March 20th, 2014
Capital campaign brings in $151 million for Texas State University

by BRAD ROLLINS

Alumni and other supporters have contributed more than $151 million to Texas State University since the inception in 2006 of a capital gifts campaign, an average of more than $21.5 million a year and $41 million more than the effort’s original goal.

Called “Pride in Action,” the seven-year fundraising drive has been a “stirring success, not just in the record amount of funds raised but in the extraordinary number of individual contributions to Texas State University,” president Denise M. Trauth announced at a gala late last month celebrating the campaign’s conclusion. The university president initially said she wanted to bring in at least $110 million.

Nineteen donors contributed $1 million or more including heavy-hitters like Houston oilfield pipe manufacturers Jerry and Linda Fields, who gave $11.2 million to expand Bobcat Stadium and endow faculty chairs at the McCoy College of Business Administration; New Braunfels concrete manufacturers Bruce and Gloria Ingram, who donated $7 million to help establish the engineering school named in their honor; and Wimberley medical industry entrepreneur Patti Strickel Harrison, who contributed $8 million toward construction of the recently opened Performing Arts Center.

Other major gifts and grants include $6 million from the Austin-based St. David’s Community Health Foundation for Texas State’s School of Nursing at the Round Rock campus; $1 million from Dallas-based The Meadows Foundation for the newly rechristened Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Spring Lake; and $1.3 million from San Antonio developer Darren Casey for the university’s athletics and business administration programs.

In addition, 112 supporters contributed $100,000 or more, Trauth said, but with a pool of more than 46,000 donors, not all contributors wrote big checks. The number of participants in Pride in Action was, by far, a record for the ascendant university.

The $151 million total includes money not yet in-hand. Twenty-five donors have arranged planned or pledged gifts, according to Matt Flores, vice president for university advancement and communications. However, roughly 85 percent of Pride in Action gifts — about $128 million — is “already at work at Texas State,” Flores said in a statement announcing the campaign’s outcome.

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COVER: Since 2006, Texas State University Denise M. Trauth has officiated over a capital gifts campaign that brought in more than $151 million in gifts and pledges. TEXAS TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO by CALLIE RICHMOND