The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges supports students through scholarships and career opportunities with top Ohio companies
By Bryn Dippold
The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) is gearing up for an extraordinary milestone in 2025: 75 years of empowering independent college students to pursue higher education and unlocking opportunities that can add $1 million more to their lifetime earnings, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As this legacy is celebrated, the focus also turns to the future. In a world where top-tier workforce talent is in high demand, OFIC is expanding its mission: connecting Ohio’s brightest students and graduates with leading corporations and nonprofits, ensuring a pipeline of bachelor-degreed, entry-level-plus professionals ready to shape tomorrow.
“As soon as Jan. 1 rolls around, we’ll start ringing the celebration bells,” says Bill Spiker, president of OFIC. “We’re thrilled to reach this milestone, but now we turn our focus to how our past successes can guide us in serving Ohio’s independent colleges for the next 75 years. On the student side, we want to continue empowering students with scholarship dollars to help them complete their degrees, while also expanding career readiness opportunities through trainings, certifications and internships. On the corporate side, we’re focused on forging more connections with companies ready to receive those students, giving them real-world experience in positions at their organizations. Many may even hire them as full-time employees, as more than 50% of companies do, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). It’s not just about celebrating 75 years—it’s about leveraging those successes to position OFIC for the future. We’re building on a legacy of tremendous work.”
Because of OFIC’s legacy of work, the organization can celebrate and continue the work it has done in the fundraising area and begin to do more.
“While maintaining that focus on philanthropy and the impact that makes, we can do something about helping the talent for Ohio and Ohio’s economy,” Spiker says. “The thing that fuels an economy is the people, and that’s where Ohio has the opportunity to build its economy and continue to grow and have a strong future because of its people.”
According to Spiker, the 75th OFIC anniversary will serve as a “springboard” for the organization to have an even more exciting future.
In addition to the organization’s anniversary, OFIC is now focusing on two audiences to assist its member campuses. The first being students at the campuses’ career center looking for an internship or job and the second being the company itself that is looking to hire talent.
OFIC is also helping businesses expand and promote internship opportunities and providing training offerings to enhance internship programs as part of the businesses’ talent acquisition pipeline.
“For decades, we’ve been known as a membership organization, and while that is accurate—we have 32 campuses representing about 70,000 students across the state—what I have been leaning into is really calling us a partnership organization,” Spiker says.
By that, Spiker means that OFIC is partnering with corporations, foundations and individuals in Ohio that either want to make an investment in students directly with scholarships or in programs.
“That partnership has grown and deepened in many respects especially with those that are looking to hire our students as interns or as full-time employees,” he adds.
Spiker adds that one of OFIC’s goals is to promote its students as “exact matches” for what a company may be looking.
One way in which OFIC achieves this promotion is by raising money for scholarships that allow students to fulfill or meet their dream of having a bachelor’s degree, according to Spiker.
“Whether [their future career] is in the business world or whether it’s in a nonprofit or teaching or whatever that may be, we want students to have fulfilling lives and help set them up for a great future,” he says.
Spiker has been with OFIC for nine years, and over those nine years, he has seen the organization grow and change. “We have been flexible and creative, and we find our supporters, whether that’s a financial supporter or whether it’s a talent pipeline opportunity, and we really try to pay attention to their needs,” he says. “We’re very centered on the thinking of ‘How can we help this partner further what they want to get done?’”
Next year, since OFIC is celebrating 75 years of these connections, the organization is looking back on what it has achieved.
OFIC has raised over $160 million in the past 75 years. “That’s a big number,” Spiker says. “That’s impressive…but I think what I would say is the most impressive thing that we do is help students with financial need achieve the dream of a bachelor’s degree.”
Since 1950, OFIC has distributed a total of $163.4 million to member campuses, and, included in that number through the Ohio Scholars Program®, awarded $57 million in scholarship funding for 28,500 awards, benefiting Ohio students with financial need.
Since OFIC partners with independent, private colleges and universities, which are typically smaller institutions, Spiker notes that the difference in talent is palpable. “Our students benefit from a small classroom experience, where they receive personalized attention,” he says.
On that small scale, students develop relationships with other students, faculty, staff, people on the grounds team, coaches and more, according to Spiker.
“Those are skills that our students have been honing for four years,” he adds. “And that may not be the same situation on other state-funded, larger or mega-campuses. So, I think that one of the differences that a smaller independent campus makes is allowing students to develop those relationships that they can carry over into their work world, whatever their work is.”
Spiker believes in a set of skills called “power skills” that OFIC students have which set them apart in terms of what the economy, businesses and nonprofits need throughout the state of Ohio and beyond.
OFIC runs the Ohio Scholars Program®, in which undergraduate students can apply to be considered for a variety of available scholarships. The enhanced application for this program was launched in the 2023-2024 academic year as an additional way to practice good stewardship of the funds received from OFIC’s donors. With better data from the students, OFIC is able to select students who meet complex criteria and to supplement established best practices gained from decades of scholarship experience, according to OFIC’s website.
In addition, OFIC has several specific scholarships available:
• Rising Talent Scholarships
Support students in specific fields of study that will impact industries and workforce development in Ohio.
• Community Scholarships
Support students from your local area or those attending campuses in a specific region of the state.
• Inspiration Scholarships
Support students who are disproportionately less represented in the student general population and students who have financial circumstances that may prohtioibit them from completing their college studies.
Also, at OFIC, there is a “Hall of Excellence” where notable graduates from member campuses are honored. Some members include Coretta Scott King, astronaut and former Ohio senator John Glenn and “Jungle” Jack Hanna of the Columbus Zoo.
This Hall of Excellence provides a platform for building awareness for the impact and success of Ohio’s independent college graduates. As part of the induction process, OFIC invites the inductee to an awards program where they reflect on what it’s meant to them to be a graduate of one of OFIC’s member campuses.
“Without fail, the alumnus/a that has all these wonderful experiences and tremendous things that they’ve done, they bring it right back to what happened to them or with them when they were on that campus,” Spiker says. “It is a time when they can share a little bit about the important value that independent higher education has brought to them.”
Learn more about how you can partner with OFIC at ofic.org.