Administration

Subject: Naming of College Facilities

Number: 5.2

Date: September 2022

Supersedes: October 2013, November 2002

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Policy Statement

Montgomery County Community College (the “College”) may honor or memorialize individuals and/or companies for extraordinary contributions to the College. Those contributions may be in the form of major financial gifts, significant time and talent devoted to the College by dedicated members of the College community, and/or distinguished service on the part of faculty and/or staff members. Contributions made to the College may receive recognition in the form of named physical elements, programs, scholarships, lecture series and/or other activities. Naming recognition must be consistent with the reputation and compatible with the mission of the College; and will be commensurate with the scale and nature of the honor sought, in all such cases as determined by the College in its discretion.

Other than where an honorary name for a facility has been approved by the College’s Board of Trustees (the “College Trustees”), College facilities will ordinarily be given functional names that are reasonably descriptive of and will identify the principal activity or purpose of the facility as determined by the College in its discretion.

Reason for Policy

The naming of a physical or non-physical asset of the College is appropriate when a significant contribution has been received for the benefit of the College and/or to honor the character, service or other positive merits of an individual.

 This naming policy is adopted to:

• Provide clarity, consistency and transparency to the naming process.
• Ensure minimum funding levels are maintained.
• Serve as a reference document for the College’s Foundation staff and the Board (the “Foundation Board”) of the Montgomery County Community College Foundation (the “Foundation”).

The College will consider the following two general categories of naming opportunities:

Honorary Naming: The College considers the naming of a building, part of a building, or other property or asset of the College, to be among the highest levels of recognition the College can bestow. In that context, it will only be in rare circumstances that College property or other assets will be named in order to honor or memorialize someone who has made an extraordinary contribution to the College. 

Persons considered by the College for naming honors shall be determined by the College in its discretion to have been dedicated to the purpose, nature and mission of the College, and shall have achieved outstanding distinction, through civic, intellectual and/or artistic contributions, to the development of the College, the region served by the College, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and/or the nation. Responsibility for the naming of a College building or other College asset in honor of an individual rests solely with the College or its Designees (as defined below).

Philanthropic Naming: Consideration for naming of a College building, part of a building, classroom or other College property or asset may be given in recognition of a major financial gift to the College. The College’s Foundation staff will seek financial gifts commensurate with the honor sought, and consistent with the reputation and compatible with the mission of the College, as determined by the College in its discretion. Consideration for naming of a College building, etc., will be given, in particular, with respect to major gifts that represent a significant percentage of the cost of the subject building, part of a building, classroom or other College property or asset. 

The responsibility for the naming of College buildings and other physical and non-physical properties and assets is a collaborative effort between the College and the Foundation. 

Considerations

The following considerations will be the primary ones taken into account when dealing with opportunities for the naming of physical and non-physical properties and other assets of the College.

• Recognition will be consistent with the College’s mission. In this regard, due attention will be given to both the long and short term appropriateness of the naming.
• Unless an agreed upon time period has been stipulated in the applicable gift agreement, the naming of a physical or non-physical property or other asset of the College in recognition of a donor or other individual implies a commitment by the College to the donor that the property or other asset will be maintained by the College for so long as the continued use and/or occupancy of such property or other asset remains, in the discretion of the College, reasonable, prudent and viable under the circumstances. In the event that the College, in its discretion, determines that a cessation of, or other change in, the use, occupancy and/or maintenance of such property or other asset is necessary, warranted and/or unavoidable, the College will try to find an alternative naming opportunity. If the naming has exceeded 20 years, in its discretion, make a determination that the naming has concluded.
• The College will consider outright gifts, pledges, and irrevocable deferred gift arrangements, with respect to naming opportunities. In the case of pledges and/or irrevocable deferred gifts, the College, in its discretion, may determine that, while it is appropriate to implement an immediate naming of a physical or non-physical property or other asset, the applicable gift amount should be set at an amount which, in the discretion of the College, reflects the delay in the College’s receiving the subject gift.
• The College reserves the right to remove the naming rights given to any physical or non-physical College property or other asset should the College determine, in its reasonable discretion, that there has been an adverse change in the reputation of the donor to an extent deemed relevant by the College. 
• To support the naming of a non-physical asset of the College (e.g., a center, an institute, a program, an academic unit, or a faculty chair) through the establishment of an endowment (i.e., a gift with stipulations regarding usage), the College will, in its discretion, and as more fully described below, require that the endowment be in an amount anticipated to be sufficient to generate annual earnings consistent and ample enough to sustain the non-physical asset on a permanent basis.

