today’s Gratitude Series, we want to thank the John M. Belk Endowment for helping us support communities across North Carolina. Their dedicated investment to education has been indispensable towards the strides we have made towards the state’s legislated goal of ensuring 2 million North Carolinians have a postsecondary degree or high-quality credential by 2030. Together, we look forward to unleashing transformation and building a prosperous North Carolina we all can be proud of for generations to come.

If you’d like to connect about ways you can financially support our mission, contact David Bohm, Director of Development at David@myFutureNC.org.


myFutureNC is able to expand our work through generous donations and in-kind support. An investment in myFutureNC is an investment in North Carolina’s future. It is an investment in its people, its communities and its economy. Support toward meeting this goal is critical and life changing. 2 Million by 2030 will benefit all North Carolinians.