Bang for Your Buck - Roanoke Times: Editorials 12/30/14, 2:33 PM

Our view: More bang for your buck - Roanoke Times: Editorials 12/30/14, 2:33 PM

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Mostly HI: 39° Story Comments Print Font Size: 37° F Cloudy LO: 31° Posted: Sunday, December 28, 2014 2:15 am

When Timothy Sands was installed as the new president at Virginia Tech this fall, he called for the university to double its endowment.

That’s a tall order, one that naturally made headlines.

However, another college chief in Virginia called five years ago for doubling an endowment — and pulled it off, too. And hardly anybody noticed — except all the people who are benefitting from it today.

That would be the Virginia Community College System, led by Chancellor Glenn DuBois.

Yes, Virginia, community colleges have endowments, too — both systemwide and for the 23 individual schools.

$11,988 $23,988 $18,648The public doesn’t normally$21,988 think of community colleges$24,985 $15,989 $22,985 2010 Toyota Corolla 2013 Chevrolet Equinox 2014 Chevroletas having Captiva endowments2013 Chevrolet — or “investment Volt portfolios,”2013 Ford as Edge 2013 Chevrolet Cruze 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe Pinkerton Chevrolet Inc Pinkerton Chevrolet Inc Pinkerton Chevroletthe colleges Inc preferPinkerton to call Chevroletthem, to coverInc somePinkerton Chevrolet Inc Pinkerton Chevrolet Inc Pinkerton Chevrolet Inc technicalities we won’t get into here. That’s partly because for a long time, they weren’t allowed to have them.

The community college system was established in 1966 (you can thank Gov. Mills Godwin for that), but it wasn’t until 1981 that the General Assembly gave the system permission to have the same kind of private foundations for fund-raising that their four-year cousins have. Even then, they took$18,758 awhile to really get going.$20,868 $18,995 $22,488 $15,988 $24,985 $24,858 2011 Chevrolet Equinox 2007 GMC Yukon XL 2010 Chevrolet Camaro 2014 Chevrolet Camaro 2014 Chrysler 200 2013 Ford Edge 2014 Chevrolet Camaro PinkertonBefore youChevrolet can do Inc fund-raising,Pinkerton you Chevrolet have toInc do whatPinkerton the philanthropic Chevrolet Inc communityPinkerton calls Chevrolet “friend-raising” Inc Pinkerton — making Chevrolet the Inc Pinkerton Chevrolet Inc Pinkerton Chevrolet Inc case to potential donors about what their contributions might do. Along the way, community colleges have “progressed from bake sales and car washes to very sophisticated estate planning,” says Kathleen Smith, the retired vice president for institutional advancement at Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville who now works part- time for the overall system’s fund-raising.

Ironically, one of the biggest boosts to community college fund-raising was the recent recession, which saw state funding cut, but also saw more students seeking a cheaper alternative for higher education. (Statewide enrollment is now about 400,000, which includes everyone from full-time students to students taking a single non-credit course for business purposes.)

While the four-year foundations often spend money on things like buildings or programs, the community college foundations tend to spend their money directly on scholarships for students who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend even a two-year school.

That becomes a pretty powerful selling point to some donors. When the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust pledged $5 million to Virginia Western in 2012 — the largest gift ever at that school — all of that money was pegged for Homestead Creamery scholarships, with three-quarters of it set aside for students pursuing degrees and certificates in health care or the so-called “STEM” fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. $10 for $20 worth of Products from Homestead Creamery There are interesting exceptions, of course. Southwest Virginia Community College in Tazewell County has an endowed chair of music. Why? When times are tough, funding for the arts is usually one of the first things that get cut. A donor in Southwest Virginia felt strongly enough that now, that college has a music program no matter what the economic weather.

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The smaller sense of scale at community colleges sometimes helps their pitch to potential donors. “If you give $100,000 to UVa,” Smith says, “it’s a great gift and a generous gift and a wonderful gift, but if you give it to a small community college, it’ll be transformative.” Or, as Jennifer Gentry, the system’s vice chancellor for institutional advancement, puts it, “You do get a bigger bang for the buck.”

Here’s that sense of scale in numbers: Virginia Tech’s endowment is just under $800 million. At Hollins University, it’s just under $181 million. At Roanoke College, it’s $137 million. The “wealthiest” community college foundation in Virginia is just under $25 million for Northern Virginia Community College. The “poorest” is just under $1.4 million for Eastern Shore Community College.

Fralin’s gift of $5 million? That alone accounts for 38 percent of Virginia Western’s portfolio. There’s your bang. It was enough to move Virginia Western up eight places on the statewide list of community college foundations. (The total holdings for the entire system are now about $243 million.)

One rule: Community colleges can raise money only in their service areas. No poaching on somebody else’s turf. You’d think that would benefit the community colleges in more affluent areas, and it’s true: Northern Virginia does rank first, while those at the very bottom of the list are all in rural areas (Virginia Highlands in Abingdon, Paul D. Camp in Franklin, and Eastern Shore bring up the very rear, all with less than $2 million.)

But you’ll never guess who’s got the second fattest endowment among community colleges in the state: Southwest Virginia, at $22.8 million, just $2 million behind Northern Virginia.

Lord Fairfax is third at $19.9 million.

You’ll also never guess who’s fourth: Mountain Empire in Big Stone Gap, at $17.6 million.

And fifth: Patrick Henry, at $16.5 million.

Donors in those communities understand the role those schools play in the local economy, and open their checkbooks accordingly. “Without community colleges and their foundations, our communities would be very different,” Smith says.

Tidewater is sixth at $14.6 million, but Virginia Western is seventh at $12.9 million and New River is eighth at $11.1 million, both bigger than J. Sargent Reynolds in Richmond, at $10.2 million.

Wytheville ($7.6 million) and Dabney S. Lancaster in Clifton Forge ($5.7 million) rank in the bottom half. Connect with us The end of the year is coming.

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Cundiff Heating & Air Conditioning Posted in Editorials on Sunday, December 28, 2014 2:15 am.

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