The Foundation for California Community Colleges, which develops programs and services for the state’s two-year schools, will help to coordinate fundraising efforts.
Some community colleges had started to focus attention on fundraising even before the endowment campaign began.
The matching funds from the Osher foundation will boost their efforts, says Stephani Scott, executive director of the San Mateo County Community Colleges Foundation. This year, the San Mateo organization, which serves three schools, grew its staff from one to three people and hopes to double the $500,000 a year it usually raises.
This fall, San Mateo will start an alumni program, which will include newsletters and social events.
The lack of alumni networks have been among the biggest challenges to fundraising. Alumni participation in fundraising at two-year schools is at 1.5 percent, whereas 23.3 percent of alumni chip in at four-year baccalaureate colleges, according to the Council for Aid to Education, which conducts annual surveys on private giving.
Scott says community college alumni may be more willing to give now, if encouraged. Businesses are looking to graduates to fill their work force, she says, and universities are accepting more transfers.
More alumni “are speaking about their experiences with pride,” Scott says. “We have the opportunity to leverage that and to get them together.”
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