Albuquerque Journal

College Foundation to Get $3.5M Transfer
The Associated Press

Representatives from former and new fundraising foundations at Santa Fe Community College have agreed that $3.5 million can be transferred to the new GROW foundation.
   
The financial transfer comes after the GROW foundation met requirements of a 2005 settlement reached between the college and its former foundation board.
   
The settlement arose from a lawsuit filed by the former foundation in 2004, shortly after the college canceled its agreement with the foundation. College trustees at the time said the foundation should have raised more money for program development, faculty chairs and capital campaigns.
   
Under the settlement, the former foundation board members wanted to delay the transfer of funds for three years to make sure the new foundation, GROW, was stable and could properly manage the money.
   
The new foundation— a nonprofit organization that is separate from the college— had to raise $500,000 of new money or wait three years to take over the $3.5 million, according to the settlement.
   
By the end of 2007, GROW had raised more than $1 million, executive director Michael Zavelle said.
   
Zavelle said representatives from the old and new foundations agreed in February that the conditions of the settlement were met a few months before the three-year deadline.
   
Now, with its $4.4 million endowment, GROW's administrators are ready to use that money for scholarships, new programs and projects.
   
Part of GROW's mission is to use foundation funds for things other than scholarships, which is where most money had gone in the past, Zavelle said.
   
For example, the foundation will help establish a sustainable-technology curriculum. Last fall, voters approved a $12.5 million bond issue that will partially fund construction of a new facility to house courses focused on sustainability.
   
The foundation is also starting to solicit donations from students who take continuing education courses at the college, he said.