The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation announced the first milestones of its $50 million, 10-year scholarship initiative, reporting that more than $4.2 million has been dispersed to approximately 600 students at Atlanta’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Launched in October 2025, the program provides targeted gap funding to students in their junior and senior years. The funding is designed to cover outstanding financial balances that might otherwise prevent students from graduating.
The foundation said that the initiative is specifically for students in the final semesters of their degree programs, because that’s when financial gaps are often the most acute and are usually when “alternative resources have been exhausted.”
To date, the foundation has distributed $1.45 million to 290 students at Clark Atlanta University, $1.24 million to 115 students at Morehouse College and $1.65 million to 189 students at Spelman College.
Among the first group of recipients is Kayla Drummond, a first-generation student at Clark Atlanta University.
Drummond, who is set to graduate this year, used the scholarship to clear a remaining balance that threatened her degree completion.
“From my first time stepping on Clark Atlanta’s campus I felt a sense of family and this is where I belong. This diploma isn’t just for me, it’s for my family, it’s for my friends, the love, the prayers, the support,” said Drummond.
The foundation projects that the initiative will support thousands of students over the next decade, with the aim of encouraging “broader investment in student success at HBCUs and other institutions nationwide.”
“We’ve seen what’s possible when students get the support they need to cross the finish line,” said Margaret Connelly, managing director, Founder Initiatives, Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. “That’s what drives this work, and why we hope this initiative encourages others to invest in closing these gaps and helping more students achieve the futures they’ve worked so hard to reach.”
