2023 Report to the Community | Seattle Colleges Foundation

Over the last year, the city has increasingly sprung back to life. People have been gathering again in offices. Sporting and cultural events — notably the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and music concerts — have filled venues to capacity. Hot new eateries have opened (many of them helmed by chefs trained in Seattle Colleges' culinary programs). And, progress is unmistakable on the biggest civic project since Seattle Center, the new Waterfront Park (opening in 2025).

There has been striking progress at the Seattle Colleges, too. After our enrollment fell during the pandemic (a trend mirrored nationally), the dynamic has now reversed, with our 2022-23 enrollment rising 6% (+2,168 students). Fall 2023 numbers are up, as well — 12% year over year.

To be sure, other community colleges are also adding students. Yet the gains at the Seattle Colleges stand out. One factor is the exceedingly popular Seattle Promise, a program of free tuition and student supports for the city’s public and public-charter high-school grads. Another is an enthusiastically-received new Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree

There is also the fast-growing appeal of skilled-trades programs, in which our schools abound. Students see not only the vast number of open jobs in the trades, but also the high pay, which today regularly meets or beats what traditional 4-year college grads make. Moreover, alums of trades programs seldom have student debt.

Whatever the reasons for the enrollment turnaround, it’s great news for our community, whether you see it through the lens of economics, inclusion, or both. We’re proud that the Seattle Colleges Foundation — thanks to generous

At the Seattle Colleges, 45% of our students are from communities of color.

Forty-eight percent are the first in their families to attend college.

One hundred percent are key to our community's positive future.

donors to our Equity Can’t Wait campaign — has played an instrumental role in helping all these programs thrive. The campaign is now fast approaching its initial $50 million goal.

But we can't and won't stop there. Our new chancellor, Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap, has tasked us with doing more to help students who are struggling financially, as Seattle continues to climb the ranks of the country's mostexpensive cities. That's the thrust of our next big initiative: Stay in the Game, a bold new $10M scholarships program the Seattle Mariners helped launch during last year's MLB All-Star Game Week.

Thank you, M's! And thank you, everyone, who shares the conviction that we all win when people of every background have an equitable opportunity to develop their skills, talents and passions.

Jon Fine Chair, Seattle Colleges Foundation; Co-Chair, Equity Can’t Wait Advisory Council

Kerry Howell CEO, Seattle Colleges Foundation; Vice Chancellor for Advancement, Seattle Colleges

Publicly announced in March 2021, the Seattle Colleges Foundation’s Equity Can’t Wait campaign has unfolded against a fast-shifting backdrop of community, student and institutional needs.

In the spirit of the Colleges, we have worked to be nimble and responsive, generating resources for urgent present needs as well as long-term initiatives that position our schools, and our students, for the future.

Dollars from the campaign support three institutional priorities: Supporting Students. page 6

page 12

page 14

In October 2023, we celebrated the exhilarating progress of the Equity Can’t Wait campaign with our second Momentum gala, held at Fremont Studios. More than 450 people attended, and we raised more than $2.4 million

We’re hugely grateful to all who came, and to both our presenting sponsor, American Financial Solutions, and Ballmer Group, which — phenomenally — matched all event donations up to a total $1 million!

At October’s Momentum gala we celebrated the Seattle Mariners' $500K start-up investment in a new success strategy for Seattle Colleges students — Stay in the Game scholarships.

The scholarships will help us address financial need that's still unmet after students tap aid like tuition assistance, state and federal grants, income from work, and other scholarships. Often, students have thousands of dollars of unmet need even after these supports, making it hard to pay rent, keep food on the table, and afford childcare.

Research shows that the greater the unmet need, the higher the likelihood that a student will pause their education, or even step away from it entirely. That's a loss not just for them, but for all of us, who won't have the benefit of their full talents and skills strengthening the community.

Mariners General Counsel and EVP Fred Rivera addressed the Momentum crowd. He was followed by Jon Fine, Board chair of the Seattle Colleges Foundation, who challenged the community to turn the Mariners' halfmillion into $10M and make an even bigger difference.

