MMC Fundraising Provides Money For Scholarships
August 8, 2018
One of the key factors to Mount Marty College’s (MMC) success is fundraising, a fact to which MMC President Dr. Marc Long would attest.
He said that MMC has been very successful in its fundraising in the last few years, particularly in its scholarship fund. From July 2014 to June of this year, MMC raised more than $17.7 million in cash and pledges from almost 6,900 separate gifts. More than $8 million of that total went to the endowment or annual fund, mostly for student scholarships.
"That shows that we have a lot of donors, alumni and business leaders getting excited about where MMC is going, and investing in us," Long said. "The (Yankton) community has really stepped up."
"The importance there is that those gifts from donors keep our tuition low and make Mount Marty affordable for our students," he said. "In some cases, (the students) wouldn’t be able to attend (MMC) without that support from donors."
He noted that one in five students who come to MMC are first-generation college students.
"If you go to a public university in the U.S., the state government provides a lot of that support for students, which keeps the tuition low," Long explained. "Private colleges and universities don’t have that same opportunity, so we look to donors to provide that margin of excellence to enable affordability."
Keeping the cost of tuition low through scholarships enables MMC grads to begin their careers more quickly without having debt to worry about, he added.
"I’m very thankful for all of our donors who invested in the success of the students and the college’s future," he said.
Long is doing his own fundraiser in honor of his 50th birthday Aug. 18. On his Facebook page is a link to donate to MMC’s annual scholarship fund.
"Everything we accumulate this year (for the fund) will go to scholarships next year," he said.
At this time, the fundraiser is more than halfway to its $500 goal.
"People can give as little or as much as they want," Long said. "If we exceed (the goal amount), that’s great."
People can also donate by sending money to MMC or by calling the college at 855-686-2789. The fundraiser will run until the end of August.
"It would be a great way to celebrate my birthday," Long said.