Donor Resources

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Direct gifts of cash/check/credit card may be made as single-payment donations or pledged and paid over a designated period of time. Find information on options for making a direct gift, please visit the How to Give page. Alamo Colleges accepts gifts of equipment and materials, which may be used to support our students, as well as teaching and learning excellence.

If your employer supports a matching gift program, you may be able to double – or even triple – your gift to Alamo Colleges Foundation. Information on matching gifts is usually available through your employer’s Human Resources Department. Alamo Colleges Foundation staff can also help with this process. Call us at 210-485-0044.

Some donors may prefer to make a commitment to Alamo Colleges with a pledge of $250 or more, payable over time. Pledge terms and payments may be discussed by contacting Alamo Colleges Foundation at 210-485-0044.

The Alamo Colleges Tributees Scholarship Fund has been established to honor the lives of our colleagues and friends. To view a list of tributees, please visit the Donor Tributees page.

Planned Gifts enable donors to make substantial contributions to the Alamo Colleges in ways that complement their tax, financial, and/or estate plans. In planned giving, benefits to the giver may be immediate, while actual transfer of assets may be deferred. Examples of planned gifts include:

• Bequests
• Life insurance
• Charitable gift annuity
• Charitable remainder trust
• Charitable lead trust

Planned gifts are usually arranged through consultation with estate or financial planners. We are happy to talk with you and your financial advisors to design the most advantageous ways of giving to Alamo Colleges Foundation.

Interested in supporting the Alamo Colleges Foundation beyond your annual gift while postponing any out-of-pocket expenditure? Consider a few options:

• Charitable Bequests: The simplest way to make a Planned Gift is by naming the Alamo Colleges Foundations in your will. A bequest is a meaningful way to support the Foundation without affecting your cash flow during your lifetime. Your attorney can include a gift to the Alamo Colleges Foundation when you prepare or revise your will, or you can ad a codicil at any time.
• Retirement Plans: Certain retirement plans, such as IRAs, and 401(k), 403(b), Keogh plans, allow individuals to defer taxes on a portion of their income until the assets are withdrawn during retirement years. However, after a person's death, these accounts often are exposed to taxes. By naming the Foundation as benificiary of either all or a portion of these retirement assets, you can leverage the full power of the assets, as the donated portion would not be subject to tax. This strategy has the ability to leave a large charitable contribution, while freeing up other assets to leave to your heirs.
• Life Insurance Policies: An easy and straightforward method of philanthropic giving is through life insurance policies. The Foundation welcomes gifts of life insurance when the policy is pain in full and the Alamo Colleges Foundation is named as the owner and the irrevocable beneficiary of the policy.

Please consult your tax, legal or financial advisors concerning the specific details and consequences of making a Planned Gift to the Alamo Colleges Foundation and to help you determine which approach is best for you.

Alamo Colleges accepts gifts of real estate and personal property on a case-by-case basis. Real estate gifts may be in the form of undeveloped property, a personal residence or farm, rental property of commercial property.

The Foundation welcomes gifts of stock or securities.  In its role as the Foundation’s investment manage handles the gifting of stock or securities.  Stocks are typically transferred electronically from the donor’s stock brokerage and then converted to cash for deposit into Foundation accounts.

Alamo Colleges accepts gifts of equipment and materials, which may be used to support our students, as well as teaching and learning excellence.  The value of a gift in-kind is to be determined by the donor or their appraiser.  Staff may not assign a value.  A value of zero is acceptable.  Gifts-In-Kind valued over $500 require a copy of IRS Form 8283.  Gifts-In-Kind need valued over $5,000 require a copy of certified appraisal.

Develop the resources to empower for success the diverse students and communities served by each of the Alamo Colleges.

Be able to award a Foundation scholarship to every student who applies and is eligible.

In 1985 The Alamo Community College District established Alamo Colleges Foundation as a separately incorporated charitable organization defined under IRS regulations 501(c)(3) to serve as the philanthropic arm of the community college system.

Up to 25 business and community leaders, none of whom are compensated for their services, establish policy and direction for the organization, and drive the success of fundraising.

NOTE: These individuals are separate from the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees.

As of December 31, 2015 the Foundation had approximately $20.29 million in total assets. The endowment corpus (permanently restricted funds that cannot be spent) was $13.8 million, or approximately 68% of total assets, as of December 31, 2015.

The Foundation’s current investment manager is The Quantitative Group at Graystone Consulting, a business of Morgan Stanley. Our investment philosophy emphasizes a long-term outlook on the capital markets, and the Investment Policy Statement mandates much diversified investments across various asset classes. The goal is to steadily grow available resources for scholarships, academic programs and initiatives of the Alamo Colleges in order to empower its diverse communities for success. Every three to five years, the investment management firm must go through a RFP (Request for Proposal) and interview process with other applicants before they are selected.

Additionally, starting in 2012, the Foundation chartered a stand-alone Investments Committee that includes professionals who volunteer to annually review the distribution rate so the full board can take action at its October meeting for the following year.

In 2015, as recommended by the Investments Committee, the Foundation board approved a 4.25% distribution rate for Endowments in 2016. Resulting distributions are/will be posted January 31 each year. The distribution rate is re-evaluated every October.

Scholarships are crucial to overcoming both financial and morale barriers. They represent a prudent investment, and the support they provide can mean the difference between dropping out and completing the degree. In fact, Alamo Colleges Institutional Research recently found that scholarship recipients significantly out-perform students not receiving scholarships:

• Productive grade rate (C or higher) was 89% vs. 77%
• Everage GPA was 3.4 vs. 2.9 on a 4.0 scale; and
• Fall-to-Fall persistence rate was 56.90% vs. 46.60% for non-recipients.
• Also, students with scholarships are twice as likely to graduate as non-recipients.

With increases seen each year, for the 2015-2016 academic year, Alamo Colleges Foundation awarded over $2.0 million in scholarships to 2,150 applicants; still, nearly two of three applicants go un-awarded due to increasing needs.