A North Carolina nonprofit institute
The Bigger Table Capacity Institute builds institutional infrastructure from within. We deliver structured training, technical assistance, and compliance frameworks shaped around what your institution actually requires, so your leadership team commands its own operational destiny.
Building capacity.Expanding access.Making the table bigger. Spun out of A Bigger Table Advisory Services, LLC
The challenge
Many community organizations, small businesses, and institutions hold deep local expertise and still lack the specialized infrastructure to scale it. When federal grants, complex technology, or strict compliance standards enter the picture, they turn to expensive external vendors, and the institution is left fragile once the contract expires.
That fragility is sharpest at small-enrollment institutions and in rural economies, where a thin administrative bench and a widening digital divide compound each other.
Specialized work is bought from outside at premium rates, and the knowledge leaves with the vendor at closeout.
Small colleges lack the depth of major universities, leaving them exposed to technical shifts, enrollment swings, and compliance burdens.
Federal procurement rules, tracking protocols, and deployment timelines carry real consequences for institutions with no one assigned to them.
Limited access to institutional infrastructure stalls economic mobility and local wealth building across whole regions.
What we build
The Institute designs and delivers the internal machinery an institution needs to run its own operations. Responsible, equitable technology sits under all four, so that infrastructure upgrades close equity gaps rather than widen them.
Pillar
Operational workflows, risk management frameworks, and governance compliance models that give an institution a defensible structure to work inside.
Pillar
Advanced educational programs, technical design templates, and administrative toolkits built for executive leadership rather than for a consultant's use.
Pillar
The capability to navigate complex federal procurement, tracking protocols, and strict deployment timelines, held by staff who stay.
Pillar
Responsible, data-private artificial intelligence and technical tools tailored to the constraints and missions of small and rural institutions.
Rented capability to institutional sovereignty
Key impact areas
Two areas concentrate the Institute's work, chosen because the same institutions serve both student opportunity and regional economic mobility.
Area one
Rural community colleges and regional universities offer vital pathways to opportunity and frequently lack the data infrastructure to support their students proactively.
Area two
Educational institutions are the anchor enterprises of rural economies. Strengthening the institution stimulates the regional ecosystem around it.
Flagship initiative
A 24-month pilot that applies all four pillars in the places where the college is the only anchor for miles. Rural HBCU towns are not short of need, and they are not short of lender appetite. They are short of projects a lender can underwrite, because no local sponsor holds the balance sheet, the development experience, the compliance infrastructure, or the assembled coalition to bring one to a credit committee. Projects die before an application. Building the sponsor is the work.
Deep South core, five sites National replication arc, five sites
Tier one
| Anchor institution | Town, county | Conditions and capital demand |
|---|---|---|
| Mississippi Valley State University | Itta Bena, Leflore County, MS | Persistent-poverty county with demand for community health facilities, climate resilience, and broadband. |
| Alcorn State University | Lorman, Claiborne County, MS | Deep rural poverty with agricultural and climate-resilience assets. Land-grant capacity supports food-system and community-facilities lending alongside small-business development. |
| Rust College | Holly Springs, MS | Community health and workforce demand in a small municipal ecosystem, with entrepreneurship activity that fits small-business and healthy-food financing. |
| Grambling State University | Grambling, LA | Downtown revitalization and entrepreneurship-center demand. Commercial real estate and small-business need consistent with NMTC and community facilities structures. |
| Tuskegee University | Tuskegee, AL | Aging municipal infrastructure and health-equity need alongside a nationally significant institutional asset base. Housing, healthcare, and climate-smart agriculture all indicated. |
Tier two
| Anchor institution | Town, state | Community conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Voorhees University | Denmark, South Carolina | Chronically underinvested rural region with broadband and community-facilities demand. |
| Fort Valley State University | Fort Valley, Georgia | Rural hub with broadband, workforce, and entrepreneurship capacity, and innovation-district readiness. |
| Langston University | Langston, Oklahoma | Small-town ecosystem with rural innovation, digital equity, and STEM and AI pipeline potential. |
| Jarvis Christian University | Hawkins, Texas | Technical workforce pathways, particularly cybersecurity and fiber optics. |
| Wilberforce University | Wilberforce, Ohio | Innovation-hub and digital-equity alignment, positioned as a community anchor. |
Method
Four moves, applied in the same order at every site, while the agenda itself is set locally.
One
A standing body at each site: the anchor institution, municipal and county government, the health system, the largest private employers, and the faith community, holding decision rights over the local agenda.
Two
A civic asset map covering land, facilities, fiber and spectrum, academic programs, workforce pipelines, balance-sheet position, and federal award history. Assembling it in one place surfaces collateral and eligibility assumed absent.
Three
A sequenced capital stack in place of an opportunistic list of grants: which federal source unlocks the next, where philanthropic dollars serve as match, and where debt is the right instrument. Sequencing is where rural applicants most often lose.
Four
Installed systems and trained local staff at every site: grant and compliance tooling, reporting infrastructure, and a documented operating cadence that carries the sponsor through a second and third transaction.
Sequence
Months 1 to 4
Civic asset mapping at each core site, candidate project identification, and sponsor capacity assessed against the standards a lender applies at underwriting.
Months 5 to 12
Convene the town and college table, develop local sponsors to underwriting readiness, and establish fiscal and governance pathways where municipalities have no development infrastructure.
Months 13 to 20
Pair lender products with federal sources so philanthropic and public dollars serve as match, support the first transactions to close, and hand the operating systems to campus and municipal staff.
Months 21 to 24
Measure against baseline and publish a rural companion to the HBCU and CDFI Economic Mobility Strategy Guide, so the method transfers to the remaining rural HBCU towns.
The Institute does not lend or originate. Targets for closed transactions and dollars deployed are set with the lending partner, against a baseline captured before the work begins.
Governance
The Institute shares a heritage with A Bigger Table Advisory Services, LLC. Its bylaws mandate an independent voting majority.
The Bigger Table Capacity Institute, Inc. is a newly incorporated North Carolina nonprofit enterprise, established to operationalize sustainable growth, technical readiness, and strategic agency for mission-driven institutions. It is moving now toward federal 501(c)(3) recognition under an institutional governance model built on transparency and rigorous oversight.
All transactions, shared resources, and structural partnerships between the two organizations are reviewed and approved strictly by disinterested board members, which prevents private inurement and keeps the commitment to public benefit uncompromised.
Entity
North Carolina nonprofit corporation, federal 501(c)(3) application in progress
Board composition
Five members: the Founder plus four entirely independent, unrelated professional leaders
Heritage
Spun out of A Bigger Table Advisory Services, LLC, with an independent voting majority required by bylaw
Who we serve
HBCUs, Minority-Serving Institutions, small-enrollment colleges, community organizations, and rural economies
Leadership
Five members steer the organization through federal 501(c)(3) recognition and the scaling of its community footprint: the Founder alongside four entirely independent, unrelated professional leaders. Members serve a staggered two-year term and meet quarterly.
Expertise on the board
Key responsibilities
Review and approve the Institute's operational budgets, audit controls, and compliance procedures.
Provide governance validation for the Institute's federal 501(c)(3) application.
Act as a critical sounding board for long-term growth, technology positioning, and programmatic scaling.
Contact and inquiries
We work with college presidents and cabinets, community organizations, CDFIs, foundations, and municipal leadership. A first conversation tests the fit against your current priorities, with no commitment of resources on either side.
Scott McGregor
Founder and Executive Director