Community College Journal - February/March 2010

new resources and creativity to meet students’ needs.

The money is out there, experts say. You just have to know where to look. “This is something we have to figure out,” says Kathleen Guy, vice president for institutional advancement and executive director of the foundation at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) in Traverse City. “How do we operate and continue to be that economic asset for our communities in this ‘new normal’?”

Tighter Belts

For years, one way to find money was simple: Ask for it. Easier said than done in a down economy. The Council for Aid to Education recently published its Voluntary Support of Education survey, which tallied a modest 6. 2 percent increase in giving during FY 2008

but predicted a decline as numbers become available for 2009. Likewise, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education predicted a 1. 7 percent dip in giving for calendar year 2009, a result of tighter budgets.

Many community colleges do not have the same robust development offices that four-year colleges maintain. But some are beginning to recognize the need. Guy’s NMC has been a leader in this field for nearly 30 years, having had a foundation and actively raised funds, and brought in more than $42 million in donations in that time.

With an anticipated budget cut between 10 percent and 20 percent in 2011, and with enrollments having grown by more than 18 percent this spring, as compared to spring 2009, NMC continues to use the Power of 10, a fundraising campaign launched in

2009 that focuses on smaller gifts from a larger number of donors. Rather than focusing on wealthy alumni, the program casts a wider net, asking former students and donors of all income levels to give $10 or more in support of the college.

“I think the economy just calls on us as fundraising organizations to be more entrepreneurial, to be more creative,” says Guy of the initiative. Even small donations, when multiplied by tens and hundreds of willing alumni, can make a big difference to a college.

That’s certainly been the case at NMC. In its first year in 2009, the Power of 10 program boosted alumni participation by a staggering 530 percent and is on pace to match that figure in 2010.