Want to help? Thank you! Scan this code to contribute.

At left: Fred Rivera of the Seattle Mariners accepting a City Connect jersey crafted entirely of duct tape (!) by Neha Nanubhai, a student in Seattle Central’s School of Apparel Design & Development. (Yes, her gown is also purely of duct tape.)

Supporting Students

In higher ed, students often stand or fall based on the supports from their school: scholarships, academic advising, tutoring, mentoring. At community colleges, these supports can be sparse. Equity Can’t Wait is righting that wrong, since people of every background deserve the opportunity for school success. In 2023, our work emphasized traditional and innovative scholarships, mentoring programs, and the further success of Seattle Promise.

Fathima Garcia: My Seattle Promise story

My name is Fathima Garcia, and I graduated in June 2023 from Seattle Central College with my associate degree in business. I am actually my family’s second Seattle Promise student. My older brother, Anthony, was a Promise student at South in 2018, and later earned his bachelor's in International Business at North.

Both my brother and I grew up knowing that, to reach our professional goals, we had to go to college. That's something that our mom and dad couldn’t do — or any past generation of our family. Since immigrating from Guatemala, my parents have

worked in physically demanding, minimum wage jobs in the hotel industry, often seven days a week. Every day, when they came home so extremely tired, I saw how much they sacrificed so that their kids could have a better life.

Of course, a college education can come with a large price tag. The last thing we wanted was for our parents to have to take on any debt for our education. We also didn’t want to jeopardize our own future by taking on debt at a young age.

I’m happy to report that I’ve started that next chapter now. I’m at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, studying Human Resources Management. I owe it all to Seattle Promise and Seattle Central.

Seattle Promise

"Outperforming in all the best ways"

Seattle Promise offers two years of free Seattle Colleges tuition to new grads of the city’s public high schools, along with other academic, social and financial support. The goal: prepare more of the city’s young people for the >70% of regional jobs that require some sort of college credential — whether a degree, certificate or skilled-trades apprenticeship. The program is a four-way partnership among the Colleges, Seattle Public Schools, the City of Seattle, and Seattle voters (who in 2018 approved the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy that set the program in motion).

Even as community college enrollment tumbled nationwide during the pandemic, participation in Seattle Promise was robust. That's in part because — seeing the special challenges then facing lower-income families —the City, the Colleges, and the Seattle Colleges

Foundation joined forces to increase scholarships and make the program more flexible. Enhanced scholarships from the Foundation were possible thanks to generous investments from BECU and WSECU, two of the city’s most prominent credit unions.

The program has remained strong even as the pandemic has receded. In Fall 2023, the program had 2,500 students apply and 1,400 enroll — far higher than the original projection of 1,300 applicants and 870 enrollees. Moreover, 70% of Promise students are from families of color, and a third are the first in their families to attend college. "We’re outperforming what we anticipated in the Levy in all the best ways,” Seattle Promise senior executive director Melody McMillan told the Seattle Times. “All the partners can be proud.”

2023-24 Annual Scholarships

Every year, thanks to the generosity of hundreds of individuals, families, estates, organizations, and companies, we are able to award scholarships to high-achieving Seattle Colleges students, easing their financial burden. In 2023-24 we awarded a record amount, $1.4 million. The awards ranged in size up to $5K.

Dinah

Recipient of the Dr. Margaret Rust Women's Diversity Scholarship, Dinah earned her associate degree in Aeronautical Technology from South Seattle College in June 2023. She previously studied nursing, but concluded it wasn't the right career, leading her to a customer service role at Alaska Airlines. When finishing up work at the airport one day, Dinah saw a flyer about careers in aviation maintenance, and decided to try out a class or two at South. She loved the work immediately, and committed to getting the credential. "The scholarship made it possible," she says. "Thank you!"

