Overview
It is estimated that more than three million students across the nation leave college annually due to a small but time-critical financial crisis. Small, unexpected expenses can derail students and cause them to withdraw from one or more courses.
In 2015, the Student Emergency Fund (SEF) collaborated with IT to create one student-facing application for both the ACC Foundation and the Student Advocacy Center (SAC) emergency assistance programs. In addition, the Student Advocacy Center applied to the City of Austin to participate in their Plus 1 utility assistance program. Austin Utility now allocates over $26,000 each year to ACC to help students pay their delinquent or overdue utility bills. Students may apply through SEF for Plus 1 assistance.
Requests for assistance include:
- Car repair and related transportation expenses – 37.1%
- Utility payments – 17.9%
- Rent/mortgage payments – 12.7%
- Educational expenses – 6.8%
- Dependent care – 4.2%
- Medical – 4.4%
Accomplishments
During the pandemic the college applied for and received six grants, valued at $120,000, in one 22-month period. These grants augmented other funds that were available for this purpose. Fast forward to post-pandemic and these grant funds are no longer available.
The Social Support and Resource Development (SSRD) staff lead the effort to leverage Amplify Austin, a community-wide day of giving to support local nonprofit activities, to support SEF. SSRD staff worked with the Foundation to make the interface to make donations to the SAC SEF more visible and easier to use on the Foundation website. They developed a website specifically for the Amplify event to donate for the SAC SEF, shared content with internal and external social networks to encourage donations, created videos of students and staff speaking to the importance of supporting students in emergency situations, and engaged with the Office of College Relations and Marketing to communicate with the ACC community and the Teaching & Learning Excellence Division to communicate with faculty. The efforts resulted in a year-over-year increase of more than 20%, to over $21,000, in contributions to the SAC SEF.
In addition to the fundraising efforts through Amplify Austin, the Foundation raises over $30,000 annually for its Student Emergency Fund through the ACC Golf Scramble.
Impact
Over 200 students requested and received SEF funds. When disaggregated by race and ethnicity, students who request and receive SEF funds persist from fall to spring at a rate equal to that of all other students. However, the rates of fall-to-fall persistence more than doubled for Black and White students at 50% and 60%, respectively (due to a small sample size), when compared to all Black and White students who persisted at rates of 16% and 17.7% respectively. Fall-to-fall persistence rates remain about the same for Hispanic students who request and receive SEF funds when compared to all other Hispanic students.
Next Steps
A number of efforts are underway to leverage the strong fundraising foundation already underway. SSRD and other stakeholders will:
- Develop a more visible social media presence to increase awareness;
- Seek to expand the donor base;
- Continue to support efforts to make the giving interface easier and simpler to navigate;
- Roll out a match program where donors, especially ACC leadership, will make contributions for other donors to match;
- Seek approval to include a payroll deduction option for ACC employees to give to the Emergency Fund; and
- When opportunities arise, apply for additional grants and pursue philanthropic opportunities.