This study explored the drivers for Long Beach City College alumni, a 2-year California community college (CCC), to engage with and donate to their alma mater. Due to the widespread decline in enrollment post-COVID-19 pandemic, institutions face increasing financial insecurity. They must now explore new funding streams. By modeling the success of…

Due to ongoing financial cuts and budget restraints, community colleges have turned to alumni association fundraising to support their mission and advance their institution. Fundraising for any organization is challenging, but community college alumni institutions have a more difficult time than their university counterparts in recruiting alumni…

All higher education institutions have concerns about their fiscal health, and many have engaged in fundraising practices to augment and supplement other sources of revenue. Community colleges have been slower than their 4-year counterparts to engage in fundraising. Despite enrolling almost half of all students in postsecondary education, they…

Due to shifting funding polices for community colleges, the role of the community college foundation has changed greatly from passive fund managers for the institution into active fundraisers. With over 15,000 individuals nationally serving in the volunteer role of community college foundation board member, and managing nearly one billion dollars…

Community colleges educate nearly 50% of students who complete a degree at a four-year university. Yet, California community college funding remains lower than per student funding for the UC, CSU, and K-12 systems. Community college non-profit 501(c)3 foundations provide the opportunity to generate millions in support of their colleges, and yet…

Although endowments at two-year colleges cannot compare to similar funding at a typical powerhouse university, community college endowments have grown an average of 76 percent over the past 20 years, according to the Center for Community College Advancement at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Foundation creation among…

The community college sector of higher education has, over the past 20 years, become highly engaged in fundraising. Typically relying on business and industry sponsorships, institutional leaders have begun to shift their development strategies to focus increasingly on individuals who have the capacity and disposition to support the work of their…

Community college leadership, including governing and foundation board members, must have an ethical framework while using philanthropic fundraising to increase revenues available for community colleges to realize their heroic mission.

This grounded narrative inquiry study analyzes the self-selection transitional career motivations by California Community College chief fundraising executives when considering the pursuit of a California Community College presidency. A theoretical research framework is an approach that integrates narrative inquiry in the development of the…

In response to research pointing to a growing executive leadership crisis in community colleges (CCs), with too few strong candidates entering the leadership pipeline for the presidency, I focused this study on individuals already in that pipeline. My goal was to develop an understanding of their perceptions of their own roles in the pipeline and…

For college leaders, especially presidents and advancement officers, fundraising has become an integral part of the leadership experience. Fundraising is a skill that is expected for top-level college leaders. For public community colleges, keeping tuition costs low necessitates a change in the basic funding model to include a more significant…

The purpose for conducting the study was to explore and describe the use of alumni societies and associations in community colleges, particularly focusing on the intended outcome of their implementation. To collect data for the study, the research-team developed a survey instrument that was distributed electronically to 250 community college…

Facing challenges and changes in the twenty-first century, universities are giving increased emphasis to institutional advancement, encompassing constituent engagement, communications and marketing, and fundraising. This book highlights the implications of change and best practices and innovations in advancement. It addresses such questions as:…

This researcher explored the relationship between fundraising results and graduation rates at the 50 Texas community college districts. Decreases of state funding to community colleges during the past several years has created not only problems meeting budget expenditures, but also encouraged the development of new ways of raising revenue to…

In 2015 while higher educational institutions received $40 billion in gifts, community colleges only received about 1.5 percent of that amount--despite the fact that they account for about half of students at any one time, according to an estimate provided by the Council for Aid to Education, which maintains data on educational giving. The reason…