Sources of Cash in a Higher Education Financial Crisis

Monday, July 21, 2025

When a college sinks into a deep financial crisis, the president and CFO must find cash quickly, just to make payroll. Next, they must locate larger sums of cash to pay utilities to keep basic operations running and to make debt service payments. If they are unable to find cash for basic operations and debt service, the college’s existence, as with payroll, can immediately imperil its survival. Here are several suggestions on where to find cash. Some sources can be more quickly turned into cash, while others may take longer and may also require legal services to extract money.

Quick Sources:

Collect unpaid student bills;
Limit or stop all cash purchases;
Identify any federal or state money that is owed the college but not collected;
Sell all college vehicles;
Eliminate all credit cards, except for emergency use with that card being controlled by the president
Reduce benefits;
Cabinet officers should take over the daily work of their offices.
Eliminate all assistants to chief administrative officers;
Pause all construction and renovation projects;

Longer-Term Sources of Cash:

Sell or rent unused buildings and open lands;
Arrange for loans on existing buildings, assuming that they are not collateralized;
Conduct an emergency fundraising campaign among the wealthiest donors and alumni.
Sell academic programs;
Negotiate with lenders to change the payment schedule;
Contact the State Department of Education for help in identifying emergency funds.
Contact state legislatures for help;
Reduce the number of employees by cancelling programs that do not generate sufficient cash to cover the cash costs of their operation;
Form operational partnerships with other college to cut the cost of IT, academic programs; and athletic events;
Eliminate athletic teams in which net tuition revenue is insufficient to cover athletic costs;
Consolidate offices and classrooms;

In a financial emergency, clarity, speed, and decisiveness can mean the difference between stabilization and collapse. While some cash-generating measures may be unpopular or politically sensitive, failure to act decisively can bring permanent closure. Leaders must be prepared to make bold financial decisions, communicate transparently, and engage all possible partners—from donors to state agencies. Ultimately, the ability to navigate a financial crisis lies not only in technical fixes, but in the courage to lead with urgency and the discipline to align every dollar with institutional survival.

This brief will be available on the expanded edition in TIPS on Leadership in Higher Education that is coming out in the Summer of 2025.

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