For social and economic payoff, support Seattle's community colleges

Seattle needs skilled community college grads now more than ever.

Addressing the city's most pressing societal issues — from adapting to climate change to solving the housing and homelessness crises — requires workers with the specialized skills that the Seattle Colleges (North, South and Seattle Central) excel at teaching.

The challenge: Even with comparatively low tuition rates, many Seattle Colleges students struggle to afford their education.

• Many students need additional financial help, despite 70% of the student body working throughout their education.

What you're missing: Seattle's cost of living is increasingly prohibitive.

• According to the Council for Community and Economic Research, the city has the ninth-highest living costs in the U.S., and housing and grocery costs soar above the national average.

Here's what else: State funding and philanthropic efforts only go so far in supporting community college students.

• Only 1% of higher education philanthropy benefits community colleges.

The solution: The Seattle Colleges Foundation is a non-profit, public 501(c)(3) organization that advances the educational mission of the Colleges.

• Giving to the Foundation supports students as they receive workforce education and enter professional-technical programs.

Your gift can help bolster resources for scholarships, mentoring, program innovation, emergency needs grants and more.

• Plus, a growing number of Seattleites are also making ultra-high-impact gifts by including the Colleges in their estate planning.

Why it's important: The Seattle Colleges make up Washington state's largest community college district and play an essential part in the city's quality of life.

• 40% of the city's undergrads attend one of the three Seattle Colleges.
• The Colleges offer associate, bachelor's, and certificate programs in more than 130 fields. These include high-skilled trades programs and programs oriented to university transfer (the Seattle Colleges are the UW's top source of transfers).
• Graduates of the Colleges' technical programs go on to fill critical roles in the city, like carpenter, ironworker, cement mason, electrician, nurse, social worker, firefighter, paramedic, public health worker and more.
• The Colleges welcome students from any and all backgrounds, including those who have been historically excluded from higher education.

• The district's nearly 34,000 students include those from communities of color (45%), first-generation college students (48%), students from lower-income households and LGBTQ students.

In other words: The relevance of community colleges like North, South and Seattle Central Colleges has perhaps never been greater.

As higher ed costs soar, and AI begins changing the nature of work, many students are questioning if a conventional college education still makes sense. For many, high-quality, lower-cost, shorter-term community college programs have growing appeal. The Wall Street Journal recently referred to Gen Z as "the toolbelt generation."

🗣️Get involved: Supporting Seattle Colleges financially, either with a here-and-now gift or a planned gift from your estate, is an investment in the diverse skills, and diverse people, who will make the future of Seattle prosperous, sustainable, and fair.

Learn more about how to make Seattle Colleges part of your estate plan.