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The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) was founded in 1950 by Ohio business executives and college presidents as a partnership between Ohio non-tax funded colleges and universities and corporations. The goal of OFIC was to help corporations, foundations and others to provide charitable support to students from all socio-economic levels, thereby creating a pool of skilled workers for Ohio’s
businesses.

For over 60 years, OFIC has conducted an annual campaign to solicit funds from businesses, corporations, foundations, and others to enhance the higher education experience for all of the students enrolled at its 34 member colleges and universities. Donors to OFIC’s campaign have provided the funds to support educational programs, to furnish scholarships for low to moderate income students, and to fill the areas of greatest needs on OFIC member campuses.

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The Mission

The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges efficiently solicits financial support from corporations, foundations and other donors and distributes those funds to our member colleges and universities for educational programs, scholarships and collaborative efforts.

Ways to Give

Few philanthropic gifts make as great an impact on so many as a gift to OFIC. A single unrestricted gift or scholarship will be combined with hundreds of others to be distributed to OFIC member colleges and universities to assist our nearly 100,000 students.

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Unrestricted Gifts

College presidents may determine how unrestricted gifts are used on their campuses. Funds can be directed to areas of greatest campus need, such as:

• Financial aid for economically disadvantaged students

• Compensation to attract and retain outstanding faculty

• Update of campus educational resources in libraries,classrooms and labs and maintaining state-of-the-arttechnology

• Campus facility maintenance

•Community and campus service projects such as after school tutoring, volunteering at community hospitals, food pantries, and participation in other established campus and community service programs

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The Corporate Challenge

Your gift to support OFIC’s member institutions and their students can be multiplied through the OFIC Corporate Challenge. Corporate Challenge funds are used to match all new, reinstated, and increased gifts (increased portion only) up to $1,000 on a one-to-one basis.

Ohio Scholars Program®

Scholarship assistance is critical to enable academically qualified students, especially those from low to moderate income families, to go to college and stay enrolled through graduation.

OFIC has managed its scholarship program, now one of the largest and most comprehensive scholarship services in Ohio, for 27 years. To date, 17,576 scholarships have been awarded. With proven processes and procedures and long-standing, close relationships with college and university Admissions and Financial Aid offices, OFIC is uniquely positioned to manage scholarship services.

The Ohio Scholars Program® allows donors to link their gifts to college students that match their organization’s strategic interests and human resource needs. Donors may also direct their scholarship assistance to specific institutions.

OFIC offers comprehensive management services to scholarship donors. OFIC will:

• Identify qualified scholarship candidates. (Donors may choose to support students based on:
hometown, high schools, county, area of academic study, ethnicity, religious heritage, campus leadership, or a combination thereof.)
• Select qualified candidates
• Monitor students’ academic progress as well as continuing need and eligibility
• Facilitate students’ thank-you letters to donors
• Notify colleges/universities and scholars of selection
• Distribute funds directly to colleges/universities
• Provide donors with scholars’ names and contact information
• Work with financial aid offices to avoid violation of NCAA and institutional regulations

Gifts of increasing amounts provide support for additional scholarship recipients.

$2,500-$4,999 – 1-2 Scholars

$5,000-$9,999 – 3-6 Scholars

$10,000-$24,999 – 7-17 Scholars

$25,000-$49,999 – 18-34 Scholars

$50,000-$99,999*

$100,000 and above*

* Donors at these levels may designate range of criteria
and funding amounts that best suit their interests

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Deferred Gifts

Donors may choose to defer their gifts to assist future students to obtain a higher education. These gifts may be designated for general unrestricted support, which will benefit all of OFIC member institutions; for establishment of named endowed scholarships; or to support collaborative programs. A variety of arrangements can be made for deferred gifts. For example, they can be established through wills or trusts, or with cash appreciated assets. A particular added benefit of a deferred gift is that it is likely to result in beneficial tax consequences for the donor’s estate.

