Resource Development
The Kirkwood Foundation Five-Year Vision

The Kirkwood Foundation is a team of dedicated professionals who are devoted to strategic long-term fundraising and the management of relationships with key constituencies. The team operates as an integral component of Kirkwood’s Resource Development Division. The Foundation shares the division’s mission to build relationships; identify funding opportunities; acquire resources that address the needs of students, staff and community; and support Kirkwood’s reputation as an innovator in the development of high quality and timely education and training. Our stakeholders include students, alumni, faculty and staff, communities of the seven-county area, businesses, private foundations and agencies, and the Kirkwood Foundation Board of Directors.

Ethics and Values

The Kirkwood Foundation is focused on institutional success and is committed to furthering the mission of Kirkwood Community College. The Foundation has an active Board of Directors that provides oversight to the finances, operations and policies of the organization. Ethics and values that guide our work include:

• Commitment to the mission of the college
• Accountability to the public
• Commitment beyond the law
• Respect for the worth and dignity of individuals
• Inclusiveness
• Respect for diversity
• Transparency, integrity and honesty
• Responsible stewardship of resources
• Commitment to excellence and to maintaining the public trust

Shared Vision

To be the recognized leader and innovator among community colleges.

Major Initiatives

The Kirkwood Foundation has two distinct functions:  Gift Procurement (cultivation and solicitation) and Gift Management (stewardship, allocation and investment).  Major initiatives include:

Procurement (cultivation and solicitation)

• Annual Giving - Continue to seek and secure funding via phonathon, foundation grants, personal solicitation, department-specific initiatives, alumni, special project and other appeals for the purpose of generating restricted and unrestricted support for Kirkwood and its affiliated programs. Annual giving emphasis will be on donor acquisition and repeat gifts through sustained contact, solicitation and stewardship of constituency groups. Annual giving will focus on first time, multi-year support and increasing gifts to the major gift or planned gift level.
• Planned Giving - Continue to seek and secure funding through endowments, planned giving expectancies and realized gifts. The creation of unrestricted endowments supporting the mission of the college will be a high priority. Primary emphasis in the program will continue to be the building and strengthening of relationships with donors and professional advisors. Unrestricted endowed and planned gifts will be generated through additional concentrated direct mail materials, more personal donor awareness and further continuing education opportunities.
• Major Giving - Continue to seek and secure creative and innovative opportunities through business partnerships, major gift campaigns and targeted fundraising initiatives that benefit the priorities of the college. This might include developing funds for new and expanded facilities and partnering with the grants department and college departments to identify emerging needs for new and existing program areas.

Gift Management (Allocation, Investment and Stewardship)

• Allocation – Streamline and improve the scholarship processes. Create and implement an unparalleled scholarship resource for deserving students.
  • Re-brand promotional materials to communicate scholarship resources for all students, regardless of their financial need, grade point, age or gender.
  • Create a department-based student support network to communicate scholarship opportunities, coordinate recipient selection, and increase participation in events and other donor stewardship activities.
  • Adapt the student scholarship program to respond to emerging community and business needs.
  • Partner with the Grants department and other college departments to identify emerging program areas that require student scholarship/internship assistance.
• Investment – Continue to utilize a team of professional advisors to maintain and increase investment appreciation (total investment return).
• Stewardship – Use timely and appropriate communications to thank donors and to demonstrate the difference their contributions make in advancing the college mission.

Capacity

In order to fulfill the vision and major initiatives, the Kirkwood Foundation will need to increase capacity.

• Staffing
  • Hire a full-time scholarship coordinator to manage all aspects of the scholarship program.
  • Access professional marketing services to photograph, write, design, coordinate and produce all marketing materials related to annual, major and planned giving thus focusing current staff on revenue production.
• Infrastructure
  • Implement a database management system for alumni tracking and fundraising.
  • Upgrade the donor management software.

Dashboard

• Utilize moves management principles to track, procure and steward donors. New or upgraded donor management software implemented by January 2006.
• Implement management of alumni database by January 2006.
• Streamline and improve scholarship application, allocation and stewardship process by January 2007.
• Realize a 7 percent annual increase in scholarship support over five years. Target goal: $1.2 million.
• Maintain position among the top five two-year Community College Foundations as reported by Council to Aid for Education over five years.
• Apply the Annual Core Group Consortium Benchmarking Survey, Voluntary Support to Education (VSE) Report and internal tracking systems to monitor:
  • Yearly average support of cash and in-kind gifts between $3.3 and $4 million.
  • Support from planned giving expectancies, realized gifts and endowments at $2 million.
  • An increase of annual unrestricted donations from $240,000 to  $400,000.
  • An increase in the total number of donors from 1,400 to 2,400.
  • An increase in private support across multiple gift band sizes with emphasis in entry-level gifts between $25 to $2,500.

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