Announcing the launch of Good Jobs Western North Carolina, workforce tools to support state leaders, and new private and philanthropic investments
SAN DIEGO, April 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today at the ASU+GSV Summit, national nonprofit America Achieves announced progress on its Good Jobs Economy initiative, which launched last summer with National Governors Association (NGA) Chair and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and NGA Vice-Chair and Maryland Governor Wes Moore. New progress includes:
- The launch of Good Jobs Western North Carolina (WNC), a locally led, regionally coordinated, and nationally supported initiative and fund, and a strong new letter of support from North Carolina Governor Josh Stein.
- New recommendations for philanthropy to shape the success of the Workforce Pell initiative enacted by Congress.
- Nearly $3 million in new philanthropic and private sector funding, including a $2.5 million+ commitment to the Good Jobs initiative in Western North Carolina, commitment from the Best Buy Foundation for the Good Jobs Economy initiative along with active involvement of Best Buy executives, and other grants from philanthropy.
America Achieves CEO Jon Schnur announced these during a main stage ASU+GSV Summit panel on “A New American Talent System for an AI-Disrupted World,” moderated by Schnur, featuring Professor Joseph Fuller, Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School; Alison Griffin, Principal at FutureRise; and MC Belk Pilon, President and Board Chair of the John M. Belk Endowment.
This progress advances America Achieves’ commitments to help states build Good Jobs initiatives and funds—which will back and scale effective good jobs programs—and modernize talent systems. Together, these commitments are advancing practical, outcomes-focused strategies that connect more people to good jobs.
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein said, “Good Jobs WNC will help create an economy that better connects people to opportunity, strengthens our communities, and ensures our employers find the talent they need to grow…in high-demand sectors like health care, manufacturing, and the skilled trades.”
Governor Stein also invited national funders to join an in-person summit of North Carolina funders and partners later this year, saying, “If you want to be a part of something special, led by bipartisan local leaders, focused on building durable pathways to economic mobility, strengthening rural communities, and helping a dynamic region recover by connecting people to good jobs, you should take a close look at what is happening in Western North Carolina.”
America Achieves CEO Jon Schnur said, “More leaders across the U.S., including in North Carolina, are confronting the systemic disconnect between two unmet needs at large scale: employers looking for talent in high-growth sectors while workers and students seeking good jobs and sustainable opportunities in a rapidly changing economy to translate hard work into self-sufficiency. But this can only happen where governors, employers, place-based regional initiatives, and philanthropy act decisively and together.”
Good Jobs Western North Carolina Fund Launch
Good Jobs WNC is a locally led, regionally coordinated, and nationally connected effort that brings together all 11 community colleges across 23 counties, employers, leading foundations, and regional partners around two shared goals:
- Connect 1200 residents to good jobs over the next three years in high-demand sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing, and the skilled trades.
- Build a stronger, sustainable, and more coordinated good jobs talent system that will connect far larger numbers of residents to good jobs over the next decade.
“At the Belk Endowment, we’ve learned over more than a decade that progress moves at the speed of trust. Good Jobs WNC started with showing up in communities across Western North Carolina, listening to community college presidents, employers, and local leaders, and asking what it would take to build something lasting. What’s emerged is a coordinated effort and locally driven coalition that responds to urgent needs after Helene while laying the foundation for a workforce system this region can count on for decades to come,” said MC Belk Pilon, President and Board Chair of the John M. Belk Endowment, a leading funder and Good Jobs WNC steering committee member.
Good Jobs WNC has secured $2.5 million and is on track to secure $6 million in in-state funding for this initiative—and is looking to secure an additional $6 million in national funding. Governor Stein is proposing $600,000 for this initiative to the North Carolina legislature. Those resources will help capitalize the Good Jobs Program Fund, expand proven training pathways, and build the long-term regional infrastructure required to turn recovery into lasting economic mobility.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which caused nearly $60 billion in economic damage and exposed the fragility of the region’s economy, the region faces both urgent recovery needs and a rare opportunity to build a stronger, more coordinated system to help residents access good jobs and employers access skilled talent.
New Workforce Pell Tools to Support State Implementation
Governors and states are making critical decisions in the coming months about the new Workforce Pell program enacted by Congress last year. Today, America Achieves released recommendations for how philanthropy can help maximize prospects of this new federal initiative.
Philanthropic organizations can play a pivotal role in the success of Workforce Pell, helping support states that commit to effective, outcomes-driven implementation—especially if philanthropy moves quickly and effectively.
This new brief for philanthropy adds to a library of several Workforce Pell resources published last month, including recommendations that America Achieves and NGA developed for governors, as well as a blog post from America Achieves that summarizes recommendations to governors and philanthropy. America Achieves and NGA will be publishing additional Workforce Pell materials throughout the spring and summer of 2026 to share current, actionable information.
These materials build on work with Governor Wes Moore’s administration in Maryland, where America Achieves partnered with state workforce and postsecondary leaders to provide technical assistance in utilizing the governor’s authority for implementation.
