Justin Lonon

Higher education must adapt. I have said that for years because adaptation is part of our responsibility. Learning has changed. Work has changed. Expectations have changed. The ways colleges plan and invest in their missions must evolve, too.

For decades, public community colleges have relied on a familiar mix of local tax revenue, state appropriations, federal aid and grants, and tuition. Those sources remain foundational to our work. As funding models become more complex, colleges must forecast carefully, demonstrate results and ensure that every resource advances the mission.

Texas offers a useful example. House Bill 8 moved community college funding forward by tying more state investment to measurable student outcomes, a shift Dallas College supports. In 2026, the verified outcomes statewide generated payments beyond available appropriations, requiring proportional adjustments. Near-final fiscal year 2027 funding runs were also prorated to remain within appropriated amounts.

The lesson is not that outcomes-based funding is flawed. It is that strong performance and evolving funding models require institutions to plan with both ambition and discipline.

At the same time, expectations around the value of higher education are becoming clearer. In 2026, Gallup found that only 38 percent of Americans had high confidence in higher education, down from 42 percent in 2025.ⁱ Yet, New America found that three in four still believe higher education offers a good return on investment.ⁱⁱ Despite these data discrepancies, learners have not stopped believing in education. They expect us to demonstrate more clearly what their investment produces. At Dallas College, we are responding by treating financial resilience as a mission capability.

That starts inside the institution. New revenue is no substitute for disciplined stewardship. We are rethinking strategic financial guidelines; drawing clearer distinctions between core and core-adjacent work; strengthening budget planning education; and asking tougher questions about what to scale, pause, or stop. Every dollar should have a job. But discipline alone will not fund the future we are building. We also need a broader portfolio of revenue.

Using Philanthropy as Innovation Capital

Dallas College Foundation, a Dallas College affiliated 501c(3), has long supported scholarships, emergency aid, and direct student needs. In recent years, we have expanded and leaned into its role as a catalyst for innovation.

The Case Management Studio is one example. Launched in partnership with the Addy, McKesson, and Harold Simmons Foundations, the Case Management Studio is a first-of-its-kind learning hub using philanthropic investment to upskill our success coaches, care navigators, and student support professionals, elevating the quality, innovation, and impact of our core student services. The Studio now serves case management professionals beyond the college, with training, credentials, and shared learning designed around a regional need. A capability built to strengthen our own work can now create broader public value.

Our Foundation is also exploring new funds that go beyond traditional philanthropy to seed innovative solutions in areas such as AI, financial literacy, and outcomes-based payments. Among the ideas being considered is a new approach to funding workforce training that would offer students 0 percent interest loans if they obtain employment after graduation. If a student does not obtain employment, no repayment would be required.

Each of these projects represent a different role for philanthropy, not only filling gaps but helping build capabilities that can scale.

Building an Engine for Mission-Aligned Revenue

By 2035, our ambition is to build a self-sustaining portfolio across capital, real estate, technology, and other mission-aligned opportunities to generate revenue we can reinvest in our mission. To do that work, Dallas College formed Dallas College Enterprise Ventures, a nonprofit corporation designed to give the institution more flexibility to pursue grants, investments, and strategic partnerships. The venture arm serves as a vehicle for incubating new ideas, testing emerging business models, and creating new revenue streams that can be reinvested in student success and workforce innovation.

One early test is our work with Axio, an education technology company developing AI-supported course modernization that Dallas College Enterprise Ventures has invested in through an innovative partnership agreement. This partnership benefits the college in two ways. First, the technology pilot itself will help faculty review curriculum, align courses with changing industry needs, and strengthen instructional strategies. We are leveraging AI to accelerate the work, but faculty remain the decision-makers. AI does not know our students—our faculty do.

Second, Dallas College stands to benefit financially from the company’s success. Instead of acting only as a customer of technology companies, Dallas College Enterprise Ventures is pursuing an accelerator model that could include equity, referral revenue, and future licensing opportunities if the product scales, with all the benefit going to support Dallas College’s mission.

That is the mindset shift: from buying innovation to helping build it. Arizona State University, for example, became OpenAI’s first higher education collaborator. When a college helps shape, test, and improve a product, can it also share responsibly in the value created?

Not every experiment will work, and not every college needs a venture arm. But every college needs a disciplined way to ask what assets it has, what problems it can solve, and where philanthropy can drive mission-aligned earned revenue.

Future-Forward Stewardship

No single initiative will solve the financial pressures facing higher education. But together, these efforts represent a new operating discipline. We must protect the public mission while diversifying the ways we fund it, inviting private and philanthropic partners into work that produces public good.

The call to action is not to chase every new revenue idea. It is to build the governance, courage, and clarity to pursue the right ones. The future of our institutions will be built by matching ambition with discipline and proving, again, that community colleges are not only essential to opportunity, but capable of funding a new era of it.

ⁱ Jones, J. M. (2026, July 13). Confidence in U.S. Higher Education Slips Back Slightly. Gallup.
ⁱⁱ Nguyen, S., Fishman, R., & Cheche, O. (2024). Varying Degrees 2024: New America’s Eighth Annual Survey on Higher Education. New America.