State Fund Membership - Benefits, Criteria, and Details

Benefits for State Fund Members in the network include:

• Grants to Support Initiatives
• Capacity-Building Grants—for fundraising initiatives that attract new donors and gifts.
• Scholarship Challenge Grants—to generate new and additional support for scholarships.
• First Opportunity Venture Fund—supports multi-college programs that increase access to colleges by students from underserved populations.
• National Venture Fund—supports statewide, innovative programs.
• UPS Scholarships—provides each State Fund Member with a scholarship for a student at each of its member colleges and universities.
• CIC-FIHE Endowment—supports the grants to State Fund Members for programs and student scholarships.
• Annual Conference—provides State Fund Members with a forum for face-to-face networking, professional development, and opportunities to share best practices.
• Technical Support—CIC staff provides advice and support for each State Fund’s fundraising activities.
• FIHE Community Site/Listserv—an online community through which to conduct discussions, share documents, and announce events. Also available is a listserv for the State Fund Members.
• Annual Surveys and Benchmarking Reports—To assist State Fund Members through assembly of comparative data, CIC conducts annual surveys of State Fund Members’ operations and gift income, salary and benefits, and membership satisfaction. Customized benchmarking reports on gift income are available upon request.
• Making the Case—State Fund Members enjoy access to CIC’s website, which include statistics, graphs, articles, and speeches that assist members in making the case for independent higher education.
• Reduced Fees—Members receive discounts on registration fees for CIC’s Presidents Institute and other events, as well as on membership in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Each of the 32 State Fund Members is a nonprofit (501(c)3 IRS status) consortium that generates financial resources for, and coordinates beneficial collaboration program among, its member independent colleges and universities. These consortia joined CIC following the merger of CIC and the Foundation for Independent Higher Education in 2010. They are expected to be active in the State Fund network, seek support for their member colleges (particularly in the area of raising scholarship funding), coordinate collaborative programs, and pay annual dues to CIC.

​Annual dues of State Fund Members are calculated based on the State Fund’s number of member colleges and universities. For the 2011-2012 year, the dues are $665 per member institution.

​In the agreement for the October 2010 merger between the Foundation for Independent Higher Education and the Council of Independent Colleges, it was specified that there would be no new State Funds considered for membership during the first two years following the merger. Once this transition period is reached, the application process will be posted. While commitments to additional program criteria will be required, the applicant also must: a) be a nonprofit (501(c)3 IRS status) consortium of and for nonprofit independent colleges and universities in one of the states of the United States; b) be situated in a state that is not currently represented among CIC’s current State Fund Members, as there can be only one official State Fund Member from each state; and c) offer, among the programs of the consortium, proactive fundraising on behalf of the member colleges.

​If you have membership questions or need additional details on membership criteria, contact Kate Webber, CIC membership manager, at (202) 466-7230 or memberservices@cic.nche.edu.