Today’s brief recommends that philanthropy take urgent steps to incentivize and support states to make Workforce Pell a success. These include:
- Investing in states that set a higher bar than the federal floor, and providing clear targets for high standards that lead to good, living wage jobs;
- Funding the career pathway architecture that turns a Workforce Pell credential program into a career;
- Creating Good Jobs Funds to seed new programs and update current programs to meet high-quality standards;
- Supporting rigorous research, like randomized control trials, to determine the impact of Workforce Pell policies;
- Funding data infrastructure improvements to comprehensively track the outcomes of program participants and understand real-time labor market demand;
- Putting more dollars into pay-for-performance models, incentivizing programs that get the best results to expand.
Taken together, these strategies can help ensure Workforce Pell generates stronger standards, better outcomes, and more durable pathways to good jobs—and reduce the risk that Workforce Pell fails to accomplish these goals. This work creates an opportunity to test how philanthropic dollars can complement public funding more directly—helping expand access to the highest-quality programs, address barriers that public dollars do not fully cover, and generate practical models that states can refine and scale.
The overall package of tools for governors shared by America Achieves and NGA is designed to be action-oriented and help governors:
- Set clear quality standards for Workforce Pell eligibility;
- Leverage data and performance tracking developed for Workforce Pell to improve quality standards across existing education and workforce funding;
- Track outcomes tied to job placement and wage gains;
- Reduce the risk that new funding flows to low-quality programs
Those materials are intended to help governors move quickly—while keeping standards high and accountability clear.
“Workforce Pell will only be as effective as states are strategic in their implementation of the program,” said Jen Mishory, Senior Advisor at America Achieves. “These tools are designed to help governors use their authority to align funding with real labor-market demand and program outcomes.”
“Philanthropy can play a pivotal role in shaping the success of Workforce Pell state-by-state, and in some cases, it already is,” said America Achieves CEO Jon Schnur. “To do so, philanthropy will need to act quickly, effectively, and collaboratively.”
Private-Sector Leadership in the Good Jobs Economy
The Good Jobs Economy is built on the premise that stronger pathways to good jobs require sustained partnership across governors’ offices, employers, education and training providers, philanthropy, and regional leaders. At ASU+GSV, America Achieves announced a new national partner whose support will help advance this critical work.
The Best Buy Foundation joins the initiative as a national employer partner, contributing grant funding and executive leadership support to help grow Good Jobs Funds. Their commitment showcases the importance of employer leadership in shaping industry-aligned training pathways that lead to career advancement. Through their support, we will also advance efforts that connect young people and adults to training and career opportunities aligned with real labor market demand, including in emerging regional strategies.
“As part of our mission, the Best Buy Foundation is focused on building strong talent pipelines and empowering young people across the country with the skills they need to discover their potential and step into career paths that lead to economic opportunity,” said Olivia Jefferson, Executive Director of the Best Buy Foundation and Vice President of Social Impact at Best Buy. “We’ve seen firsthand how powerful it is when young people are given the skills, support and confidence to follow a clear path to success and we’re proud to collaborate with so many great organizations through this initiative to build a workforce ready to lead the future.”
“When we launched the Good Jobs Economy, we made a commitment to help governors build more demand-driven talent systems and to create practical pathways that connect people to good jobs,” said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. “We are proud to demonstrate early progress on both and to welcome the Best Buy Foundation as an important partner helping us and governors across the county achieve lasting impact.”
This investment highlights the catalytic role of private and philanthropic capital in advancing the Good Jobs Economy. By providing flexible, early-stage funding, partners like the Best Buy Foundation help states and regions move quickly to build and scale high-quality, employer-aligned programs and generate proof points for what works.
Together, this approach ensures that new funding streams, including Workforce Pell, are directed toward programs that deliver real results for workers and employers alike.
ABOUT AMERICA ACHIEVES
America Achieves is a national nonprofit organization working with states, regions, and local partners to ensure more people have clear pathways to good jobs, regardless of who they are, where they live, or whether they have a college degree. Founded in 2011 as an action tank, America Achieves operates at the intersection of policy design, systems building, and on-the-ground implementation. Through its Good Jobs Economy initiative—in collaboration with the Chair’s Initiative of the National Governors Association—and partnerships with states, regional intermediaries, and education and workforce leaders, America Achieves helps design, launch, and scale initiatives that align workforce, education, and economic development strategies to deliver measurable regional outcomes.
Over the past decade, America Achieves has helped design more than $2 billion in bipartisan economic and workforce programs, including the Good Jobs Challenge, Build Back Better Regional Challenge, and Regional Tech Hubs. In addition, America Achieves has worked with dozens of communities to develop plans and applications that have resulted in approximately $250 million in funding for local partners. The perspectives shared below reflect sustained engagement with regions as they translate federal investments into durable economic opportunity.
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