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Scholarship Management Resourcessm

OFIC’s Scholarship Management ResourcesSM (SMR) program is an efficient and effective way for corporations, trust officers, foundations and individuals to outsource management of scholarships.

The criteria for scholarships for students, regardless of where they go to college, are determined by the client, so they may differ from those of OFIC’s Ohio Scholars Program®. For instance, students attending any accredited institution of higher learning in the U.S. may be eligible recipients. OFIC will provide management services for scholarships that are funded annually or those that are supported by endowments or trusts. Corporate CEOs or others may also wish to consider establishing endowed scholarship funds that will assist their employees’ children in perpetuity.

SMR provides a comprehensive range of services to address the numerous details of scholarship management and will provide any of the following services or a combination thereof:

• Assist with marketing the scholarship program

• Create and manage a web-based scholarship application

• Identify scholarship candidates

• Select scholars

• Verify that scholars meet the client’s criteria

• Notify scholars and colleges/universities of awards

• Distribute scholarship funds to scholars’ colleges/universities

• Ensure compliance with NCAA and institutional regulations

• Monitor scholar academic progress, continuing eligibility and financial need

• Provide the client with status reports and facilitate thank-you letters

Corporate Clients

Corporate clients often provide scholarships for students from their communities or create a scholarship program for children of their employees. Employee scholarship programs have a significant positive impact on employee loyalty and retention, so many corporations see scholarship programs as an effective way to retain talent.

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Foundations and Trusts

Outsourcing scholarship management to SMR relieves foundation and trust officers of a significant number of time-consuming, detailed operations. Additionally, it can distance organizations from the scholar selection process and protect foundations, trustees, trust managers, and committee members from litigation related to the restrictions placed on trust and foundation scholarship activities by the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

Program Services

CareerFest

OFIC can connect employers with outstanding students and graduates by putting businesses directly in touch with Career Services Directors at our member institutions.

CareerFest, an annual OFIC event, provides an avenue for employers to connect with students and recent graduates of OFIC member colleges and universities in one central location. Students and human resource representatives have the opportunity to investigate both full-time and part-time employment opportunities as well as internships. Students can meet with several potential employers in one day, and interviews may take place at the event. The success of CareerFest is evidenced by its continuous growth. In 2010, nearly 100 employers, several from out of state, and 1,100 students registered to attend.

Diversity Initiatives

In the interest of providing access to higher education for students from all socio-economic backgrounds and enriching the college experience for all students, OFIC works to promote diversity on member campuses by offering forums that involve faculty, staff, and corporate donor representatives. These forums provide participants an opportunity to share best practices and solutions to diversity issues common to both the campus and the workplace.

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Bridges

The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) Bridges Program connects urban youth in the major cities of Ohio with the higher education community by collaborating with churches, faith-based networks, local school systems and OFIC member institutions to assist students in forming and realizing their dreams of college attendance. The Bridges Program strives to change the view that many urban students have of college – as unrealistic and unattainable goal that is available only to students from privileged backgrounds.

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Cost-Saving Services for Member Colleges

OFIC offers cost-saving opportunities to all of its member colleges through group purchasing initiatives. OFIC membership in the Sourcing Office, an Ohio non-profit organization that negotiates group purchase agreements, and the Coalition for College Cost Savings (CCCS), a national organization of higher education foundations, makes our member institutions eligible for discount purchase of both goods and services in areas such as office supplies, electricity, long-term care insurance and maintenance supply products. Contracts negotiated directly by OFIC provide significantly discounted prices for long distance and mobile phone service, software licensing, and shipping.

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The OFIC Undergraduate Research Symposium was initiated in 2011 to present the research projects being carried out by undergraduate students at OFIC’s 34 member institutions and to bring attention to the research opportunities available at these colleges and universities. The Symposium will showcase this research to Ohio high school students and other audiences outside of academia and raise awareness of the high level of education and research work being done at OFIC member institutions.

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