The Kansas State University Foundation Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations serves as a catalyst to promote and strengthen relationships between corporations and foundations and the KSU academic community. Comprehensive strategic partnerships are encouraged in which a variety of mutually beneficial programs are initiated between the University and corporations or foundations.
The process of building strategic partnerships with corporations is initially based on identifying the University's strengths and matching those with corporate needs. Some of the components that must be analyzed include a corporation's current involvement with KSU such as research funding, student recruiting, internship placements and corporate giving.
Another important component in the evaluation process is the historic involvement of corporations with K-State, such as alumni employed by the company, top alumni executives, and total giving history.
Examples of corporations that have partnerships involving a variety of programs at K-State include:
Black and Veatch
Koch Industries
Edward Jones
Payless ShoeSource
Cargill
The Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations often organizes a team of individuals from the Foundation and the University to develop a "corporate alliance." This alliance produces partnerships between K-State and multiple corporations resulting in new areas of research and new technology, student interaction and recruitment, and faculty involvement and enhancements.
This office, in cooperation with the Foundation Matching Gift Coordinator also coordinates the very successful corporate matching gift program. Last year, $873,000 in matching gift contributions were directed to K-State by alumni and friends who are employed by matching gift companies.
Making the global business world local by focusing on international corporations is a growing opportunity for K-State. The cornerstone of these opportunities is based on developing working relationships with companies that have prominent KSU alumni in management or ownership positions.
As private foundations strive to achieve the maximum impact from limited funds, the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations helps identify KSU programs that will further the private foundation's mission and also enhance the University's academic programs. These projects can range from a large interdisciplinary program to very precisely targeted projects.