Giving Compass' Take:

· Amy Kolb Noyes at Vermont Public Radio focuses on end-of-the-year giving and how colleges are making their cases for why they should receive donations from their community.

· How can philanthropy support colleges and their surrounding communities? What cases do these institutions make?

· Take a deeper look a higher education philanthropy. 

As 2019 comes to a close, lots of organizations ask people to consider them for end-of-year giving. Some Vermonters are also making the case to give to local institutions of higher education.

The head of the Vermont Community Foundation puts it simply: higher education, specifically the community college system, remains broadly overlooked by philanthropy. Dan Smith laid out the case for supporting it in a recent op-ed published in papers around the state.

"Community College of Vermont is the second largest college in the state," Smith told VPR. "It enrolls, you know, 5,000 Vermonters a semester. And so, from the perspective of achieving impact with your philanthropy – making a difference in people's lives – it's a remarkable place."

Smith sits on the board of the McClure Foundation, a major donor over the last few years to the Community College of Vermont; he's also a past president of Vermont Technical College.

Read the full article about colleges making their cases for donations by Amy Kolb Noyes at Vermont Public Radio.