Jarvis

A Seattle Central College grad who has now transferred to the University of Washington School of Social Work, Jarvis received the 2022-2023 Pugh-Scoggins Memorial Endowed Scholarship. Unable to start college right after high school because of duties to family, Jarvis later bootstrapped himself into work with Kaiser Permanente after completing YearUp, a youth development program. At Kaiser, he was continually drawn to the work of social workers, and decided he'd like to be one himself. Now at the UW, he says he's not stopping until he has his Ph.D. in Social Welfare.

31,683 students in the 2022-2023 school year

45% people of color 48% first in their families to attend college

28 average age

SCHOLARSHIPS SNAPSHOT: 2023-24 RECIPIENTS

450 recipients out of 832 applicants

$3,793 average award

74% first-generation college students

Ulises

As a kid, Ulises was often asked to look after other kids in his family and his neighborhood. He soon realized his natural talent for it. Eventually, this led him to North Seattle College's baccalaureate program in Early Childhood Education, where he focused on becoming a resource and advocate for Spanish-speaking childcare providers. The Marilyn Smith and Richard Layton Endowed Scholarship helped him through his final year, when he also had a kid of his own. "Thank goodness for this scholarship! Without it, the cost of diapers alone might have undone me!"

Marilyn Smith Layton

When it opened in Fall 1970, North Seattle College was still under construction. Classes convened at other locations around North Seattle, including Nathan Hale High School.

That’s where Marilyn Smith Layton began what would be a forty-year career as a North professor, teaching literature and writing classes — including courses she created that are still taught now. Among these are Reading and Writing Autobiography, Intercultural Communication, and Service Learning and Leadership. Beginning in 1987, she also taught in path-breaking Integrated Studies programs at North, with a particular focus on the intersection of writing and science.

In 2020, to help celebrate North’s half-centennial, and to honor her late husband, who also loved the school, the now professor-emeritus established the Marilyn Smith and Richard Layton Endowment with the goal of helping more people experience the wonder of learning and gain the skills and knowledge to build, rich, satisfying and contributing lives.

20% have dependents 49% had food or housing insecurity in the last month

“Throughout my four decades of teaching, my students awed and inspired me. I also know that the journey can be arduous, especially for students of limited means who need to balance school and family with long hours at work. There is also some self-interest behind the endowment, as there was in my teaching. I want to live in a community made better by people who are realizing their potential through education."

The late Dr. Richard Layton and Professor Emeritus Marilyn Smith Layton

Newly Established Scholarships

The Ron Zimmerman Scholarship

The culinary world lost a giant with the 2023 passing of Ron Zimmerman, co-founder of The Herbfarm.

Ron and his wife

Carrie Van Dyck co-founded The Herbfarm in 1986. Known for exceptional cuisine that celebrates nature, the changing seasons, and the freshest local ingredients, the restaurant is garlanded with honors. These include the “best-of” lists of Zagat, Wine Spectator and Forbes, as well as twenty-plus years of AAA Five-Diamond Awards — the only Washington restaurant with this distinction.

Carrie and other friends of The Herbfarm hope to pass along Ron's joyful legacy of culinary excellence, stewardship of the earth, and conviviality at the table to a new, diverse generation. So, they've established a fund — now just above $120K strong — to give added support to culinary, wine, and hospitality students at the Colleges offered paid internships at The Herbfarm with now-chef and owner Chris Weber. The aim is to remove basic-needs burdens like rent, transportation, and childcare that may keep a student from accepting the internship and having a potentially life-shaping experience.

The Seattle Colleges Foundation is honored to be part of this innovative tribute to one of our region's greatest restaurateurs. Want to contribute? Please contact us.

Lexi Harris Endowed Scholarship

Alexandra “Lexi” Brenneman Harris died too young, at just 38. But she lived her brief life to the fullest, and made a positive mark in a challenging profession — as a police officer.

Born and raised in Seattle, Lexi attended Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Central College’s Running Start program, ultimately entering the fitness industry. Along the way, she formed diverse friendships and interests, and a deep appreciation of the city’s rich mosaic of cultures.

At age 32, Lexi joined the Seattle Police Department, seeking new ways to serve the community she loved. In the early morning of June 13, 2021, after a shift, she stopped to render aid in a major accident on I-5. Tragically, amid the scene's chaos, she herself was struck and killed.

