Board Liaison for College Foundations
A community college foundation is a separate 501(c)(3) that exists to support one institution — raising private gifts, funding scholarships, and stewarding an endowment on the college’s behalf. That arrangement gives its board a governance job no other nonprofit board has: staying genuinely independent while working hand in glove with the college, under an operating agreement that defines who does what. Board Liaison for College Foundations maps to how that actually works — a separate foundation board, an investment committee, and a scholarship or distribution committee.
It keeps the board record where the accountability is: the MOU and the services it covers, the endowment and scholarship decisions, conflict-of- interest disclosures (which matter more when directors also serve the college), and the grant and scholarship approvals — together, so the foundation’s independence is documented, not just asserted.
A college foundation only works if it’s a real, separate entity: donors give to a foundation with its own board and its own audit, not to a college department. Yet it shares staff, space and purpose with the institution, and its directors often include college officials. That closeness is the point and the risk. The board’s job is to keep the relationship clear — a current operating agreement, clean financial controls, and conflict-of-interest recusals on the record — so independence is demonstrable. Board Liaison for College Foundations keeps the MOU, the board record and those disclosures together, where an auditor or a donor can see them. General information, not legal advice; confirm against your governing documents and counsel.
How a community college foundation stays independent while working closely with the college: the operating agreement/MOU, financial controls, managing conflicts when directors serve both, and why the separation matters.
4 min readWhat a community college foundation board is responsible for: governing a separate 501(c)(3) that supports the college, raising private gifts and scholarships, stewarding the endowment, and keeping the foundation independent.