Otero College Foundation

Background Statement

The Otero Junior College Foundation was incorporated on August 28, 1998 in the State of Colorado and was granted IRS tax exempt status on that same date. The Foundation's tax exempt code is 501(c) (3). The NTEE codes to describe the organization are Community Improvement, Capacity Building, Education and Employment.

• The Foundation was created in 1998 under then college president, Bill Richards. The Foundation was given 501c3 status by the IRS and has kept that status active since 1998.

• The original board contracted with D & D Marketing, a marketing firm out of Pueblo. The firm had experience with establishing and managing foundations. D&D put one of their employees on the OJC campus for about two years to help get the Foundation up and going. The first year the Foundation paid D & D Marketing $100,000 for their services and the second year they paid the firm $50,000 for services. The total raised by the firm was $150,000, so the effort was a complete wash.

• At the core of D&D's fund raising prospects were beverage contracts on campus with Coke and Pepsi. The firm had experienced great success with those contracts with other foundations; however, the beverage companies were starting to pull back on their association with D&D shortly after D&D became involved with the OJC Foundation. Few dollars were raised for the OJC Foundation from the beverage contracts.

• Additionally, due to their aggressive expectations of college faculty of staff to contribute to the Foundation, there developed some bad feelings on campus toward the Foundation.

• D&D had the Foundation take over the athletic corporate sponsorship program. Once that happened, the athletic department never received the full amount of corporate sponsorships. They wanted all scholarship funds to be run through the Foundation, which became a bookkeeping nightmare as money was constantly moving in and out of the accounts, but not staying long enough to earn any interest.

• Bottom line: During the course of its active existence, the OJC Foundation never purchased anything for the college, never built anything and never established any kind of Foundation scholarship program. When Gary Ashida became interim president, after the resignation of Bill Richards, he canceled the D&D Marketing contract and putting the Foundation on the shelf was one of his first tasks.

• When Jim Rizzuto became president of Otero Junior College in 2001, he chose to focus fund-raising efforts on grant applications. Under Jim Rizzuto's leadership, over the past 10 years the college has brought in about $10 million from writing grants. Many of the grants have challenge funds; meaning if they are matched, those funds can be endowed to the Foundation.

• As the Colorado State budget became more volatile, Jim Rizzuto made the decision in 2009 to re-organize the OJC Foundation Board in order to create an auxiliary funding stream for the college's future capital construction projects and program development. It had become increasingly evident that funds for new buildings and new programs were not going to be available from the State of Colorado, thus the need to look to private donors, alumni and grant funds to maintain the college's progressive interest in infrastructure and programming.

• During 2009 invitations were extended to all former OJC Foundation Board members to join the re-organized board of director. Of the seven original members, only one, Kevin Karney agreed to sit on the new board. At the end of 2009, six new people, representing communities in Otero Junior College's service area, had agreed to sit on the new board. The first board meeting was held on January 13, 2010 at Otero Junior College.

• Since January 13, 2010, the OJC Foundation Board has established priorities and projects for the Foundation to pursue that will benefit the college. Accomplishments to date have included:

o Determining that a great untapped resource for the OJC Foundation is 73 years of alumni who have never been contacted to re-connect to the college. An alumni database exceeding 10,000 names has been updated with current addresses. In an effort to re-connect those alumni back to the college, web pages have been added to the OJC website, with links on the homepage, specifically for the Foundation and Alumni. A LinkedIn page for Otero Junior College and a Facebook page for OJC Alumni and Foundation were added in 2015 to continue to reconnect alumni to the college and encourage giving back through support of the OJC Foundation programs.

o The Rattler Run and Reunion, now entering its fifth year, to provide an opportunity to visit the college, meet old friends and hopefully find opportunities to assist the college with fundraising needs. This event will be managed by the Fitness department starting this year, however the Foundation will continue to have a presence to connect with alumni and potential donors at the event.

o Established a President's Leadership Scholarship and Academic Program. The Foundation Board was passionate about the development of a merit-based scholarship for students who demonstrate the academic and personal attributes to become future leaders. In addition to scholarship funding for a select group of students, those students also have the opportunity to participate in an academic-based leadership program where they can earn a Certificate in Leadership Studies while a student at OJC.

o The death of a beloved nursing instructor combined with generous matching fund availability from Kaiser Permanente lead to the establishment of the Kay Mahoney Memorial/Kaiser Permanente Scholarship Fund for students studying in healthcare fields. A fundraising event held in May for the past 2 years helps to raise monies for this fund in addition to individual donations.

o Agriculture science, an important area of study for this location, is another area the Foundation has chosen to support with student scholarships. The main fundraising event for this scholarship is held each year on New Year's Eve. The agriculture community in the area supports the event. The scholarship also receives individual donations throughout the year.

o A generous supporter of the OJC Foundation established the Franzman Family International Scholarship in 2015 to support one international student each year in returning to Otero Junior College for a sophomore year to complete a two year degree.

o In 2016, the board voted to add the Partnership for Excellence to the Foundation. With two separate funds, the Partnership for Excellence will 1) provide faculty and staff with professional development opportunities when there are no other funding methods available and 2) provide educational programming for the community as a whole when there are no other funding methods available. At the time of development, it was determined that this fund should reach $10,000 before any monies are expended.