Community Colleges: Making the Most of Philanthropic Dollars to Bring Equity to Higher Education
Community Colleges: Making the Most of Philanthropic Dollars to Bring Equity to Higher Education
In March of this year, LaGuardia Community College made headlines by receiving a remarkable $116.2 million gift from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation. Located in Queens, New York, the public community college is set to use the donation to develop a cutting-edge workforce training center to increase career and technical training opportunities for locals.
The gift now represents the largest ever to a community college and stands out not only for its size, but also for its strategic focus on uplifting underserved communities. By funding skill-building opportunities and increasing job attainment in high-growth sectors, these dollars will have a long-lasting impact by improving economic mobility for New Yorkers.
For most four-year institutions in higher education, especially elite research universities, this act of generosity would hardly be groundbreaking. But for community colleges nationwide, the significance extends beyond the creation of a workforce development program. It represents a monumental shift in philanthropic focus and how significant charitable contributions are allocated. And we need more donors to follow suit.
In the United States, community colleges enroll 30% of all higher education students and are driving growth in higher education enrollment. Compared to four-year, private institutions, community colleges boast open access, affordable tuition, flexible scheduling tailored to the needs of working adults, dual enrollment programs for high school, noncredit classes, and options for adult education students. These features make them highly accessible to a diverse array of students, especially first-generation college attendees as well as those from low-income backgrounds, rural communities and racial and ethnic minority groups. As a result, community colleges mirror the rich diversity of the communities they serve, providing immense opportunity to individuals who often face barriers to accessing higher education elsewhere.
Community colleges also have strong relationships with local businesses, industries, and community-based nonprofits and organizations, partnerships which can be a benefit to donors and help maximize contributions by getting resources into the hands of students and their families more quickly. This pulse on local demands is also coupled with agility and an ability to respond quickly to our nation’s evolving needs, especially related to the workforce.
Unlike some four-year institutions that may take years to implement new programs or adapt to changing demands, community colleges can quickly allocate philanthropic resources where they’re needed most, along with adjusting their curricular offerings to ensure individuals are able to build relevant skills and achieve good, well-paying jobs. This flexibility allows them to strategically invest donated funds, ensuring alignment not just with donor interests, but also with current trends and priorities.
Yet, despite their pivotal role and benefits, community colleges received a mere 1.5% of the $58 billion in donations allocated to higher education in 2023. This glaring disparity underscores a missed opportunity, as investments in community colleges can yield profound impacts. With their widespread presence and capacity to address systemic inequities, these institutions possess the potential to effect transformative change on a broad scale, advancing economic and social mobility for individuals and families.
Fortunately, philanthropists attuned to social equity, such as the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, are starting to recognize this potential and allocate resources accordingly. And they aren’t acting alone — the foundation’s gift builds on what we’ve also seen in California, which is home to the largest system of higher education in the nation: the California Community Colleges.
In 2020, the Jay Pritzker Foundation pledged an unprecedented $100 million to this system and its nearly 2 million students via the Foundation for California Community Colleges, emphasizing the importance of targeting communities with low adult educational attainment rates. The result was a program called the Finish Line Scholars Program, which provides annual scholarships of up to $18,500 and emergency aid to students across 34 colleges.
To date, over 14,000 students have benefitted from the program. But beyond its scale, the program's innovation lies in its distribution model, encouraged by the Pritzkers: Instead of a lump sum, $5 million is allocated annually, allowing for dynamic adjustments based on evolving needs and student outcomes.
Additionally, while the Foundation for California Community Colleges serves as administrator of the program, it distributes the funds to colleges on an annual basis to select and award recipients. This empowerment of colleges allows them to expand their capacity to combine significant financial support with other crucial wraparound services and interventions, such as connections to basic needs and resources (such as food, housing, mental health support) as well as mentoring, peer cohorts, financial literacy and career planning.
MacKenzie Scott took a similar approach in 2021 when she gave $155 million to seven California community colleges. The dollars were unrestricted, designed to support community colleges as high-impact organizations with deep, on-the-ground knowledge of what their constituents need most. Such flexible funding not only addresses immediate needs but also fosters long-term systems change by enabling adaptive responses to emerging challenges at scale.
These examples represent a growing understanding of the transformative power of community colleges, and I’m deeply thankful to donors who have already stepped up. But it can’t stop here — these gifts must not be anomalies, but rather the beginning of a transformative shift and movement.
Community colleges are not just educational institutions; they are engines of opportunity and catalysts for upward mobility. The importance of these roles cannot be overstated or ignored. Donors must demonstrate bold leadership and reassess their philanthropic priorities to ensure they emphasize impact, scalability and sustainability.
Supporting community colleges means opening doors to higher education for students from diverse backgrounds, offering opportunities to those who might otherwise be excluded. These institutions provide quality education, real-world work experience, and programs that empower individuals to pursue their academic and career goals regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Backing community colleges enables donors to champion the pivotal engines of social mobility that these institutions represent, including empowering individuals and strengthening communities. This not only contributes to student advancement but also lays the groundwork for a brighter future through the overall advancement of society.
Keetha Mills is the President and CEO of Foundation for California Community Colleges, the official nonprofit supporting the largest system of higher education in the nation.
