Hope College, a private Christian college in Holland, Michigan, has launched Hope Forward, a new program intended ultimately to cover the full cost of tuition for all Hope undergraduates through private philanthropy.
The vision for the program was first presented by Hope President Matthew Scogin at his inauguration on September 13, 2019. Since that time, the college has raised more than $31.1 million toward its implementation.
With that initial fundraising in hand, Hope has announced that it would begin a pilot this fall, with an initial cohort of 22 students. Tuition for these students will be fully funded by a private gift from an anonymous donor. A second cohort of about the same size is also planned to begin in 2022-23, funded by the same donor.
“We’re excited to be pursuing a new model for funding higher education,” Scogin said in a press release. “Rather than require students to pay for their education in advance, through what is too often a transactional relationship, we are working toward a funding model based on the biblical principles of generosity and gratitude. Once it’s implemented, students will receive a transformational education, for which others have paid. Then, when they are graduates, we will ask them — out of gratitude for what they’ve received — to be generous in response by investing in future generations of students.”
He added, “By eliminating the need for students to finance their education up front, we’re pursuing a number of goals as a college community. First, tied to our Christian mission, we want to make a Hope education available to all students, not only those who come from wealthier backgrounds. Second, we believe the business model of higher education is broken and we want to pursue a more sustainable framework. Finally, we want to enable our graduates to enter their careers and communities with a focus on positively impacting the world unburdened by tuition debt. This vision will take many years to see to fruition, but the journey starts now and we are encouraged by early momentum.”
The program was approved by Hope’s Board of Trustees in January 2021. The projection is that it will require the college to grow its endowment of about $280 million by at least $1 billion to fully fund the program, a goal that Scogin has estimated will take 10-15 years.
Under the program, participating students will receive a Hope College education with tuition fully funded by gifts from others. They will still be required to pay for their room and board and some incidental fees, which together total about $11,000 per year. Sticker-price tuition for the 2021-22 academic year at Hope is $36,300. Its total enrollment stands at about 3,100 students.
Using a “pay it forward” approach, students will have their tuition paid and then be expected to give back to the college after graduation. In the college’s view, graduates will “become part of a continuum of generational support for the students of the future.” Participating students will sign a non-binding commitment, pledging to donate to Hope on an annual basis. They will not be required to specify an amount.
Hope will prioritize the program in all its fundraising, including capital campaigns. According to its news release, “a primary driver of the fully funded tuition model will be a robust affinity-based giving program, which will allow donors to give to what they love and in turn help build budget-relieving endowments that will strengthen the college’s financial foundation, providing budget relief that reduces the need for tuition revenue.”
Hope’s experiment will be watched closely. Although “pay it forward” tuition concepts have been around for some time, they’ve been premised on income-based repayment plans, such as Oregon developed. To date, they’ve largely stalled, unable to surmount a number of practical - and policy - obstacles. Hope is proposing an alternative funding model, based on mission-driven philanthropy. Whether it will prove to be more feasible, particularly at the scale of relatively small colleges like Hope, is an intriguing question.
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July 15, 2021 at 05:00PM
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Hope College Begins “Pay It Forward” Program With Goal Of Offering Free Tuition To All Students - Forbes
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