Those who knew Lexi as a police officer, and before, recall her as a person of unusual empathy and compassion, no matter a person's circumstances. Often she helped patrol downtown, working with people experiencing homelessness and other crises, always extending her kindness and grace. She brought that same bigheartedness to colleagues on the force, mindful of the stress and trauma that officers can carry.

The new Lexi Harris Endowed Scholarship will support women pivoting in their careers, especially those aspiring to law enforcement or other helping professions. You can contact the Foundation to contribute. Gifts to date total just over $96K.

SPOTLIGHT PROGRAM

The Seattle Colleges Foundation is honored to support Mainstay, a Seattle Central program empowering individuals with developmental disabilities by preparing them for fulfilling careers. The program supports 125 individuals annually; 72% of them from low-income backgrounds. One participant is Joshua, now 22.

Josh’s intellectual disabilities made his K-12 years a struggle. But seeing his promise, Seattle Public Schools linked him to its program called Bridges, which builds essential work skills, and makes connections to internships, in Josh’s case at Swedish Medical Center. Then the Mainstay program went further, helping Josh deepen these skills and gain added confidence, as well as tap into other resources for a more self-sufficient adult life.

Now with Mainstay’s long-term support, Josh has secured a 20-hour-a-week job with Compass Group, a dining-services vendor at Amazon in South Lake Union. It’s work he loves, arriving early each morning by Metro bus. He speaks often about the warmth and kindness of the Amazon employees he interacts with. And he talks about loving the pay — $21.35 an hour — as well as the food.

“They feed me both breakfast and lunch,” he says. “And it’s always great!”

“I feel like I’ve found a work home, and my mom and I couldn’t be more grateful to Compass Group, Amazon — and Mainstay.”

CAMPAIGN DOLLARS AT WORK

Powering Innovation

Successfully serving our diverse students means keeping up with an educational and employment landscape that changes ever faster. Continual innovation in programs, curricula and practices is essential, and Equity Can’t Wait is mobilizing the resources to make it possible.

New B.S. in Computer Science program

According to a recent projection, Seattle will add 10,000 tech jobs a year for the foreseeable future — many of these in red-hot fields like Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. To meet the demand — and include local people in the opportunities, not just newcomers — the Seattle Colleges established a new Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree, just the second in the state at a community college. Through the Seattle Colleges Foundation, Amazon generously seeded the program with a $2.5M grant.

The program gives students with solid associate-level

preparation in computer science the opportunity to earn a B.S. in two additional years at North. Response has been strong, with 21 students enrolling for the first Fall 2022 cohort, and 28 for Fall 2023. Diverse in race, nationality, and gender identity, they will be part of a new generation of industry contributors that is not only technically expert, but sensitive to the cultural and ethical issues surrounding many of today’s high-tech innovations.

Excitingly, a growing number of students in the program are starting their educational journey in Seattle Promise [described elsewhere in this report].

Project Baldwin mentoring program

Launched with dollars from Equity Can't Wait donors, Project Baldwin supports the academic success of men at the Colleges by fostering a sense of belonging and selfefficacy. In addition to study sessions, social gatherings, and networking opportunities, the program organizes peer-to-peer mentoring relationships that address school life, career aspirations, mental wellness, and food and housing insecurity. Over the last year, 103 men have taken part, many from communities long under-represented in higher education.

CAMPAIGN DOLLARS AT WORK

Strengthening Capacity

Excellent staff, faculty, facilities and equipment are the bread and butter of successful programs. Equity Can't Wait is lending support.

Increasing access to the trades

A wave of retirements is hitting the skilled trades, imperiling the construction of the homes and infrastructure our city needs for its future. Rebuilding this critical workforce will require bringing a more diverse set of people into these challenging, fulfilling, and increasingly well-paid roles. Job one is helping more women and people of color learn about the opportunities and, ideally, explore them through pre-apprenticeships.

