According to Inside Higher Ed, community colleges are paying more attention to fund raising, which means trying to reconnect with alumni and build relationships. Using Lord Fairfax Community College (in Virginia, USA) as an example, the commentary quotes the college's president, John "Ski" Sygielski:
[W]e never really understood the need [for alumni relations] until fund raising became important. We need to connect with our alums because some who go on to four-year colleges really have nothing to do with their two-year colleges. They forget about us. It’s still a novel concept to raise money for community colleges.
New Hampshire Community Technical College president Steven Budd adds
The fastest growing area in community college development right now is in the alumni affairs area. Alumni programs all over the country are really being beefed up.
Declining state funding means increased reliance on solicitations to alumni, friends and others. This should sound familiar to public university advancement professionals everywhere.
Sygielski points out that
alumni work within community colleges is brand new. That’s what we are just starting to tap into.
The environment for alumni and development work in these two-year schools is similar, in some ways, to that in overseas institutions where education has until recently been government-funded for almost every student. And like overseas schools, American community colleges should think about what alumni need, and which of those needs they can fill most effectively. This will create relevance to alumni, which will allow for relationship-building, which - in time - will enable more effective fundraising.