college also is tapping into new revenue
streams via additional fundraising
activities.
“We’ve been doing it for a while,” says
Myers. “With diminished state funding,
more fundraising is needed. We need to
get out there and be thinking about the
future.”
Fundraising Tools for CEOs
To help community college leaders improve fundraising, the nonprofit Council for Resource Development
has developed a new toolkit, “Essential Fundraising
and College Foundation Resources for Presidents.”
“The concept that ‘We should do
more fundraising’ has become more
obvious in the current economic
climate,” says William Craft, founding
partner of Eaton Cummings Group
consultancy in Ipswich, Mass. “
Budgets are being cut back; state and local
funding is much more problematic.
The whole notion of fundraising is no
longer just a concept of something that
would be nice to do from time to time.
It’s become quite important.”
The toolkit features several resources to assist
community college presidents and resource development staff in enhancing their fundraising efforts.
Sample documents available through the toolkit
include advancement strategic plans, foundation
bylaws, foundation board development, legal information (e.g., endowment and operation agreements,
required 990 policies), and sample fundraising/
college foundation policies (e.g., gift acceptance,
investment, and naming).
Find these and other documents at www.crdnet.
org/pubs/2010AACCPresidentsSummerInstitute.cfm.
Source: Council for Resource Development
That’s not necessarily good news for
community colleges, many of which
have for years leaned heavily on state
funding.
“The vast majority of money donated
to higher education goes to four-year
institutions, and not all public schools
there have been completely successful in developing strong advancement
programs,” Craft says. “I think we
missed a promising decade when there
was money out there. Big gifts come
not out of income, but out of assets.
Once that asset pool begins to shrink, it
becomes more difficult to get those big
donations. And now, we’re in a much
less flamboyant decade and we’re going
to have to work that much harder.
It’s going to demand a good deal of
time from the CEO or chancellor. This
isn’t something you can assign to one
individual—you have to develop an
institutional culture.”
“We cut our teeth on fundraising for
scholarships,” she says. “People love
to give to people and feel like they’re
giving back there.” The college also encourages local businesses, alumni, and
faculty and staff to give.
A Culture of Giving
Northwestern Michigan College has
attempted to do just that. Kathleen
Guy, vice president for institutional
advancement, says her office spent
several years bringing potential
benefactors into the fundraising fold.
“What is changing for community
colleges is the realization by presidents that fundraising is no longer an
optional activity,” she says. It’s become
an imperative.
Notable Sources of Community College Revenue
Employee donations are a big part of
that. “We raised $40,000 that way last
year,” says Guy. “That demonstrates the
allegiance of our internal constituents,
and you need that to be able to raise
funds on the external side.”
State Appropriations
30.5%
Local Appropriations
17.9%
Faculty particularly like giving to
the college’s student emergency fund,
which provides books and supplies to
students who can’t afford them. The
key: Identify a mission that potential donors—inside or outside your
institution—can connect with.
Tuition and Fees
16.0%
Non-Operating Grants
11.3%
Grants and Contracts
9.6%
Source: National Center for Education Statistics.
For full report, visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/
pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2010152rev.
“The process begins with identifying
people who already have a connection
to you in some way,” Guy explains.
“You’re not talking to strangers. You’re
reaching out and inviting people to
hear more about a place they already
have some connection to—maybe they
attended a concert or a class, maybe
they have benefitted because they’ve
hired your graduates. You’re looking
