Contributions to Association of Former Students

1,822 Views | 8 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by Texarkanaag69
Texarkanaag69
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Does anyone know if you can designate your contributions to the AFS for a specific use or purpose?
combat wombat™
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Nm
SPI-FlatsCatter 84
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Texarkanaag69 said:

Does anyone know if you can designate your contributions to the AFS for a specific use or purpose?


To a certain extent the answer is yes.

Go to the AFS website for more details
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Cramp00
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I know of one major donor family (dorm name big) who stopped donating bc they learned donations were being used for athletics. They didn't stop the first time but stopped the second time when the school wouldn't/couldn't tell them what the funds were used for.

So no, they'll lie to you and use it where they want.

/Nervy may be correct. Im not positive the donations went to AFS
713nervy
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The minimum level required for the Association to restrict giving is a 5-year pledge of $25,000 or more - most likely. Definitely have a conversation if you're planning to donate more than $1000 or so - if it's that important to you. The AFS plays a significant role among A&M fundraising in that they raise a lot of unrestricted dollars. This is really important because budgets don't always anticipate all needs, and AFS can be flexible and meet the greatest needs that aren't always planned for. I know that it's less sexy than being able to point to the thing that you personally paid for, but you are ultimately making a bigger difference by paying for the most essential things.

I don't know this particular situation, but I wonder if you're getting the Texas A&M Foundation (TAMF) / other entities confused with The Association of Former Students (AFS). TAMF and AFS are completely separate entities from each other, AND from the school. You can be a donor directly to the school, TAMF and to the AFS and you're giving to 3 different tax ID numbers.

What you're describing sounds highly suspect for 2 reasons.
The AFS provides very little (if any) support to athletics. If they do then it's likely through a student organization of intramural sports. In 2018 they provided $45k to the baseball park, probably to assist with the operations. This looks to be a staple in their budget for the last few years and it's the only explicit thing that could be considered "athletics" that I see in their annual reports.

Secondly, if they accepted a restricted donation and did not honor that restriction, the auditors would have roasted them in their annual financial audit which is made publicly available. It's very unethical to accept a restricted donation and not to honor that restriction - and when you're only raising $10M/year like the AFS, you can't hide big donations from auditors.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but knowing how hard that team works to make sure that donors' wishes are honored (within reason), I would be very surprised. They're able to do an impressive amount with the money that they raise each year. They are a model alumni association among all of higher education - and I know because I used to go to the nerdy conferences that bring them all together.
Cramp00
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good clarification
maddiedou
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Pm. Me. I may can get you to one of the six that I know that have been with the AFS for along time And they will ahoot you straight. I did the same thing but it was in 2008
maddiedou
Hey Nav
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https://www.aggienetwork.com/media/guides/texas%20aggie/2020/txag0920_2019%20annual%20report%20pages%20from%20txag1120_full-pdf-v1.pdf

Annual report - this is where the money is spent.
DustysLineup
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Another option for gifts that aren't large enough to give specific restrictions is to give through the individual colleges. I think all of the colleges have fundraising programs and representatives on staff. So if you want to support the History Department, for example, you could contact Larry Walker in the College of Liberal Arts development office.
Texarkanaag69
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Harry Lime said:

Another option for gifts that aren't large enough to give specific restrictions is to give through the individual colleges. I think all of the colleges have fundraising programs and representatives on staff. So if you want to support the History Department, for example, you could contact Larry Walker in the College of Liberal Arts development office.
Thanks Harry. Ain't no one going to angst over the loss of my amount of giving but there're some new elements on campus the are abhorrent to me and I refuse to support them. I'll check on the department opportunity as you mentioned. Thanks again.
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