| Community colleges are increasingly turning to fundraising to fill the financial gaps created by declining federal and state appropriations. Thus, community colleges are looking to expand their financial coffers through entrepreneurial partnerships and efforts such as targeting alumni. Typically, community colleges have very small alumni programs focusing their fundraising efforts in other areas.;This study outlines effective elements for an alumni resource development program through a four-step managerial decision-making process and the Flexible Leadership Theory (FLT). Strategic elements include leadership commitment, strategic planning, institutional collaboration, staffing, foundation boards, and garnering alumni engagement and community relationships. One key component of leadership in developing the alumni resource development program is recognizing and balancing institutional needs with alumni needs. FLT offers leadership the opportunity to combine innovation with the process of adapting the alumni resource development program. Community colleges in 2011 raised close to $200 million from their alumni community, which is not a large amount compared with the $7.8 billion that fouryear institutions raised from alumni. This study breaks ground for future research on alumnigiving in the community college arena, including strategies to promote alumni as advocates and volunteers for community colleges, and for community college leadership to view their alumni as a financial resource that can help close the fiscal gaps that community colleges face in continuing their mission of access. |