A $300K grant from the Schultz Family Foundation is making that possible, in part by letting South Seattle College’s Georgetown Apprenticeship & Education Center create two essential new staff positions.

One of these focuses on active recruitment and support of pre-apprentices (including their next steps after program completion). The other role coordinates with Georgetown’s pre-apprenticeship partners — YouthBuild, ANEW and AJAC— to ensure they have all they need for success, including tools and equipment.

All these efforts are quickly adding up to substantially more participation by people earlier left out of trades opportunities, strong rates of program completion, and

growing numbers continuing to full-on apprenticeships (the other 4-year degrees, but where students earn while they learn).

Equally key to this growing success is a second benefactor, the built-environment innovator, McKinstry Thanks to a $75K grant, Georgetown has been able to provide financially-struggling pre-apprentices with access not only to a new food pantry, but also work pants, work shirts, jackets, personal protective equipment, and composite-toes boots that alone can cost $150.

Learn more about South Seattle College's Georgetown Apprenticeship Center.

Scan to watch the 3-minute video

A boost to Seattle Central's Wood Technology Center

Seattle Central’s Wood Technology Center was honored to receive one of the inaugural awards in the Lowe’s Foundation’s new Gable Grants program — $750,000! The Lowe’s initiative is designed to help 50,000 new people enter skilled trades careers nationwide over the next five years. Seattle Colleges was one of just eleven community colleges selected for first-round support, and the only in the Pacific Northwest.

The Lowe’s grant will help the Wood Technology Center’s Carpentry, Residential Construction, PACT Pre-Apprenticeship, and Boat-Building/Fine Carpentry programs significantly expand their enrollment and operate the Center at an accelerated tempo — critical since the Center is the leading source of trained carpenters in a city with one the country's most acute shortages of housing

Clockwise from top: Exterior of the Wood Technology Center (WTC) in Seattle's Central District. Lowe's Denise Hill presenting a jumbo check to Seattle Colleges

Chancellor Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap and Seattle

Colleges Foundation CEO Kerry Howell; Deputy Mayor Greg Wong; Former House Speaker Frank Chopp, 43rd

District Representative; Lowe's officials with Associate Dean

Rob Watt of the WTC (fourth from left).

Dr. Rosie RimandoChareunsap was named chancellor of the Seattle Colleges in August 2023, following a national search. Her career with the Colleges reaches back more than twenty years, including as president of South Seattle College starting in 2018. Among her degrees are an Ed.D. from Washington State University and an M.P.A. from the University of Washington. In 2019, the Aspen Institute selected her for its prestigious Presidential Fellows Program, and in 2023 the international Filipina Women’s Network named her one of the world’s most influential Filipinas.

Q&A with Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap

Dr. Rosie, as you reflect back, when did your passion for education and equity first ignite?

I attended a well-resourced high school on Bainbridge Island. It was a positive academic experience, for the most part, even though I wasn’t like most of the other kids, who were white and often fairly affluent. My family relocated to Kitsap County because my father was in the Navy and stationed at a nearby base. My school experience wasn’t the same as many of my brilliant Black and Brown classmates. I was judged as “collegebound” while my peers were not because of systemic bias that “tracked” them at an early age into a non-college pathway. At this notable high school that prided itself on sending students to college, my friends weren’t encouraged in that dream. I didn’t have the framework to understand all of it or the language to articulate what I was seeing when I was 16, 17, 18, but I gained it later. Now confronting that kind of systemic injustice and suppressed potential is what fires me every day.

You’re the first woman of color to serve as Chancellor of Seattle Colleges. What significance do you see in that?

I feel a deep responsibility and honor in this distinction. I have been preceded by another woman in this role, Jill Wakefield, and we’ve had men of color as chancellors, including the legendary Charles Mitchell, who was also a UW football great. So I feel like I'm continuing that Seattle Colleges legacy — at least in terms of representative leadership. I don’t know about the athletic aspect, but I am at least glad to represent WSU Cougars as well!