Endowments

Overview

Endowed gifts are intended to create an ongoing funding source to help ensure the College’s future, while at the same time recognizing a donor’s generosity. Endowments support a wide variety of initiatives at the College, including such things as scholarships, fellowships, professorships, lecture series, library acquisitions, academic programs, co-curricular programs, equipment purchases, and capital improvements. Endowed gifts to or for the benefit of the College are usually invested with the Foundation’s pooled endowment assets. Those pooled endowment assets are managed by the Foundation’s Finance Committee in conjunction with an independent external investment advisor.

The spending rate policy for the endowment is determined by the Foundation Board and, currently, is calculated based upon a three-year moving average of the return on the Foundation’s endowed assets, valued on December 31. The spending rate may, from time to time, be adjusted by and in the discretion of the Foundation Board, based upon market performance and other economic factors.

When an endowment has been established, the practice is for the endowed funds to be invested by the Foundation, and only the investment income generated by the endowed funds is used to support its intended purpose. In most cases, any unused investment income reverts back to the corpus of the endowment. During times of economic distress, if the value of the endowment falls below the original amount of the endowed gift, the Foundation, in its discretion, may temporarily suspend the payout until the endowment returns to its original or another targeted amount. These practices are intended to preserve the donor’s original gift, and extend the gift’s impact for generations to come of the College’s students.

The College has determined that the minimum size gift to establish an endowment at the College is currently $25,000. That amount may be paid, over a period of up to 5 years, as determined in the discretion of the College. Endowments can be established in the donor’s name, the name of their business, or in honor of someone important to the donor. The Foundation staff will seek to align the endowment donor’s philanthropic goals and interests with areas of strategic need and importance within the College. In addition, the Foundation will prepare specific guidelines for the administration of each named endowment.

Types of Endowed Funds

The College currently offers the following endowment opportunities (which are subject to change at the discretion of the College):

• Endowed Professorship: $1,500,000 minimum
  Endowed professorships help the College attract and retain promising professors as a means to ensure the continued quality of the College’s faculty. Spending income from the endowed fund may be used, among other purposes, to help support the applicable professor's salary. 
• Endowed Lecture Series: $100,000 minimum
  An endowed lecture series is intended to permit the College’s faculty and students to interact with distinguished leaders, who are influencing various related disciplines, society, the nation and/or or the world. Spending income generated by the endowment is used by the College to provide for the expenses associated with bringing these speakers to campus. 
• Endowed Scholarships: $25,000 minimum
  Endowed scholarships support the tuition, fees and other associated expenses of a student attending the College who meets certain guidelines established by the donor and the College. Scholarship guidelines typically include such things as the specific qualifications the donor of the gift would like to see the recipient student possess (e.g., demonstrated financial need, academic prowess), and are usually written broadly enough so as not to hamper the selection of a recipient student and the Foundation’s administration of the endowment fund.

Naming Procedure and Administration by the College and the Foundation

Below is a chart to provide guidance and process to approve amounts for naming opportunities: 

Opportunity	Approval
$5,000 - 999,999	Recommended by Foundation Board, Approved by College President
$1,000,000 and more	Recommended by Foundation Board, Approved by College President and Board of Trustees

If the value of a naming opportunity gift is $500,000 or greater but less than $1,000,000, the naming opportunity must be pre-approved by the Foundation Board; provided, however, that the Foundation Board may, in its discretion, designate one or more standing and/or ad hoc committee(s) of the Foundation Board as the body authorized to pre-approve the naming rights associated with any such gifts.

All proposed names will be held in confidence by the College and the Foundation during the review and pre-approval process, and in accordance with the donor's wishes. 

Where a gift is contemplated to be made and accompanied by naming opportunities for any of the College’s existing facilities, naming rights recommendations will be made by the College’s Foundation staff to the College Trustees or the Foundation Board, as applicable, for pre-approval in accordance with the foregoing dollar-amount guidelines.

Each naming opportunity will be reviewed by the College and the Foundation for compliance with applicable law. The College and the Foundation will maintain a comprehensive record of all named physical and non-physical assets. 

Naming opportunities bestowed and plans already underway for naming opportunities created and/or undertaken prior to the College Trustees’ approval of this policy will be considered “grandfathered” under this policy. 

Review

This policy will be reviewed periodically by the College’s Foundation staff with all recommended changes requiring approval by the College Trustees and the Foundation Board, as the case may be.