Grantee Spotlight: Elevate Vets

ECMC Foundation first chose to invest in the Elevate Vets program to support their launch in 2021. This free professional development resource was created by the nonprofit organization Veterans Education Success. The program exists to provide technical assistance to colleges to navigate the US Department of Veterans Affairs and administer the GI Bill to a growing student veteran population.

The Foundation provided funding to support the goal of equipping college administrators at over 500 colleges and universities with the information they need to navigate the VA bureaucracy in order to enroll military connected students, support veterans on campus and aid in their persistence and completion, and help practitioners to create a community dedicated to best serving their veteran student populations.

This is an incredible example of the Foundation’s mission to support underserved communities and eliminate gaps in postsecondary education. Since the launch of the program, Elevate Vets has expanded the capacity of more than 490 institutions to support veteran students. They have also launched a website with comprehensive “how-to” guides, maintained an active listserv and social media presence to share critical information with the veteran community, and conducted webinars that reached over 730 professionals. The organization has also led working groups that identified policy education needs for professionals who support veterans and new ways of tracking veterans’ graduation rates.

To learn more about Elevate Vets as well as Veterans Education Success, check out their website.