The Association Of Former Students Annual Support To Top $3.4 M, Includes New Support For Colleges

Texas A&M University officials have announced the distribution of $3.1 million in gifts from the university’s alumni association, The Association of Former Students, to support prioritized programs impacting scholarships, student success, student activities, faculty, awards programs and university-wide excellence.

This distribution, coupled with an additional $300,000 in funding for projects directly managed by The Association, brings the organization’s total cash support to Texas A&M for 2013-14 to $3.4 million and represents the collective gifts of over 43,300 former students and friends of Texas A&M to The Association’s Annual Fund in 2012. With an average gift of $177, these donors prove that gifts of any size can make a powerful difference.

In thanking The Association for its support, Texas A&M University President Dr. R. Bowen Loftin ’71 reflected on his personal experience with The Association.

“Each year former students answer the call of the Association’s annual fund and, no matter the size of their individual gifts, they collectively support many programs which are vital to our university–especially to our students.”

In addition to the university initiatives funded, the Annual Fund supports The Association’s operations, including management of the Aggie Ring program, outreach to former students through class, club and constituent network channels, publication of Texas Aggie magazine, management of the alumni database and management of the Clayton Williams, Jr. ’54 Alumni Center, which hosts more than 200 Aggie Network-related events throughout the year.

Porter S. Garner III ’79, president and CEO of The Association, credited the organization’s success to the power of the worldwide Aggie Network and the former students, faculty, staff and friends of Texas A&M who faithfully contribute to The Association’s Annual Fund.

“The Association of Former Students is one of the few alumni associations in the world providing tangible financial support to their university annually,” Garner said. “Our donors express their devotion to Texas A&M through their annual gifts and demonstrate the big difference small gifts make to our university. We welcome gifts from all members of the Aggie Network in 2013 so that we can increase our support to Texas A&M in future years. ”

Almost half of the $7.6 million contributed by former students in 2012 was returned to the university in cash support to fund programs. In total, 100 individual projects received funding in impact areas identified by the Texas A&M University president and provost. Each academic college and administrative division received some funding both directly, through identified projects, and/or indirectly through student, faculty and staff participation in university-wide awards and programs.

As they are each year, these funding requests were presented to The Association’s Board of Directors for approval. This year in a special response to needs of the academic colleges, the board approved a project for College Excellence, which allows the president to discretionarily support one-time needs, brought forward by the college deans. This special fund allows the president more flexibility in supporting the academic programs in the most need.

A full listing of initiatives supported can be found here.