Donors have a new view of community colleges
By CC Times, Published July 30, 2009

The recent national spotlight on community colleges is increasingly helping two-year colleges with their fund-raising efforts, especially in generating major gifts.

Take HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College (which is how the college prefers to be called). Its foundation has garnered $3.5 million in gifts recently.

"Community colleges no longer are the stepchild in the educational family," said Frank Dixon, long-time HACC benefactor, community philanthropist and recipient of the college’s honorary doctorate of public service.

Dixon’s most recent donation was for $1 million. The college also recently received a $1.5 million donation from Alex Grass, a retired Rite Aid CEO and philanthropist, and $1 million from the Donald and Dorothy Stabler Foundation.

The big-number donations indicate "that society has changed its thinking about the position that community colleges have in the education field," Dixon said.

HACC President Edna Baehre said the gifts to HACC represent the "vision" and "forward-thinking" of benefactors.

"These gifts to the HACC Foundation, coupled with the many other supporting donors, have made the HACC Foundation one of the largest community college foundations in the nation," she said. "Our donors value HACC’s mission to help students from all walks of life realize their dreams for a better life through education and the community college’s educational partnership with business and industry in Central Pennsylvania."

The HACC Foundation has a portfolio of more than $24.3 million. Each year, the foundation contributes more than $1.5 million to the college in scholarships, programs, facilities and special initiative grants for faculty and staff support.

The partnerships that HACC and other community colleges form with business and industry are critical, said Bob LePage, a consultant with The Clements Group, a Utah-based resource development and institutional advancement consulting firm that specializes in education.

"When you look at these particular gifts, they almost always involve an investment into the region’s workforce. The quality of the workforce is one of the top three concerns of business and industry, which are faced with an aging workforce and the need for retraining," Lepage said.

Increased giving to community colleges is definitely a trend, said Polly Binns, executive director of the Council for Resource Development, an affiliated council of the American Association of Community Colleges.

"Because community colleges are doing what they say they’re going to do, philanthropists are looking closer to home," Binns said. "Donors see that their gifts (to community colleges) have a direct impact on the quality of life in the region. Because 80 percent of alumni live within a 25-mile radius of the campus where they graduated, donors see a direct impact of their gifts."

Affordability, accessibility and responsiveness to community needs are often cited as reasons for favorable impressions regarding community colleges, according to data from The Clements Group.

Even in the down economy, several community colleges are faring well in soliciting donations.

• In May, Bucks County Community College (Pennsylvania) received an $8,500 donation from a local husband-and-wife business to fund a scholarship.

• In New York, Onondaga Community College received a $1 million gift for its capital campaign.

• Pensacola Junior College (Florida) received $1 million to expand its auditorium from a local businesswoman who was a long-time supporter of the college.

Central Florida Community College (CFCC) has had an especially successful summer garnering donations. A local couple recently donated their home to the college’s foundation, which sold the mortgage-free home and used the proceeds to create a charitable gift annuity. The husband and wife will receive an income for life from the annuity and ultimately the foundation will receive the remainder. And last month, CFCC received a $2.5 million donation from a local educator to help build a new campus.

In New York, Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) started its first major gifts campaign last year.

"May 2008 was not the best time to be going out," given the economic slump, noted HVCC President Andrew Matonak. But one year later the college was at 70 percent of its goal of $10 million.

Nearly all the donations to HVCC’s campaign have come from local businesses, such as hospitals, which provide the funds to help train the workers they need, Matonak said.

The college has secured good ties with potential individual donors, he noted. One person was prepared to give a substantial gift to the college—but then his investment portfolio took a huge hit when the economy turned sour, so it didn’t come through. But he asked Matonak to hold and wait until the economy and his business turned around.

Matonak said he’s satisfied with that, noting it’s a good time to establish the groundwork with potential donors to make it easier to secure funds later.

"Right now, it’s not about raising money. It’s about raising friends," Matonak said.