Strategic Finance Assessment Tool

This tool will help college leaders reflect on their current institutional strategies for using finance as a key lever for institutional culture, disciplined revenue and expenditures, and partnerships.

The items in the following assessment tool reflect strong practices observed through Aspen’s research and direct engagements with excellent community colleges, which we define as those achieving high and improving levels of student success (1) both while in college and after graduation (2) overall and for students of color and low-income students. The assessment tool is organized in several domains of practice emerging from Aspen’s research and prompts users to rate their institution’s adoption of each item within each domain. Once complete, a summary of scores will allow colleges to identify strengths and weaknesses in specific practices aligned to each item and also to observe which domains most need improvement.

In this assessment tool, the term “student success” has the following meaning:

  • Success in college: Students (1) learn and (2) complete credentials.
  • Success after college: Students (1) get good jobs and/or (2) transfer and attain a bachelor’s degree.
  • Equitable outcomes and access: For Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and low-income students, the college ensures high absolute rates and minimizes gaps in (1) learning and completion outcomes for students in college, (2) transfer and workforce outcomes for students after college, and (3) enrollment of different demographic groups relative to the college’s service area.

Directions: Assess the extent to which your college engages each of the following practices, according to the scoring rubric.

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Domain 1

Finance as a Core Strategy for Driving Culture

The college communicates the importance of mission and priority in budgeting and financial management.
The college has a transparent budget—available for all to see and understand.
College cabinet members, deans, and unit heads communicate throughout the institution the importance and relevance of aligning financial allocations to mission and priorities.
The college includes discussion of stewardship for impact in every employee’s orientation process.
College employees witness financial dialogue between the CEO and CFO.

The budget process is clearly aligned with student success goals.
The college has developed a multi-year budget that reflects investments in student success priorities and is understood and discussed by the president, senior team, and board.
The college cabinet regularly reviews budget documents to assess and discuss the values and priorities they reflect.
For each budget cycle, the college president and cabinet name the values and priorities the next budget should clearly address. These statements are used throughout the budgeting process and made public.
The college president and CFO regularly review the budgeting process with questions of transparency, inclusivity, and mission-orientation in mind.
There are instances of significant resource reallocation during each year’s budget process that are correlated to student success goals.

Student success is signaled as a central goal in financial reports and requests.
The college president and other senior leaders share analysis of investments in student success initiatives with external audiences.
The college explicitly connects most/all efforts at increased appropriations or local funding initiatives to student outcomes and community impact.
College leaders review the extent to which all foundation and government grant requests align to institutional priorities, and take steps to increase alignment.

Finance staff are integrated into the student success mission.
CFO and key budgeting staff attend student success-focused work team meetings to hear the priorities and concerns being addressed.
Transparency on finance and mission impact is built into training for budgeting and financial management, including those who lead and manage student success initiatives.

Financial literacy is developed across the senior team.
The college president is aware of how well each member of the cabinet understands core financial concepts and processes.
Cabinet members are expected to obtain and are supported in receiving needed professional development in finance.
The CFO periodically meets with each member of the senior cabinet to discuss student success priorities, how budget allocations can be better aligned, and how to improve financial processes to promote (and remove barriers to) student success.

Domain 2

Funding Reform through Disciplined Resourcing

Underutilized resources are identified and put to work.

The CEO and cabinet have a process to uncover potentially underutilized resources within the college that considers year-end balances, shared services, and human capital expenditures.
The college has a plan to put underutilized assets to work, and that “reallocation” plan is shared with the board of trustees.
The CFO (or other senior college leader with responsibility for finance) has identified areas of “diffused costs” that no single person has clear authority over (i.e. software contracts, data centers) and the president/cabinet has developed goals and plans to create efficiencies in those areas.
The college cabinet has a process for establishing goals and plans to control diffused costs.

Areas for revenue growth are identified and developed.
The college cabinet has identified top opportunities for growing external revenue streams and has plans to grow those revenue streams.
The college has a portfolio management process that considers all real property assets.
The college has a “launch fund” that encourages innovative new projects at the institution aligned with the college’s major reform priorities, with the ultimate goal of scalability.

Benchmarking is used to drive efficiency and effectiveness.
The college leadership team annually benchmarks operational costs against peer colleges to identify possible areas for reducing overhead and making investments.
The college has a team specifically charged with using data within the college or compared with other colleges to unearth opportunities for improvement.
Through benchmarking, the college regularly identifies areas for operational investments and savings.
Senior administrators regularly consider and decide whether to act on recommendations for operational investments and savings.

Resource allocation is aligned to impact.
Before any initiative is started or funded, the college addresses questions about expected outcomes, cost per student, cost at scale, return on investment for both mission and revenue, and scalability.
The president and cabinet annually evaluate all strategic initiatives funded the prior year and decide whether to continue, modify, or stop them.

Implications of public funding are addressed effectively.
The president and cabinet understand fully the implications of public funding mechanisms (including performance funding) on the bottom line and have developed scenarios for the impact of possible student success outcomes on revenue projections.
College leaders and unit heads have discussed major areas of alignment and misalignment between public funding mechanisms (including performance funding) and the college’s student success goals.
The cabinet is implementing plans to (1) create incentives and communications strategies aligned to the ways the college is funded and (2) minimize negative consequences associated with areas of misalignment.

Domain 3

Generating Revenue from External Sources through Partnership across the Ecosystem

Responsibility across partnerships is allocated according to unique strengths and assets.
The college has a team assigned to identify its distinctive strengths and where it might offer services or space to other organizations for a fee.

