Wake Forest University is set to broaden its character-building programs with a $30 million grant from Lilly, aiming to foster moral and ethical development in students.
Wake Forest University has received a significant boost in its efforts to foster character education across America, with a $30.7 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. This funding will empower the university's Educating Character Initiative (ECI) to lead a growing movement in higher education, aiming to cultivate morally and ethically grounded leaders nationwide.
The ECI, first launched in 2016 by then Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch, has been a pioneer in integrating character formation into higher education curricula and campus culture. Over the past two years, the ECI has awarded grants to 146 institutions, reaching a diverse range of educational institutions, including two community colleges, seven minority-serving institutions, 10 public institutions, 19 private institutions, two women-serving institutions, and a collaborative between six institutions.
The purpose of the Lilly Endowment's funding is to support and expand character education programs at colleges and universities across the United States. According to Michael Lamb, executive director of Wake Forest's Program for Leadership and Character, this focus on character can help colleges and universities educate the whole person, generating the knowledge, capacity, and character that students will need to live and lead well in the 21st century.
The impact of this funding includes expanding a nationwide network of educators from more than 400 higher education institutions who collaborate on character education. It also includes awarding Institutional Impact grants to colleges and universities to help them develop or strengthen their own character education initiatives, with $10 million added to grants awarded in 2025 and $20 million for new grants in 2026.
In addition, the funding will bolster administrative and outreach efforts for the initiative, providing resources such as webinars and consultations to faculty and staff engaged in character education. The funding will also build on Wake Forest's Program for Leadership and Character, which aims to embed the university's motto *Pro Humanitate* ("for humanity") into campus life, and share this model with other institutions.
N. Clay Robbins, Lilly Endowment's Chairman and CEO, highlighted the importance of this investment, emphasizing that "a new generation of morally and ethically grounded leaders" is essential for societal flourishing. The grants range from $100,000 to $1 million and support institutions to infuse character in undergraduate curricula and programming.
The latest grant from the Lilly Endowment will sustain Wake Forest's emphasis on the study of character until the end of the decade. The goal of the ECI is to reach 600,000 individuals by the end of 2029. Jennifer Rothschild, the ECI's director, described the new projects as "diverse in scope, approach, and context."
Many of the ECI projects incorporate the "Seven Strategies for Educating Character," developed by Michael Lamb and others. These strategies offer a framework for deep reflection, habituation through practice, and continual engagement with ideas about what it means to live a good life.
The Lilly Endowment provided a three-year $3.4 million grant in 2019 to fund Wake Forest faculty who wanted to integrate leadership and character into their courses and supported additional student programming, departmental initiatives, scholarly research, and regular conferences. The latest grant will be split into two portions: $10 million for Institutional Impact grants this year and $20 million for ECI grants in 2026.
Wake Forest University has a strong history of support for its character education initiatives, with financial backing from the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Kern Family Foundation. The university awarded $15.6 million in Institutional Impact Grants to 28 projects at 33 colleges and universities.
In conclusion, the Lilly Endowment's investment in Wake Forest's Educating Character Initiative is a significant step forward in the movement to foster integrity, leadership, and character in students nationwide. This funding will enable Wake Forest to continue its leadership role in character education, sharing its model with other institutions and helping to cultivate a new generation of morally and ethically grounded leaders.
Undergraduate students at Wake Forest University, along with other students across various colleges and universities in the United States, will benefit from character education programs, as the university's Educating Character Initiative (ECI) receives a $30.7 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. This funding aims to empower colleges and universities to educate students holistically, integrating character formation into their curricula and campus culture.
