What role does private giving play in Texas A&M’s budget? Once upon a time, a majority of the university’s budget came from state funds. For instance, in 1981, 85% of Texas A&M’s operations were made possible by the state. But as the university has skyrocketed in growth to become one of the nation’s largest, with its student body jumping from 33,500 in 1981 to approximately 79,000 in 2024, state funds just couldn’t keep up. Today, they make up only 20% as Texas A&M has turned to other sources, including tuition and fees, research grants and private gifts, to fill in the gaps.
Private gifts are especially important for a couple reasons. First, gifts for endowed scholarships help students afford some of those tuition and fees—because as anyone with college-age kids or grandkids knows, the cost of an education today isn’t what it used to be. But endowed gifts also help make the impossible possible when it comes to programs and services on campus. For instance, many of the academic programs that boost Texas A&M’s reputation as a university of excellence and shape students into leading professionals are directly supported by donors who believe that Aggies deserve the best. Without endowed funds, these programs might be hindered in reaching their full potential or might not exist at all.
The Texas A&M Foundation's university development team is here to help!
What is Texas A&M’s greatest need now and in the future? It’s a common question—many donors want to know how they can make the biggest impact in Aggieland. But the answer depends on your interests. One option you can never go wrong with is scholarships. As long as there are students at Texas A&M, scholarships will be needed to help attract the best and brightest and open doors for those who thought an Aggie education would be forever out of reach. Similarly, a gift for faculty or learning environments is another eternal way to impact Aggies’ experiences. For instance, faculty support in the form of chairs, professorships or fellowships allows recipients to hire student researchers for their labs, translating to impact for both the researcher and their students’ professional experiences.
But each of the university’s different academic units, from agriculture to veterinary medicine, have needs that your gift can impact too. Many of the Texas A&M Foundation’s development officers specialize in a certain unit and interact closely with that college’s administrators and faculty to determine its most pressing needs and biggest initiatives for the future. If there’s a certain field of study you’re interested in supporting, we can point you to the right people on our team to learn more about opportunities for impact.
Where do I start? Thank you for your interest in impacting Aggieland! Maybe you’ve already identified a specific gift you want to make or an area of Texas A&M you want to support, or maybe you just know you want to pass back the Aggie experiences that have shaped your own life. Either way, we’re here with resources and experts to help you take the first—and every—step to making the impact you want at the university you love.
Download our Giving Guide. Through this free resource, you can explore more about what campus areas you can support, what endowments are, what exactly the Foundation does, what giving options are available and more.
Get your copy
Watch our Giving Academy video series. With topics like endowments, scholarships, the giving process and more packed into bite-sized episodes, you can learn more about philanthropy at Texas A&M in just minutes at a time.
Watch now
Contact our university development team. This team of passionate professionals would love to meet with you, hear your Aggie story and passions, and help you find how you can make the difference you want in Aggieland.
Get in touch
