For civic leaders to raise the $200 million they want to send any needy Denver high school student to an in-state college for free, they would have to generate more money than perhaps any well-established foundation in the city.
They say they can do it.
Already $50 million has been given to an endowment by multimillionaire oilman Tim Marquez and his wife, Bernadette, and another $20 million has come in from CollegeInvest. But program officers hope to grow that endowment to the $200 million goal within the next few years.
After that, they hope to keep the program going on $20 million a year: $10 million generated by the $200 million investment and $10 million raised annually.
Such a moneymaking pace would eclipse that of other successful foundations, including the Denver Foundation, an 81-year-old organization that raised $43 million last year. The Children’s Hospital has raised $23 million since 2001 for its endowment.
This month, city and Denver Public Schools officials announced the creation of a city scholarship fund that would send any DPS student who needs financial help to an in-state college. The program will start this spring with three pilot Denver high schools. By 2008, it will be expanded citywide. Participating students also will get a free computer.
Those behind the program say its sheer mission will be enough to bring in cash.
“I can guarantee that a kid who goes to college will put more money into this community, raise healthier children and will be less likely to get divorced than someone who doesn’t,” said Janet Gullickson, executive director for the Denver Scholarship Foundation.
Gullickson envisions massive community drives to make this work: buckets in grocery stores, students in college giving $1 a week, whole fundraising events geared around the program’s needs.
Leaders will also tap the city’s industry giants – cable, telecommunications and oil and gas – for large dollar contributions.
“Colorado has $200 million dollars,” she said.
Researchers at the Colorado Children’s Campaign doesn’t think the bill will be that much. Only about half of DPS graduates go to college, and only about 32 percent of those finish, so they think the program could cost $6.7 million to $9.4 million a year.
Those estimates don’t include tuition costs at the University of Denver or Regis University, both pricey private schools participating in the program.
But Marquez said he hopes the college promise brings the 30,000 to 40,000 students in Denver who don’t attend the city’s public schools back to DPS, which would drive up the program’s costs.
Also not known is how many students are undocumented immigrants, who don’t qualify for in- state tuition or any state or federal aid programs.
“For a city the size of Denver, it will be embarrassing to all of us if we can’t come up with this,” said Marquez, a Lincoln High School graduate who recently has given $10 million to his collegiate alma mater, the Colorado School of Mines.
“If people can come up with money for a hospital or an art museum, they can do this. It’s really not that much money.”
Betsy Mangone, a vice president for the Denver Foundation and a national fundraising specialist, said that people give money when they can tell their money is making a difference.
“It’s not easy,” Mangone said. “You have to pay attention to your donors. You have to find people interested in your cause and be accountable to them or else it’s not going to work.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
