The Price of Persistence: How Nonprofit-Community College Partnerships Manage & Blend Diverse...

"This issue of Update looks at how community college – nonprofit partnerships fund supportive and career navigation services for students in training. Based on findings from the Courses to Employment (CTE) Demonstration Project, which is funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, this latest publication highlights how workforce programs and partnerships blend multiple funding streams to meet students’ individual needs and address their unique barriers in order to allow them to complete their educations and obtain a better job. The publication draws on data from CTE partnerships’ financial records, and interviews with program leaders about their funding and service strategies as well as focus groups with participants about the supports they received. The diversified funding strategy is illuminated through the stories of three students who persisted in school and completed training with the help of the supportive services they received from a CTE partnership. Using these three stories, the report tracks the source of each of these supports, discusses how the partnerships managed these resources, and discusses the different funding and policy environments that CTE partnerships experienced while leveraging these different funding streams. The publication also discusses the challenges and opportunities in developing such a diversified funding strategy and highlights the organizational capacities needed to manage and implement this funding structure" (Abstract). (Abstractor: Author)

Full publication title: The Price of Persistence: How Nonprofit-Community College Partnerships Manage & Blend Diverse Funding Streams

• "Lesson #1: In order to support the range of services students need to succeed in education and employment, partnerships draw on a variety of different funding" (p.16). • "Lesson #2: Developing and maintaining a diverse set of funding sources allows partnerships to flexibly respond to changing circumstances and helps partnerships tailor services to better meet students’ needs" (p.16). • "Lesson #3: Coordinating and managing multiple funding streams is a core program activity for community college-nonprofit partnerships. Building effective financial portfolios requires organizational leadership to be actively engaged in a dynamic funding environment" (p.17). • "Lesson #4: Maintaining an adequate infrastructure to support effective fundraising and fund management can be a task for which it is difficult to raise funds" (p.17). • "Lesson #5: Investments in information management systems and skilled staff are essential for tracking the variety of financial and other data required by various funding streams" (p.18). • "Lesson #6: Multi-organizational partnerships that bridge numerous resources and funding streams offer adult learners critical supports and resources they need to succeed. However, building and maintaining these partnerships requires resources that are often not considered by funders and policymakers" (p.18). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Conway, Maureen
• Organizational Author(s): The Aspen Institute
• Funding Source: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies