Across the country, community colleges are invaluable pathways for millions of students striving to build stable, dignified futures—yet far too many are pushed to do so without reliable access to food, housing, or other basic needs.
For Mac Carabasi and Jim Rafeedie, Princeton alumni volunteers who spent more than a decade supporting philanthropic outreach for their alma mater, this reality sparked a profound shift. In late 2022, after learning that community college completion rates hover around 35% and that food insecurity remains a major barrier even for students whose tuition is covered, they began asking a different question: What would it look like to mobilize alumni generosity toward the students who need it most?
That inquiry led to the creation of the Future Alumni Support Team (FAST), a grassroots initiative—launched in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges—designed to raise direct support for community college students’ basic needs. For Giving Tuesday in 2024, their pilot campaign raised $47,000 across 39 community colleges, and their momentum has only grown since.
We spoke with Mac and Jim about what they’ve learned, where FAST is headed, and why expanding basic needs support is essential to a more equitable higher education system.
Why did you start the Future Alumni Support Team (FAST)?
We have supported Princeton’s philanthropic outreach to alums for many years but felt there was more that could be done to help the many students who don’t attend Ivy League universities or similar institutions. Research led us to conclude that the front line in the battle to educate people out of poverty was at the community college level, and that efforts to support community college students would complement Princeton’s campus programs in this arena while also impacting on many more individuals. Educating people out of poverty can help them transition from dependence on government assistance, leaving more resources for those who, through no fault of their own, are not able to support themselves.
Tell us a little bit about what you’ve accomplished so far.
We have been extremely fortunate to connect with a number of national organizations working on this issue in addition to The Hope Center, including the American Association of Community Colleges, Swipe Out Hunger, the New Jersey Council of County Colleges, The Texas Association of Community College Foundations, The Community Campus Coalition in Ohio, and Feeding Pennsylvania.
Last year FAST co-launched a national pilot program on Giving Tuesday with the American Association of Community Colleges. Our experience informed our strategy of creating similar efforts for individual states to both distribute the effort as well as better target local organizations. In September, we launched our first state specific campaign with the New Jersey Council of County Colleges in support of over 200,000 students enrolled in 17 New Jersey community colleges. Since Jim and I spent four of the most impactful years of our lives in New Jersey, we are especially pleased that we have been able to help launch this effort on behalf of some of the state’s most needy and deserving students.
FAST also focuses on increasing public awareness around this issue in individuals rather than corporations. When we approach a company or other organization, we only request non-financial support in spreading awareness around our fundraising pages through social media or other news platforms. Our goal is to increase financial support, not re-distribute it.
What have you learned since starting FAST?
We have learned that it is not a heavy lift to explain how hunger and other basic needs insecurity negatively impact on student performance and likelihood of graduation. This has allowed us to streamline our fundraising effort around minimizing overhead. As an FYI, FAST neither collects nor distributes funds; donations and distributions are handled directly by our web vendor at no cost to the recipient, other than the credit card processing fee (approximately 4%). There is no cost for a community college to participate, and no need for IT support to set up a web page with our vendor. This approach reduces overhead to a minimum- 96%+ of donations go directly to designee.
What are some of the challenges? And glimmers?
One challenge has been convincing community colleges that there was real value in working together rather than as single institutions. The feedback we have received indicates that requests made on behalf of a state-wide campaign were more likely to be considered than a similar request from a single campus.
It's been gratifying to see the response when we reach out to our classmates to enlist their support in connecting with organizations and influencers in support of this effort. We continue to make new connections that we hope will lead to increased support to address this issue.