Mission & Guidelines

The Belk Foundation Mission Statement

The Belk Foundation believes that education is a basis for successful society and that a quality education is the right of all children and youth. Our mission is to invest in schools and organizations that work aggressively to ensure all students graduate from high school and continue on an intentional path toward college, career and life.

In order to accomplish our mission, we invest in schools and organizations that show measurable achievement in the following results:

Increasing the number of children and youth who are at or above grade level in core subjects
Increasing the number of youth who graduate high school in four years
Increasing the number of youth who have an intentional path forward after high school: post-secondary education, training or meaningful employment.

We expect our partners to collect data and measure their effectiveness. We are committed to doing the same.

We are interested in discovering and investing in what works. In the initial years of this grantmaking focus, we are open to a broad range of strategies and programs as long as they can prove measurable gains in the results we seek. We are especially interested in supporting the education of youth to and through college, beginning with kindergarten.

Grant Limitations
Grants from The Belk Foundation are not awarded to:

Individuals;
Private elementary or secondary schools;
International programs and/or organizations;
Organizations for the primary purpose of fundraising. This includes sponsoring events or providing door prizes, gift certificates, merchandise or other giveaways.

Regional Focus
The Belk Foundation awards grants to charitable organizations in communities where Belk associates live and work, with particular emphasis on Charlotte, where Belk, Inc. is based.

The Belk Foundation has reserved a small portion of its grantmaking budget to address exceptional opportunities that may fall outside of its primary mission of Educating Youth. Any such grants will be entirely board-initiated.