My Brother’s Keeper

By Toni Coleman

Ninety-five percent of the 8,400 students at Prairie View A&M University in Texas receive financial aid. Nearly a year ago when the administration asked students if they'd be willing to financially support future students, as they've been, they eagerly said yes.

In a referendum last March, 69 percent of students approved a $10-per-semester fee, matched by the university, to establish an endowment for scholarships, which will start paying out in 2018 when it's expected to reach $2.2 million.

"That's not bad for an $80 investment," says Nelson Bowman III, executive director of development, quoting the sentiment that helped persuade students that their gifts over four years would be meaningful to future generations.

In the first year, some $90,000 in scholarship money will be available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have need, are in good academic standing, and have not opted out of paying the fee.

The endowment is part of Prairie View A&M's new three-part student development initiative. In March, the university will open a new call center where students will make annual fund calls. The last piece is a student giving campaign, "Building Dreams 1 Student at a Time," designed to educate students about philanthropy as they raise gifts for a campus cause of their choosing.

The campaign launched last fall with a "Feed the Pig" competition among freshmen residence halls and will eventually expand to include student groups and other classes. Students stuffed a large plastic pig in their dorm lobbies with pledge forms on which they shared their contact information. Resident advisors gathered the donations and made collective gifts. About 60 percent of freshman gave, and the donors' names were printed in the student newspaper.

With donations ranging from 25 cents to $5, Bowman admits he spent more on the T-shirts and pizza for the winning dorm, which had a 100 percent giving rate, than what the competition raised. "The seeds we are planting today will produce trees later on," he says. "Why wait until we're in their rearview mirror as they're driving away following graduation when they're here now and we're in their windshield?"