The Virginia
College Fund was founded in 1965 to provide a
convenient way for the corporate, foundation and
individual citizen to demonstrate a continuing commitment
to the maintenance of a strong educational system in the
Commonwealth of Virginia and to encourage and pursue
growth in academic excellence.
The member institutions of the Virginia
College Fund are united under the mission of
educational accessibility. They believe in giving
students the opportunity to achieve a higher education,
and allowing them to succeed or fail according to their
own merits. The Virginia College
Fund member institutions exist solely to
serve and to benefit students within and without the Commonwealth.
The following are some reasons that Virginia Businesses and foundations might consider support to the Virginia College
Fund:
- Its member institutions are fully
accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools
- They have provided accredited educational programs to
Virginia students for a combined 545 years
- 74 percent of our 2007-2008 total enrollments comprised Virginia residents
- 22 percent of our 2007-2008 total enrollments were minorities
- 34 percent of our 2007-2008 total enrollments were First Generation College Attendees, the first of their families ever to attend college
- 95 percent of our 2007-2008 total enrollments required some type of financial aid in order to pursue their dreams of a higher education
- Our colleges' 2006-2007 Retention Rate was 63 percent, above the national average
- Over $110
million in general operating funds was expended into the Virginia economy last year, none of which
fell as a burden to Virginia's corporate or
individual tax payer
- Dropout rates for school divisions are higher than the national average in the areas surrounding the institutions participating in the Virginia College Fund - 37 percent, as compared to a national average of 20 percent (U.S. Department of Education)
- 20 percent of individuals age 16 and older in Western and Southwestern Virginia do not possess the basic skills necessary to enter simple personal information onto a document or perform simple arithmetic problems (U.S. Department of Education)
- An additional 16 percent cannot function beyond Literacy Level 1, suggesting that a slightly greater percentage of individuals in these areas are functionally illiterate, as compared to the national average (U.S. Department of Education)
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