Community colleges across the nation face many challenges in terms of institutional funding. As legislators in the Southeast continue to define metrics for funding mechanisms that define the amount of funding an institution receives legislators have used performance-based funding to channel funds into higher education institutions since 1979. Escalating higher education costs have prompted a reevaluation of the government's role, emphasizing a customer-driven approach that emerged in the 1990s. Factors that influence the amount of funding institutions of higher education receive now focus on metrics outside of the traditional FTE (full-time equivalency) rate. This quantitative study used Pfeffer and Salanik's resource dependence theory to examine the relationship between state funding mechanisms and student success metrics. The theory on resource dependence served as the theoretical framework for this study, which compared levels of institutional funding using five years of outcomes-based funding data at Southeast community colleges. By examining data from the Southeast community colleges, the researcher sought to determine whether there is a relationship between institutional funding and graduation and retention rates. The findings of this study pinpoint a significant connection: state funding details employ a relationship with graduation and retention rates across the community colleges under review. Such results display implications for practitioners, policymakers, and institutional leaders. They emphasize the pressing need for a paradigm shift towards data-driven funding strategies. Such strategies, tailored with a student-centric focus, hold the potential to increase academic outcomes and foster holistic student development within community colleges. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]