A Budget for Good: How To Plan Today for Giving Tomorrow

Stop in any cafe or office breakroom, and you’ll overhear people talking about how they plan to spend their money. They dream of vacations, new cars, pets or home renovations—and if you could peek into each person’s bank account, you might even see individual plans for each of these priorities, categorized and tucked away in savings to one day make them reality.

But when it comes to plans for giving, it can be far less common for people to fit philanthropic goals into their finances. That is, unless they realize how achievable those goals can be through the power of endowments and the ease of creating one through the Texas A&M Foundation.

Why Endowed Giving?

Unlike a one-time gift, endowments are donations permanently invested to provide annual distributions that fund the purpose of your gift in perpetuity. What does that mean?

It means that when you create an endowment, the Foundation takes your gift—known as the “original principal”—and permanently invests it in our long-term investment pool.

Then each year, a portion of the returns from the pool’s investments is paid out to Texas A&M University to fund the campus purpose you designated. This annual payout rate is what supports your passions in Aggieland, while the original principal of your gift will always remain, ensuring a dependable source of funding for the area you choose even in a market downturn. Over time, these distributions can exceed the amount of your original gift, revealing the multiplication power of endowments.

If looking for a “bang for your buck,” the everlasting nature of endowed giving makes sense for someone who wants to maximize their impact in a meaningful way. Although, endowments aren’t just about dollar amounts—they’re about people.

Creating an endowment is not only practical; it’s entirely personal. As part of the gift process, you not only get to choose what will be impacted by your gift, but you also have the authority to customize the naming of your endowment, whether you want to honor a loved one, create a legacy or recognize an organization that has inspired you.
 

What does the process look like?

Wondering how Aggies like you are getting started? Meet Dr. Alane ’10 and Kevin Avila ’10.

The Avilas had been thinking about starting a scholarship at Texas A&M for a long time but weren’t sure when or how to begin. When Kevin received an email about a donation matching program from his company, Ernst & Young, it prompted the couple to start researching the Foundation to see how a donation would work.
 

Given his company’s $10,000 per-year matching capacity, they were delighted to learn that while an endowment requires a minimum $25,000 donation, it can be paid over five years instead of given all at once—suddenly making the gift feel more feasible to accomplish.

Alane and Kevin took the first step by downloading the Foundation’s free online Giving Guide to learn more and share their interest for creating a gift. They were contacted by a development officer the next business day.
 

Also, cash is not the only method available for creating an endowment. Endowments can be created with securities—such as stocks and bonds—real estate or a donor-advised fund. The Foundation also has a specialized planned giving team to help Aggies establish after-lifetime gifts for endowments, which require zero financial commitment today but will create an impact for generations to come.

Just check out the video below to see how another young former student, Blake Johnson '14, utilized a planned gift to establish a legacy that will ensure the Texas A&M organizations personally meaningful to him continue to thrive even after his lifetime.
 

With the options available through the Foundation, you don’t need to have a large sum of money to start an endowment; you just need a budget and a plan to make giving a reality. For example, Kevin and Alane set up their bank accounts to automatically reserve money directly from their paychecks into a specific giving account.

“We’ve learned to live without a portion of our income every year because we know we want to donate,” Kevin explained. “We almost pretend it’s not even there,” he laughed.

The Avilas don’t consider giving to be a sacrifice, but instead a great blessing.

Kevin added, “We both really love giving. We are happier and more satisfied giving and knowing our endowment is influencing somebody’s life today and will continue to do so down the road.”

Whether you’ve already saved most of the commitment or only have one lunch’s worth in your giving fund, what matters is to start planning your giving goals today. When leveraging the options, resources and methods offered by the Foundation, the possibilities for impact are endless!