K-12 partnerships
There is a climate of institutional receptivity to partnering with local K-12 systems to achieve economies of scale, cost savings, and new revenue.
CAOs, CFOs, and COOs meet regularly with their counterparts at local K-12 systems to look for common ground to reduce or share costs and support mission outcomes.
The college places coaches/advisors in local high schools and/or trains high school advisers to improve college-going rates, readiness, and entry into high-value programs of study.
College deans, department chairs, and faculty work with local school districts to design pathways within the dual enrollment framework that accelerate students toward completion of a high-value college credential.
The college collaborates with K-12 districts and university partners to understand each other’s incentives to deliver student outcomes and seeks common initiatives to improve outcomes.
The college president (and other senior leaders) meet with leaders from K-12 partners to identify and then collectively pursue revenue streams that could be increased through collaboration.
The college works with local K-12 systems to develop successful grant proposals that innovate across organizational boundaries and create common purpose and scale.
The college develops successful joint legislative proposals (including local funding) with K-12 that address critical issues for both systems and appeal broadly to voters.

Partnerships with four-year institutions
There is a climate of institutional receptivity to partner to achieve economies of scale and cost savings, and generate new revenue for community colleges and four-year institutions where students most often transfer.
CAOs, CFOs, and COOs meet regularly with their peers at those four-year institutions to look for common ground to reduce or share costs and support mission outcomes.
The college’s major four-year transfer partner(s) make their advisors readily available to work with students on a regular (at least weekly) basis.
The college has a transfer agreement with at least one relatively large local university that guarantees admission for (or dually enrolls) the community college’s students, with the specific goal of increasing students on 60-credit plus 60-credit bachelor’s program maps.
The college raises funds jointly with a university partner for transfer student scholarships.
The college provides educational experiences on a university partner’s campus (or from the four-year university’s faculty on the community college campus) for prospective transfer students.
The college president and other senior leaders meet with leaders from four-year institutions to identify revenue streams that could be increased through collaboration.
The college works with local four-year partners to develop successful grant proposals that innovate across organizational boundaries and create common purpose and scale.
The college develops successful joint legislative proposals with four-year partners that address a critical issue across organizational boundaries and appeal broadly to voters.

Employer Partnerships
The college sets clear goals with employers for how many students it will train/graduate for particular jobs, setting the stage for substantial employer investments.
The college works with employers to recruit students for workforce programs.
The college and employers share costs associated with student internships and other work based learning (e.g., transportation).
The college receives large-scale investments from employers to fund equipment, faculty, and other costs needed to educate students in high-value programs.
Employers make substantial investments in need-based student scholarships.
A substantial and increasing portion of employer donations come through operating funds (rather than philanthropic dollars).
The college and employer partners develop successful joint legislative and public financing proposals that address critical issues across organizational boundaries and appeal broadly to voters.

Community-based organizations (CBOs)
The college certifies CBO training partners’ instructors so state funding can be accessed for CBO training and students in CBO training receive college credit.
The college shares with CBOs costs associated with students receiving CBO benefits (i.e., space and other expenses for food bank and tax/FAFSA preparation, and transportation between campus, home, and CBO).
The college offers services from CBOs on campus and works to make all eligible students aware of them.
The college connects its work to secure students’ financial aid to the availability of other relevant services, such as tax preparation and applications for other public benefits.
The college president and other senior leaders meet with CBO leaders to identify revenue streams that could be increased through collaboration.
The college works with local CBOs to develop successful grant proposals that innovate across organizational boundaries and create common purpose and scale.

Strategic Finance Assessment Inquiry Guide

Strategic Finance Assessment Inquiry Questions

Based on your Aspen strategic finance assessment tool results, where is your college strongest and weakest?

  1. In how finance is a core strategy for driving culture that promotes higher and more equitable student outcomes? In what particular questions/domains?
  2. In funding reform through disciplined resourcing based on data and the college’s major reform priorities? In what particular questions/domains?
  3. In generating revenue from external sources through partnerships across the community ecosystem? In what particular questions/domains?

How are your strategic financial management processes and policies related to your Aspen assessment results? 

  1. What are the most effective ways your approach to strategic financial management contributes to higher and more equitable student outcomes? What evidence do you have from your assessment results?
  2. What are the least effective ways your approach to strategic financial management contributes to higher and more equitable outcomes? What evidence do you have from your assessment results?
  3. Among the weaknesses, what seems most important to address?

What is the condition of your institution’s finances?

  1. If your institution is in financial stress, which areas of your assessment results might suggest short-term ways to improve the financial condition? Which might help most over the long term?
  2. If your institution is in a strong financial position, how might strategic finance be used to make new investments that can substantially improve student outcomes? What in your assessment results suggest how such investments might be sourced and implemented?

If multiple people took the Aspen strategic finance assessment, were there any areas of disagreement in your results? What might those areas of disagreement imply about shared understanding of the college’s financial practices among senior leaders?

What challenges do you anticipate in further aligning resources to mission, and how might you address them (consider board, unions, staff, etc.)?

Next Steps

  1. What are the 1-5 most important things you have uncovered about your strategic finance capacity from your assessment tool?  How do those things relate to advancing priority student success reforms?
  2. Among the areas of strength, what do you want to keep doing and perhaps enhance?
  3. Among the areas of weakness, what few changes do you think would make the biggest positive difference?
  4. What challenges do you have (or anticipate) in further strengthening the college’s strategic finance capacity? As much as possible, identify specific challenges.
  5. What immediate next steps will you take to ensure action on these lessons learned?