Fall 2007
Synopsis of New Book Growing Giving: A Guide to Securing Private Support for Your Community College
“Now is the time for community colleges to take their place at the fundraising table.”
— Brenda Babitz, author of Growing Giving, and President of the Monroe Community College Foundation, Rochester, New York
"While the vast majority of community colleges now have foundations, the impact of most operations and the revenues they generate remain negligible,” states Brenda Babitz, president of the Monroe Community College Foundation in Rochester, New York, and author of the book “Growing Giving”: A Guide to Securing Private Support for Your Community College.
Community colleges raise only about 3.5 percent of the $34 billion raised annually by all colleges and universities in the United States. The pursuit of private funding for community colleges, a “rapidly evolving discipline,” writes Babitz, is only about ten years old, and ripe for innovation.
Growing Giving is a compact yet detailed summary of her recommendations for community college presidents, board chairs, foundation board chairs and directors, and chief advancement officers who want to take their private fundraising to the next level and enhance the bottom line returns of their advancement efforts. Babitz uses examples from private colleges, where the practice is more established, while explaining recent changes in the “highly competitive” fields of fundraising and philanthropy that affect community colleges.
Growing Giving is based on Babitz’s 17-year tenure at Monroe Community College, during which the college’s foundation raised more than $39 million, and on her prior experience as a development officer for a private, four-year college. Babitz is a member of the State University of New York’s Chief Advancement Officers Executive Group, and is a member of the Philanthropic Commission of CASE, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
Published by CASE, Growing Giving includes a foreword by Mark David Milliron, President and CEO of Catalyze Learning International, as well as numerous sidebars by Monroe Community College donors, trustees, board chairs, and foundation board chairs and directors.
How can community college leaders convince potential donors that private funding for public institutions is necessary and appropriate? Babitz suggests that we “begin by developing a professional case for support to present to corporations, foundations, and individuals—the people who might still view funding for community-based education and training as the province of state and local governments. This is a critical first step.” Explain to your constituencies how a struggling economy, decreasing state and local budgets, unpredictable federal money, and growing expectations for consistent high-quality programs are now colliding with an increasing need for the services of community colleges due to more immigrants and first-generation college students, more baby-boomer children, and more laid-off workers. Public funding can no longer keep up with the need and the demand.
According to Babitz, community college presidents should “convey regularly what the community and its economy would be like without a community college—in terms of availability of services, economic vitality, and quality of life.” Lori Van Dusen, chair of the MCC board of trustees, and director of the MCC Foundation, writes in her sidebar that “at MCC, we have embarked on an image campaign…Only by educating all our constituencies will we be able to raise funds and serve an even larger role going forward.”
Babitz outlines the growing giving responsibilities of trustees, presidents, CAO’s, and foundation directors and board members. She emphasizes the importance of presidents and CAO’s recruiting and retaining board members who are committed to the college “manifested in both leadership-level generosity and willingness to cultivate prospects for giving.” Foundation staff, too, must “work continuously toward energizing the board.” As Dr. Joseph M. Cahalan, president of the Xerox Foundation and donor to MCC, points out in his sidebar, everyone involved in fundraising must “hire the best, develop them to their maximum potential, and keep them for long periods of time.”
Babitz addresses the particular needs and expectations of current and potential donors including members of the community, business owners, alumni, current students, and parents. She emphasizes the importance of research and database management: donors appreciate personalized service and recognition, and insist on financial accountability. Offer a wide range of giving options, she suggests, such as IRA’s and charitable annuities; recognize gifts with tailored special events; and explore new technologies for communicating with alumni, including text messaging and podcasts, to supplement telemarketing, direct mail and email letters. She explains how effective stewardship of current donors is just as important for future gifts as approaching potential donors.
Younger donors with new wealth, for example, who are not bound by the traditions of family foundations, are often “short on cash but long on assets,” have a low tolerance for bureaucracy, expect a clear return on their “investment,” and like to be involved in the institutions to which they donate. Colleges must research their younger donors very thoroughly so they may offer appropriate recognition, benefits, and ways for the donors to stay involved, such as volunteering on committees. In their sidebar, the family members administering the Brady Fund, an emergency student-support fund for the nursing program at MCC, write that “as amateur philanthropists, we sought not kudos and encouragement, but rather answers and options.”
Babitz also addresses the decline in corporate giving compared to individual donors; giving societies and giving circles; the largely untapped yet receptive audience of parents of current students and alumni; and the importance of nurturing in new students the lifelong habit of philanthropy. “Advancement teams must correct negative impressions of fundraising,” she writes, “and engage students while they are still at the college.” Even students who do not receive scholarships should be aware that they benefit from donors whose funds have paid for their campus’s programs, facilities, and services.
A timely resource, Babitz’s “Growing Giving”: A Guide to Securing Private Support for Your Community College is available from CASE on their website, http://www.case.org.
Synopsis by Martha Stettinius, ICCD staff
If you are interested in hearing Brenda Babitz and many other top community college fundraising professionals and donors speak in person on the topic of growing giving, ICCD, in collaboration with CASE, is offering the conference
“Growing Giving: Securing Private Support for Your Community College”
November 7-9, 2007
at the Shingle Creek Golf Resort
in Orlando, Florida
Other articles in the Fall 2007 edition of Gravitas:
"Retention and Integration of Community College Students in Distance Learning." Report of research by Tompkins Cortland Community College, Dryden, New York, for ICCD's Applied Research Grant Program
ICCD offers November 2007 conference on Growing Giving: Securing Private Support for Your Community College
From the Director: Securing Private Support While Building Partnerships
