Bobcat Society

All in for Our Students!

The Bobcat Society recognizes and rewards our outstanding COCC faculty, staff and retirees who give to the COCC Foundation through one-time gifts or payroll donations in support of students and the College.

Join the Bobcat Society

The faculty, staff and retiree giving campaign.

As faculty and staff, you invest your time and talent in COCC and our students every day. When you extend your contributions to include philanthropy, you express your belief in COCC’s mission and actively support our long-standing culture of excellence!

Please join us in support of our students by making a gift today to the COCC Foundation. Faculty and staff participation play an important role in ensuring COCC's success, as well as influencing gifts from corporations and foundations, who often consider faculty and staff giving rates when determining their own support for COCC.

Faculty & Staff Giving Opportunities

Listed below are the three giving opportunities for faculty and staff.

1. COCC Bobcat Scholarship Fund

This fund supports annual scholarships for students in any program at COCC. The recipients of this fund have financial need and show promise and dedication, demonstrated through their scholarship application. A gift to this fund ensures that qualified and deserving students get the financial support that they need to succeed this year.

2. COCC Staff Endowed Scholarship Fund

This endowed fund was created in 1998 to perpetually support student scholarships at COCC. This fund has grown through the generosity of past and current staff and faculty. A gift to this fund ensures that scholarship support will be available to deserving COCC students in perpetuity. Recipients of these funds have financial need and show promise and dedication, demonstrated through their scholarship application.

3. COCC Student Relief Fund

College students are masters of thrifty solutions: finding free movie nights, shopping around for books, and living off instant noodles. But sometimes, an expense comes up that can't be avoided. Examples are: unexpected transportation issues, housing crisis, threat of utility shut off or childcare costs. That's where these emergency relief funds come in. These funds keep students in school, preventing them from dropping out due to a short-term financial crisis. Students in financial crisis submit an application and provide verification. Requests for emergency relief funding is reviewed by an internal committee and if approved, funds are expeditiously available for the student.

Ways to Give

+ Payroll Donation

Setting up an automatic payroll donation is the easiest way to consistently give to the COCC Foundation:

Payroll donations are deducted monthly from your paycheck
Reduces administrative costs for the COCC Foundation because there are no processing fees involved
Allows you to spread your support over the course of a year, in smaller, more financially manageable amounts
Payroll donations come from your after-tax earnings and you can deduct the total annual donated amount!
You get to feel good helping COCC students each month!

Download and fill out the Payroll Donation & Deduction Form and return to the COCC Foundation for processing.

+ One-Time Gift

A one-time gift to the COCC Foundation is greatly appreciated:

Your gift is tax-deductible
There are many ways to give a one-time gift: check, cash, credit card, retirement account distributions, and appreciated stock.
Your donation will go directly to supporting students in need at COCC

Visit the Donation Page to make a one-time gift

Why Give?

+ Does my gift really make a difference?

Yes! The more people who choose to give, the greater the collective impact will be. Last year, more than 114 staff, faculty and retirees made gifts to the COCC Foundation, totaling $126,000 in support! But there is still unmet need in providing deserving students with financial support - this year 40% of qualified applicants were not awarded a scholarship because of available funding. Every gift makes a collective difference in helping to provide more support - whether it be $5 a month or $100 - gifts of all sizes truly make a difference!

+ I work at COCC, why should I also give money to the College?

Gifts to the COCC Foundation have a powerful effect on COCC’s ability to remain an affordable and top-tier institution. It is hard to ask the community to support COCC students if we don’t believe in our work enough to invest in it ourselves. Corporations and private foundations often look for high-levels of support from our faculty and staff when making funding decisions, as well.

Please note: The COCC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all gifts are tax-deductible.

+ Students pay tuition. Why does COCC need charitable support?

It may be surprising, but tuition and fees account for only about one-quarter of the actual cost of an education at COCC. Students who receive a tuition and fees scholarship can direct their other financial resources toward the other education costs, like books, transportation, equipment, exams or certifications. The full cost of attendance at COCC varies from $16,034 - $22,722 annually.

Tom Barry

"Scholarships open the doors to higher education that might otherwise be closed. For the recipient, a scholarship may be the gift that opens up the opportunity to explore and achieve personal and career aspirations. I support the Foundation and its mission of increasing access to higher education and, in the process, transforming lives.

Supporting the Foundation supports students and our community. It’s simple math, right? The more contributions to the Foundation, the more contributions to students, the more contributions to our community."

Cindy Jeffreys

"This is one of the very best investments you can make with your money. While the payback on your investment is not more money, it is better-- in the hearts and smiles of those that are helped by your generosity. You just can't beat that.

I don't think anyone would disagree how good it makes you feel to listen to the testimonies of our scholarship recipients. But those testimonies hit you at a whole new level when you know you contributed to the scholarship fund that helped them achieve their goals.

To top it all off our COCC Payroll Deduction Plan makes it so easy. You only have to think about it once a year! I think I started with a deduction amount of $10. (Two cups coffee a month!) The next year, after we received our annual raise, I increased my donation $5... and so on year after year. Doing that you don't even notice a reduction in your income!"