The NACW pursued many goals: education, anti-lynching, elderly care, job preparedness, fighting Jim Crow legislation, and suffrage. Their ideals were best summed up in their motto “Lifting as We Climb”, which represented their holistic approach to aid. They would bring everyone to a higher standard of living along with themselves. As a non-suffrage specific institution, the NACW endorsed women’s suffrage before its white counterpart organizations, in 1912.