The money comes from a combination of places, including the Reinvestment Fund and the state of Ohio, said Wilberforce president Vann R. Newkirk. The Reinvestment Fund provided about $40,000 in grants meant for student investments, such as scholarships, and gave the university a $500,000 construction loan.
Newkirk said he thought like most HBCU leaders, such support is long overdue.
“For that reason, we are thankful,” he said.
The Reinvestment Fund announced an initiative earlier this year called the Brilliance Initiative. The goal is to support the financial health of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to fortify their futures.
Christina Alexis, head of the HBCU Brilliance Initiative program, said HBCUs are historically underfunded by states and faced barriers to borrowing money and building endowments.
“This newest expansion of the program will go beyond financial support by providing Wilberforce University and the 10 other institutions in the cohort with a predevelopment grant, unmatched technical assistance programs, and convenings aimed at empowering HBCUs with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement advanced best practices and execute sophisticated financial strategies for institutional excellence and long-term sustainability,” Alexis said.
Further, Newkirk said, a portion of billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s $70 million gift to the United Negro College Fund is earmarked for Wilberforce. However, this sum will be held by the UNCF to help grow the endowment of each member institution to $10 million.
UNCF has 37 members, all private HBCUs.
The small university has faced turbulent financial times recently. The Higher Learning Commission, which accredits Wilberforce and many other Ohio universities, put the university on the watch list in December 2023, in part due to financial distress, among other factors. The HLC removed the university’s “on watch” in November 2024.
In 2018, the HLC again told Wilberforce that they were at risk of failing to meet accreditation standards. The university ran a deficit of more than $19 million in fiscal year 2017 and has audited net assets of around $9.4 million, according to a letter from the HLC to the Wilberforce president at the time.
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