Conversation: Pooled Gifts

How does this gift honor your parents? 

Our parents served the community of College Station and Texas A&M University throughout their lives. They were lifelong educators and learners; our father was a civil engineering professor and researcher at Texas A&M, while our mother was a beloved high school math teacher. Their commitment to education will continue through the Aggies who receive this scholarship.  

Who will this gift inspire? 

We hope our gift makes an education at Texas A&M a reality for students on the cusp of affording college. We want to inspire recipients with the story behind this scholarship’s namesakes and continue the education cycle our parents started.   

To the person questioning how to give, what advice do you have? 

Giving is easier than people think. The most difficult part is making up your mind and picking up the phone to start the process. Creating an endowed scholarship sounded daunting, but the pooled giving method made it very attainable. The Foundation handles administrative details with the university, like the process for selecting scholarship recipients, so we can focus solely on honoring our parents.  

The minimum gift to create an endowment through the Texas A&M Foundation that will forever benefit a campus area of your choice is $25,000, payable over five years. That may seem like a hefty price tag, but pooled giving—a method whereby a group of individuals collectively donates funds to meet the threshold—can make it more realistic. Especially popular with A&M Clubs, A&M Mothers’ Clubs and Texas A&M Classes, pooled gifts can also be created by smaller groups of siblings, relatives or friends.