The One Spirit, One Vision fundraising campaign will formally kick off Friday with University President Robert M. Gates reporting that the campiagn has raised $490 million of its goal of a $1 billion.
Gates will speak at a public hearing sponsored by the Texas A&M Board of Regents, and will discuss the campaign’s progress and goals.
“One Spirit One Vision is Texas A&M’s multi-year fundraising campaign aimed at helping A&M reach its Vision 2020 goals,” said Rose Ann McFadden, director of public relations for the Texas A&M Foundation.
The campaign includes all private gifts donated to A&M by individuals, foundations and corporations through Texas A&M Foundation, The Association of Former Students and 12th Man Foundation, McFadden said.
“All of the campaign planning done up to this date has been for a billion dollars,” said James Palincsar, senior vice president for development for the Texas A&M Foundation.
One Spirit One Vision is a seven year campaign, scheduled to end Dec. 31, 2006, Palincsar said. The first phase of the campaign, known as the leadership phase, began Jan. 1, 2002.
“Any gifts made from that date forward count toward the campaign goal,” McFadden said.
In the leadership phase of the campaign, A&M recruited volunteer leaders and sought large gifts from prominent donors, she said.
Friday marks the beginning of the second phase, the public phase of the campaign. During this phase, the University will publicize One Spirit One Vision to the entire state of Texas, select cities across the United States, and to all former students, Palincsar said.
“The greatest quantity of gifts and pledges will come from the Aggie Network, the tens of thousands of former students who give through the Association of Former Students’ Century Club,” McFadden said.
Even with the economic recession and the war, the One Spirit One Vision campaign has so far been deemed succcessful, McFadden said.
Increased giving during the next 20 years is vital in A&M’s pursuit of its Vision 2020 goals, McFadden said.
“Texas A&M receives just one-third of its total budget from state general revenues, and research shows that the best universities nationally receive twice as much state funding at Texas A&M,” McFadden said.
This is the reasoning for the ambitious goals of raising state and private support of the University, she said.
A campaign celebration is planned for Friday evening at Reed Arena, where donors from the first phase of the campaign will gather to celebrate its success, Palincsar said.