Doctoral student receives “Outstanding
Paper” from professional association

Aug. 30, 2005 -- Dr. Nancy Rieves of Marion, a recent doctoral student at the Center for Excellence in Education at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, has received the “Outstanding Paper” award for 2005 by the Southeastern Association for Community College Research.

Rieves’ paper was a product of her dissertation, “An Analysis of Public Two-Year College Foundation Fund-Raising Activities.” Rieves chose the topic after realizing that little research had been done about fund-raising efforts at two-year colleges.

With the increase in the number of community colleges across the nation and especially in Arkansas, Rieves decided to compare the fund-raising efforts of public two-year college foundations that held membership in the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education or the Council for Resource Development.

With a list of members in hand from the two organizations, she randomly selected several hundred higher education institutions to survey. A total of 394 colleges responded. The survey asked questions about fund raising for the 2003-04 fiscal year, such as expenses versus revenue.

 “The conclusions revealed that institutions engage in a large number of special fund-raising events that are relatively costly to produce. More specifically, fewer funds are raised from special events (golf tournaments, dinners, auctions, etc.) than from planned giving (charitable gifts made through wills and trusts). Based on what I see from the research, two-year colleges not engaged in planned giving activities need to consider initiating or increasing efforts in this area,” Rieves said.

“The study also revealed that while enrollment size and budget of the institution positively correlated with the total charitable revenue, the geographic location (rural, urban, or suburban) and the age of the institution did not indicate a significant difference when compared to the revenue generated.  However, the more established institutions were found to have more active planned giving programs than the less established ones,” she said.

Rieves received her bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She received a master’s degree from ASU in 1992 and a doctorate in educational leadership from ASU earlier this month.

Rieves will present her paper at the association’s annual conference and at the Association of Institutional Research’s Forum to be held next summer in New Orleans.

Outstanding Paper Award recipients are chosen based on timeliness, methodology, design, significance, and content (that has not been previously presented at regional or national meetings).

Dr. Daniel Cline was Rieves’ adviser. Rieves lives in Marion and is married to Elton A. Rieves IV, and they have two children.

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