Why is Trinity launching a campaign now?
There are two reasons for the campaign and its timing. The first reason is to take advantage of an opportunity. The second is to ensure we continue to offer one.
Aademically, we’ve never been stronger. Our student body is more talented and diverse than at any time in our history and we cross applications with some of the best schools in the country. Our faculty is earning an ever wider and more distinguished reputation for the quality of their research and scholarship. Our curriculum’s innovative blend of liberal arts and professional programs is becoming a national model for preparing able, motivated students for lives of achievement. Timely investment in our people and programs will allow us to build on this foundation of success and turn a very good university into a truly great one.
But the cost of a quality education has grown inexorably, to the point that many talented students are forced to choose between an education that is best for them and an education they can afford. And students who do choose Trinity often graduate with student loan debt that limits their ability to take advantage of the very opportunities for which we have prepared them. Campaign funding for scholarships and financial aid will help us ensure that we can offer the benefits of the Trinity experience based on a student’s ability to do the work, not on their ability to pay. Acting now will help Trinity effect deeper change in the lives of our students and will better our world for generations to come.
Isn’t Trinity’s endowment healthy enough to support students, faculty, and programs?
Compared to many higher education institutions of our size, Trinity’s endowment is strong, and the University prides itself on sound fiscal management. But the growing cost of providing a Trinity education has put an increasing strain on the endowment. Where twenty years ago the endowment funded nearly 40 percent of Trinity’s operating budget, today the endowment funds 23 percent of the operating budget. Campaign funding will reverse this trend and allow us to continue to attract the best faculty, develop the best programs, maintain the best campus, and offer the best education to the most deserving students.
How will the campaign change Trinity?
The impact of the campaign will be profound.
By supporting scholarships and financial aid, the campaign will allow us to continue attracting the most talented, motivated students from across the nation and ensure that cost is not a barrier to any deserving young person.
By providing resources for faculty scholarship and funding new faculty positions in our fastest growing programs, the campaign will help us retain our best faculty, add rising academic stars, and guarantee the intense level of student-faculty interaction that is the catalyst for student success.
The campaign will also finance curricular enhancements and campus improvements, such as:
- new centers for Interdisciplinary Science, East Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, and Entrepreneurship
- new technology initiatives
- increased funding for our athletic and recreational facilities
- increased support for art and music
Taken together, these campaign initiatives will take Trinity to a new level of achievement: providing new and unsurpassed opportunities for capable, purposeful students to prepare themselves for lives of personal and professional success.
How does the Annual Fund relate to the campaign?
The Annual Fund has always been essential to Trinity’s fundraising efforts and one of the principle ways that alumni support the University. One of the goals of the campaign is to lift participation in the Annual Fund to new heights, and every gift to the Annual Fund is a gift to the campaign. Annual Fund gifts are unrestricted and support our most important priorities: scholarships and financial aid, faculty salaries and research, and the infrastructure and technology improvements that keep our campus among the most attractive and productive in the country. The Annual Fund also allows us to take advantage of such opportunities as hiring a notable professor who has just “come on the market,” sending students to conferences, or offering emergency financial aid.
How do I make a gift?
Almost any way you like. Trinity will — with enormous gratitude — accept cash, checks, credit cards, and stock transfers.
Outright Gifts
You can have an immediate impact on the campaign by making outright gifts of cash, securities, or other property. You can designate your gift for a particular campaign component. Unrestricted gifts can be used at Trinity’s discretion. To find out more about making a planned gift to the campaign, contact the Development Office at (210) 999-7415 or Toll-Free 888-TU-DONOR (883-6667) or or e-mail development@trinity.edu or visit Trinity’s Supporting Trinity Web site.
Pledges
Pledging an amount now and spreading payments over time allows you to make a more generous gift. Download a pledge form here.
Endowed Gifts
Endowed gifts use your investment in Trinity to establish a fund, the interest from which is used to support a purpose of your choosing. That purpose could be a program, a scholarship, a professorship, or one of the other campaign components. Endowed gifts typically bear the donor’s name, celebrating your commitment to and support of Trinity.
Matching Gifts
Many businesses generously match all or part of their employees’ charitable contributions. Ask your human resources department or that of your spouse if they’ll match your gift to Trinity. Click here to see if your company will match your gift.
Planned Gifts
Planned gifts allow you to make a generous gift to Trinity, arrange for lifetime income for yourself or a beneficiary of your choosing, and accrue significant tax benefits. To find out more about making a planned gift to the campaign, contact Gaylon Greger at (210) 999-7697 or e-mail ggreger@trinity.edu or visit Trinity’s Planned Giving Web site.
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