Wake Forest’s Educating Character Initiative to offer more nationwide character education grants with $44M in new funding
Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative (ECI) will extend its impact on character education across the country by offering a new round of grants in 2027 for U.S higher education institutions with support from a nearly $44 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. The grant will also enable ECI to award additional grants in 2026 to help U.S. higher education institutions strengthen and expand their character education work through Institutional Impact and Capacity-Building Grants.
“We are at a pivotal moment when colleges and universities are expressing increased interest in joining the movement to educate character,” said Jennifer Rothschild, the director of the ECI, which is part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest. “Thanks to the continued support of Lilly Endowment, the ECI is positioned to further steward a community-driven, character-centered movement to transform higher education across the United States, one that will impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of students.”
“Lilly Endowment’s founders firmly believed that character formation is essential to the flourishing of individuals, families and the larger society,” said N. Clay Robbins, Lilly Endowment’s Chairman and CEO. “We are gratified to see increasing interest from colleges and universities across the country in deepening their own work in character education, and we are pleased to be able to help them do so. More than ever, it is imperative that a new generation of morally and ethically grounded leaders is educated to rebuild trust and enhance civic engagement in our country and world.”
Since its founding in 2023, the ECI has awarded more than $58 million in grants to more than 200 colleges and universities that have committed to educating character on their campuses. Over 2,400 faculty, staff and administrators from more than 850 institutions and organizations are now part of the growing ECI community. Reports from the first year of grant activity alone indicated that the first round of grants had already impacted nearly 180,000 students, faculty and community members through their character education initiatives. The Program expects to reach more than 1.2 million individuals by 2030. “The interest in character education shows no signs of slowing,” said Michael Lamb, the Program’s senior executive director. “We’re excited to see so many different kinds of institutions embracing this work in unique and intentional ways.”
The impact has been significant. ECI grantees have reported that students have shown a deep interest in character development and are helping to catalyze those efforts on campus. Many colleges and universities are demonstrating significant buy-in and structural support. Faculty are integrating character into their curriculum and generating resources to share across their campus and ECI community. A continuing series in LearningWell magazine has shared stories of impact, from Howard University, Fort Lewis College, Syracuse University, and UC-Irvine, among many others. LearningWell’s story about the ECI won an Apex Award in 2026.
Wake Forest’s Program for Leadership and Character, which is entering its tenth year, continues to be a national leader for character education. A founding member of the Global Character Alliance, it has been profiled in LearningWell and Inside Higher Ed, and was recently featured in a May 2026 article in The Atlantic written by David Brooks. This December, the Program will host its seventh major conference on character on its Reynolda Campus in Winston-Salem.
“The successes of the Program for Leadership and Character and its Educating Character Initiative are proof of what happens when commitment to a good idea is matched by the capacity to realize it and the support of committed partners,” said Wake Forest President Peter Rodriguez. “This work continues to transform higher education. Through hard work and the generosity of granting institutions such as Lilly Endowment Inc., we are expanding our community of character, which is supported by faculty, staff, and a growing group of alumni and friends who recognize that character is part of what makes Wake Forest special. In the spirit of our motto – Pro Humanitate – we remain eager to support other institutions in educating character, too.”
This new funding will have an immediate impact, with some $9 million supporting Capacity Building and Institutional Impact grants that will be announced in the coming weeks. The rest of the funding will provide for a new round of ECI grants in 2027 and will also extend the ECI’s staff and support for those grants through 2031 through webinars, workshops, conferences, consultations and coaching, with a focus on community-building and the cultivation of resources.
Applications for the 2027 grants are expected to open in August. “As the movement grows, so do the quantity and quality of proposals,” said Rothschild. “Our ECI community members and grant applicants are bringing better ideas, broader partnerships, more thoughtful approaches to pedagogy and evaluation, and more sustainable approaches to educating character from their own institutions. We are grateful that this generous funding will allow even broader impact at colleges and universities across the country.”
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