But, yes, I of course have a distinct perspective, based not only on my experiences as a Filipino American woman, but as someone leading this institution at a very particular time, when work and higher education are both undergoing major upheavals. How will AI, robotics, shifting demographics, climate shocks, political volatility, and our region’s increasing unaffordability affect what we do at the Colleges? It’s difficult to say as yet, especially since these things intersect and interact. But this much is certain: however things play out, I will fight to ensure that students from historically excluded communities and families of color have every opportunity to flourish.

You mentioned AI and robotics. Do you have thoughts yet about what they mean for community college education?

Well, with AI, we’re still discovering what this means for us. But what’s already clear is that this and other technologies are driving a pace of change that we’ve never before seen as a city or a country. And, if you’re complacent about your skills, you will be left behind. It’s the lifelong learners who will flourish, and community colleges can be — and should be — the place where folks from every walk of life, of every age, of every income level, will periodically come back and reboot their skillset. I predict a surge in demand for certificate and continuing education courses, and we need to be ready for that.

[more online]

Campaign and Colleges Leadership

Seattle Colleges Foundation Board of Directors

CHAIR

Jon Fine

Former President & CEO, United Way of King County

VICE-CHAIR

Jackie Martinez-Vasquez

Vice President Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, BECU

SECRETARY

Sarah Jane Gunter

Vice President, Amazon

TREASURER

Mike Hughes

Former President, Safeco

Rick Davis

Community Volunteer

Mark Dawson

Private Investor

Barbara Dingfield

Immediate Past Chair; Community Volunteer

Mark Gleason

Marine Insurance Broker, Parker, Smith & Feek

Aracely Godinez

Regional Marketing Director, Global Leasing, Boeing

Steve Hill

Trustee Emeritus, Seattle Colleges; Community Volunteer

Timothy Howell

Market Manager, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Joseph Jahn

Retired Executive; Community Volunteer

Richard Locke

Principal and Founder, DataWeb, Inc.

Dr. Sandra Madrid

Former Assistant Dean, University of Washington School of Law; Community Volunteer

Lauren McGowan

Executive Director for Puget Sound, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Marc Mora, M.D.

SVP, Kaiser Permanente and the Washington Permanente Medical Group

Rahim Rajan

Community Volunteer

Will Rance

Vice President of Community Relations, WSECU

Fred Rivera

Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Seattle Mariners

Richard Romero

President/CEO, Seattle Credit Union

Shiao Yen Wu

Owner and CEO, WPI Real Estate

Ex Officio Board Members

Louise Chernin

Trustee, Seattle Colleges

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap, Chancellor, Seattle Colleges

Dr. Sayumi Irey

Acting President, South Seattle College

Dr. Bradley Lane

Interim President, Seattle Central College

Dr. Rachel Solemsaas

Interim President, North Seattle College

Kerry Howell

Vice Chancellor for Advancement, Seattle Colleges; CEO, Seattle Colleges Foundation

Seattle Colleges Leadership

Dr. Rosie Rimando Chareunsap Chancellor, Seattle Colleges

Equity Can’t Wait Advisory Council

HONORARY CAMPAIGN CHAIR

Jim Sinegal

Co-Founder and former CEO, Costco

ADVISORY COUNCIL CO-CHAIR

Dr. Constance Rice

President, Very Strategic Group

ADVISORY COUNCIL CO-CHAIR

Jon Fine

Chair, Seattle Colleges Foundation

Bobbe Bridge

Founder and former President & CEO, Center for Children and Youth Justice

Bruce Brooks President, Craft3

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap, Chancellor, Seattle Colleges

Louise Chernin Trustee, Seattle Colleges

Jolenta Coleman-Bush

Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Philanthropies

Phil Condit

Former CEO, The Boeing Company

Barbara Dingfield

Immediate Past Chair, Seattle Colleges Foundation

Jila Javdani

General Manager, Slalom Consulting

Mark Jonson

Vice President for PNW Construction, McKinstry

Gary S. Kaplan, M.D.

Senior Vice President, CommonSpirit Health

Steve Loeb

President & CEO, Alaska Distributors Co.

