The ECI’s Michael Prinzing reanalyzes data supporting claims about the declining use of the language of virtue and character and sees a different trend – that the cultural salience of moral language of this kind is on the rise.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
In 2027, we anticipate awarding Institutional Impact Grants ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000 and Capacity-Building Grants of up to $50,000 to institutions. Successful grantees will be teams of faculty, staff, and administrators at U.S. colleges and universities with outstanding proposals for developing the moral, civic, and/or intellectual character and capacity of faculty, staff, and students. These grants provide institutions with the time, resources, and flexibility to determine what works best in their specific context.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
The ECI is excited to launch a new funding opportunity supporting Communities of Impact (CoIs) for character education. These grants will award up to $75,000 to seed and sustain intentional communities organized around a timely concern or aim in character education at U.S. colleges and universities.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
With support from Lilly Endowment Inc., the ECI has awarded $20.5 million in Institutional Impact Grants to 44 projects directly impacting 49 colleges and universities. Each institution will undertake a long-term initiative to advance character education for undergraduates. These three-year grants, up to $1 million each, empower leaders, faculty, and staff to integrate character into undergraduate curricula and programs in alignment with their mission, context, and culture.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
Wake Forest and the ECI have received $8.5 million in a joint grant—$3.5 million from the John Templeton Foundation matched by $5 million from Lilly Endowment Inc.—to organize new communities around specific interests within character education, provide new opportunities for emerging leaders in the field, create and curate resources, advance research on character education, and cultivate a pipeline of both faculty and administrators who can help character become a foundational part of higher education.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
At UNC, a new initiative called Educating for the Virtues of Attention (EVA) intervenes in the “attention economy” for students. Unlike typical digital detoxes, EVA is less about eliminating the distraction than it is centering what’s truly worthy of our attention. The goal is to help students reflect on their habits of attention and build more intentional ones through opportunities for deep in-person engagement across campus.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
The ECI’s Aaron D. Cobb and Emily Hunt-Hinojosa reflect on the influence moral repair has on individuals’ and communities’ ability to build character.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
Thanks to the support of Lilly Endowment Inc., the Educating Character Initiative (ECI) awarded 60 2026 Capacity-Building Grants. These awards will directly impact 68 institutions dedicated to advancing character in higher education.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
The ECI will extend its impact on character education across the country by offering a new round of grants in 2027 for U.S higher education institutions with support from a nearly $44 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. The grant will also enable ECI to award additional grants in 2026.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News, News
The Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School welcomed its inaugural cohort of HBCU Moral Fusion Scholars to campus in May. Their commitment to awaken “a new heart and a new hope through a moral commitment to prioritizing love, truth and justice,” renews hope for the future for this essay’s authors.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News