Contact: Crystal Drake, Office of Strategic Communications
Tuskegee will use the $1 million gift in permanent endowment capital to advance its long-standing track record of training educators and healthcare professionals
Established as The Dimon Fund to Advance Economic Opportunity within UNCF's $1.5B capital campaign, the gift will provide permanent endowment capital to 12 selected UNCF member schools as part of their $5 million institutional match within UNCF’s pooled endowment fund with a focus on expanding opportunities for and increasing economic mobility of the next generations of educators and healthcare professionals.
“Our country’s future and strength depend on our young people. Our system of HBCUs continue to serve as the springboard to success for thousands of students in pursuit of the American Dream. As the children of first-generation high school and college graduates, we were imbued with a thirst for knowledge and a drive to succeed – principles that we have passed on to our own children and that we wish to share with all the students at the selected HBCUs. We are honored to help UNCF strengthen the long-term financial viability of these critical schools of higher learning," said James and Judith Dimon.
“At UNCF, we have long believed the strongest way to expand opportunity is to strengthen the institutions making opportunity possible. Endowments create permanence. Permanence creates independence. Independence creates the freedom to innovate, to lead, and to serve generations of students. James and Judith Dimon have embraced that vision, and their investment will strengthen the future of HBCUs in the years to come,” said UNCF President and CEO Dr. Michael Lomax.
UNCF shared that the 12 member institutions each receiving $1 million, including Tuskegee, were selected because of the strength of their leadership and governance and for their proven record of preparing educators, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. The gift advances a central priority of UNCF's $1.5 billion capital campaign: strengthening the long-term financial sustainability of its member institutions by building permanent endowment capital.
“We are deeply grateful for the vision and generosity of James and Judith Dimon, and for the unfailing support of the UNCF and its transformational pooled endowment strategy,” said Dr. Mark A. Brown, Tuskegee University President and CEO.
HBCU endowments are significantly smaller than those of predominately white institutions (PWIs), trailing PWI endowments by at least 70%. Tuskegee’s current endowment is nearly $180 million.
Despite those realities, Tuskegee has for decades been a top producer of Black engineers, aviators, agricultural scientists, educators and nurses in the country – in fact, in 1892, Tuskegee established the first nursing school in the state of Alabama and was later the first to confer a Bachelor of Nursing in the state.
“Equipping students to own their futures with training for careers that communities around the world demand is not new to Tuskegee,” said Dr. Brown. “We remain committed to preparing leaders and accelerating their upward economic mobility trajectory through the power of a Tuskegee University education.”
By growing endowments, the investment will help strengthen institutional balance sheets, expand capacity for long-range planning, and secure research, academic and infrastructural capital. Recent graduation outcomes point to the value of investing in Tuskegee.
When the Class of 2026 graduated in May, 70 percent of those students were already employed in the career fields of their choice, accepted into graduate school or soon to deploy as commissioned military officers to serve the nation – including 68 newly licensed nurses and other allied health graduates.
“Our commitment to excellence is reflected in the performance of our nursing graduates, 100 percent of whom have passed their licensure examinations over the last two years, continuing Tuskegee’s proud tradition of preparing healthcare professionals who meet the highest standards of competence, compassion and service,” said Dr. Brown.
Tuskegee’s student success model includes requirements that students complete internships, external research and study abroad work long before graduation, shortening the distance between classroom and career launch, and increasing their competitive edge in the global economy that awaits them.
This summer, Tuskegee further closed that gap through a new apprenticeship partnership with the Tuskegee University Department of Nursing and Baptist Health Systems hospitals in Alabama. In the first-of-its-kind apprenticeship, certified by the U.S. Department of Labor, Tuskegee nursing students earned academic credit for clinical education, gained one-on-one real-world training from skilled registered nurses, while being compensated as employees of the hospital system.
“This catalytic gift will further empower us to provide world-class education, access to real-world training opportunities and advanced technology for the next generation of game-changers, fully prepared to enter the workplace and ready to shape how we heal, how we learn and how we improve the human condition around the world,” said Dr. Brown. “Our Renaissance Era is creating talent pipelines to build workforce‑aligned pathways —faster and better – into fields that continue to suffer from a deficit in highly-qualified professionals ready to do the work.”
© 2026 Tuskegee University