Dr. Sandra Madrid

Former Assistant Dean, University of Washington School of Law

Lauren McGowan

Executive Director for Puget Sound, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Steve Mullin

President, Washington Roundtable

Patti Payne

Columnist, Puget Sound Business Journal

Diana Birkett Rakow

SVP, Public Affairs and Sustainability, Alaska Airlines

Fred Rivera

Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Seattle Mariners

Mary Jean Ryan

Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

Alice Shobe

Global Director, Amazon in the Community

Gary Swindler

President & CEO Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU)

Emma Uman

Portfolio Manager, Ballmer Group

Dr. Jill Wakefield

Chancellor Emeritus, Seattle Colleges

Howard Wright

CEO, Seattle Hospitality Group

Alex Yang

Seattle Market Executive, Bank of America

Seattle Colleges Board of Trustees

CHAIR

Rosa Peralta

Senior Program Manager, Satterberg Foundation

VICE-CHAIR

Brian Surratt

President and CEO, Greater Seattle Partners

Dr. Rachel Solemsaas Interim President, North Seattle College

Dr. Bradley Lane

Interim President, Seattle Central College

Teresita Batayola

President Emeritus, International Community Health Services

Louise Chernin

Past President and CEO, Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA)

Colleen Echohawk

CEO, Eighth Generation

Dr. Sayumi Irey

Acting President, South Seattle College

2022–2023 Financials

July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023

When we began the Equity Can’t Wait campaign, we had little idea what to expect. With a $50 million goal, the campaign was one of the boldest and biggest ever attempted by a group of community colleges — schools that have little history of philanthropy compared to private colleges and universities, or large 4-year public schools.

To our wonderment and satisfaction, the campaign has soared, with hundreds of donors of every description, and at every gift level, declaring they want to be part of equitable educational opportunity for Seattleites too often left out. Our community will be measurably stronger in the years ahead because of this generosity.

Thank you.

Purpose of Funding

Campaign Donor Honor Roll

through January, 2024

$2.5 Million+

Amazon

Anonymous (1)

$1 Million +

Ballmer Group

Terry Barksdale

BECU

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

City of Seattle OED

Craig Eaton

Estate of Eva C. Gordon

Foundation for the Seattle Colleges

Anonymous (3)

$500,000 +

Bainum Family Foundation

Costco Wholesale

Jon Fine and Paula Selis

Heartsprung Fund WA

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Lowe's Foundation

Ann and Terry Lukens

Seattle Mariners

Anonymous (1)

$250,000 +

Altom + Carlson Foundation

American Financial Solutions

Dick and Randi Baldwin

Carl and Renee Behnke

Jon and Bobbe Bridge

Cleo F. Corcoran

The Donald Family Foundation

Foundry10

Jerry and Linda Hermanson

Richard and Francine Loeb

Family Foundation

Brian McAndrews and Elise Holschuh

Mike and Diane O’Neill

S&M Rosen Family LLC

Schultz Family Foundation

Jim and Jan Sinegal

Family Foundation

The Tudor Foundation

United Way of King County

WSECU

Anonymous (1)

$100,000 +

Bank of America

Berman Family Foundation

Brettler Family Foundation

David and Anita Choate

Mark and Christina Dawson

Deloitte

Barbara Dingfield

Nolen and Carole Ellison

Matt Griffin and Evelyne Rozner

Mike and Becky Hughes

Lu Jiang

Johnson Controls

Liberty Mutual / Safeco Insurance

Marination LLC

McKinstry

Microsoft Corporation

Neukom Family Foundation

Mary Pugh and Michael Scoggins

Dr. Margaret Rust

Herman and Faye Sarkowsky

Charitable Foundation

Greg and Julia Schechter

Theiline P. Scheumann

Seattle Children’s Hospital

Slalom Foundation

Marilyn Smith Layton

Carrie Van Dyck

Joan Watjen

Anonymous (1)

3 CAMPUSES

5 SATELLITE TRAINING CENTERS CLOSE TO 32,000 STUDENTS