GCC Recognized by CASE for Overall Performance in Educational Fundraising Category

GCC's First-Time Honor by the International Organization

Batavia, NY (07/07/2020) — Officials at Genesee Community College were to delighted to learn this month that the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has named GCC among the first-time honorees in the association's Educational Fundraising Awards which annually recognizes exemplary development programs in public, private and independent colleges, universities and schools.

The winners in the following four categories were determined through a blind review of data submitted by member institutions over three years to the CASE AMAtlas Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey:

• Overall Performance: For colleges and universities that show solid program growth, breadth in the base of support, and other indications of a mature, well-maintained program.
• Overall Improvement: For colleges and universities that demonstrate significant program growth across the three years of data.
• Award of Excellence: For independent schools that demonstrate solid program growth, breadth in the base of support, and other indicators of an exemplary fundraising program.
• Sustained Excellence: Recognize institutions that have demonstrated consistent fundraising success over a five-year period. Institutions that have been recognized with an overall performance, overall improvement or award for excellence in three out of the past five years also receive this award designation.

GCC was among 32 institutions to be a first-time honoree in the Overall Performance Category, and also one of just seven community colleges recognized. Winners are not selected solely on total funds raised. Rather, a committee of experienced fundraisers review hundreds of pages of data from the VSE survey and consider a number of factors and variables, including:

• Patterns of growth in total support
• Evaluation of what contributed to the total support figure
• Overall breadth of fundraising
• Patterns of growth in gifts from sources including alumni and other individuals, corporations and foundations
• Impact of the 12 largest gifts on total support
• Giving to areas such as current operations, endowment and property/buildings
• Amount raised per student
• Amount raised relative to expenditures
• Alumni participation

"GCC is excited and thankful to receive this wonderful honor from CASE. This award is a testament to all of our donors who make our work possible through their generous support of our students and programs. Our staff, our college leadership and our foundation leadership sincerely appreciate this recognition. Adding another level of importance for us, this honor was made possible as well by the leadership of our late colleague, Rick Ensman. Rick was a seasoned fundraiser who had nearly thirty years of experience at GCC when he passed away last year," Justin M. Johnston, GCC's vice president of Development and External Affairs and the executive director of the GCC Foundation said. "I am thankful for the opportunity to spotlight the contributions of so many devoted donors, staff members, and volunteers of the College and the Foundation, who work to collectively support our students."

CASE member institutions that have participated in the VSE for the past three years are considered for the honor. To learn more or to see the full list of CASE winners go to: https://www.case.org/awards/2020/2020-educational-fundraising-award-winners.

CASE is a global nonprofit membership association of educational institutions with a mission to help develop communities of professional practice that build institutional resilience and success in challenging times. The communities include staff engaged in alumni relations, advancement services, communications, fundraising, government relations, marketing and student recruitment. CASE is volunteer-led and uses the intellectual capital of senior practitioners to build capacity and capability across the world. It has offices in Washington, D.C., London, Singapore and Mexico City. Member institutions include more than 3,600 colleges and universities, primary and secondary independent and international schools, and nonprofit organizations in 82 countries and serves more than 90,000 practitioners. For more information about CASE, visit www.case.org.

For further information contact Donna Rae Sutherland, GCC marketing director at dsutherland@genesee.edu.

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