All Aggies, All In Communications Archive

Aggies,

Our exponential university has demonstrated incredible signs of progress and achievement this fall, from record-breaking enrollment to the launch of unique new degree programs to a campus visit by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Now it’s time to make North Carolina A&T Intercollegiate Athletics part of that progress.

We are writing to announce ALL AGGIES, ALL IN: GET IN WHERE YOU FIT IN, an athletics capital campaign that will raise critical funds to augment student athlete academic success and meet priority needs for all 18 of our women’s and men’s sports teams. Administered by the ALL AGGIES, ALL IN Committee in conjunction with the Aggie Athletic Foundation, this is the first such university-wide campaign undertaken for athletics, and we are committed to ensuring its lasting, tangible impact.

The 35 members of the diverse ALL AGGIES, ALL IN Committee, who range from undergraduates to individuals in their 70s, chose the name of this campaign with great intention. Their belief, which we share, is that you don’t have to have a lot of money to support the needs of A&T. It’s much more important that as many as Aggies as possible play a part in creating a culture of philanthropy for athletics at our alma mater.

Aggie Athletics currently enjoys support from 1,274 alumni donors, but that places us at the bottom of the Coastal Athletic Association. Of the 1,274, 70% are over the age of 60. Athletics at other HBCUs (Florida A&M, Grambling, Morgan State, Alabama A&M) enjoy more alumni financial support from a broader range of alumni than we do. As we meet this challenge and build the new culture of philanthropy noted above, we will ensure that resources to meet the needs of Aggie Athletics are sustainable for the long haul. 

ALL AGGIES, ALL IN has an annual goal of $1 million, a stretch goal of $1.86 million and a super stretch goal of $3 million. (For context, the average amount of alumni support for CAA member schools is $2.9 million.) How quickly we meet any of those goals depends on you and our fellow Aggies. We already have support from a handful of donors who have given during the “silent” phase of this campaign. Given their generous response, we’re excited about the possibilities now that ALL AGGIES, ALL IN is going public.

Whether you’re a fan of our hard-hitting baseball team, our dynamic volleyballers, the football squad or the student athletes on our other teams, you and your donation can make a difference on their behalf. Funds raised will go exclusively to student athlete scholarships, freeing up critical funding to support NIL needs in the new financial landscape of college sports.

So please, take a moment now to click here and make a gift to ALL AGGIES, ALL IN: GET IN WHERE YOU FIT IN. As you do, please visit and bookmark the ALL AGGIES, ALL IN website to chart our progress as we move steadily toward our goals. Help us add new donors, build support from younger donors and entice current donors to increase their support.

We thank you in advance for your support and for exemplifying the fact that our university continues to be powered by Aggie Pride!

Sincerely,

Hello Aggie Athletics Supporters,

Thank You for coming out and tuning in to our July 12th follow-up meeting. As promised, below is the recap of the meeting and an Outline for the way forward.

The name of our overall Mini Capital Campaign remains ALL AGGIES, ALL IN - GET IN, WHERE YOU FIT-IN!  All contributions will qualify as tax deductible AND these incremental funds will all be directed towards scholarship support, thereby freeing up other revenues to fund NIL payments.

First and foremost, let me thank each of our current supporters who give to A&T Athletics. We could not be where we are today, without you. We certainly need you to continue what you are doing at the current level.  However, we also need to ask you to do more (incremental) on an annual basis for the next 5 years of this mini capital campaign, if possible.  

Currently, 1274 Aggies (only 1.8% of 72,000 alumni) give annually to Aggie Athletics. 4365 Aggies (or 6% of alumni) give to the University, overall. Candidly, this is not nearly enough for the ambitions that we have for our Alma Mater’s Athletics programs. We are accustomed to winning and maintaining that tradition requires us to do more and, more of us to do more. Close to 70% of those who give are over 60 years old. Therefore, we need to do 3 critical things over the course of this campaign.

• We need to get more people to give.
• We need to add younger donors.
• We need those who currently give to give more, if you can afford to do so.

When we achieve these 3 things, we will minimally hit our primary goal of an additional $1M/yr and I believe we can achieve our stretch goal of $1.855M/yr.  We may even hit our super stretch goal of $3M/yr.

Some of you may be saying that I cannot afford to give any more than I am currently giving and I get it.  Please, keep doing that, as it is greatly appreciated. If you are able to do more than you are currently giving, I am asking you to make a pledge of that incremental amount, for each of the next 5 years.

We are extremely grateful for the 7 pledges we have received to date, which range from $5k/yr to $125k/yr.   Hence, I go back to the name of this Mini Capital Campaign, ALL AGGIES, ALL IN - GET IN, WHERE YOU FIT-IN!  We can make this happen, if we believe in what we are doing and work together to make it happen. Please find a few important aspects of the program outlined below:

1) Incremental contributions and new contributions will be made to Augmented Academic Support (AAS).

2) All Contributions will qualify as fully tax deductible.

3) We will also seek Corporate and local business participation as part of this fundraising effort.

4) Currently our Athletics Programs are majority funded by students in the form of student fees, nearly 60%.

5) We will update our progress to you on a monthly basis.

6) We need much broader Aggie Athletics Support; we want to triple the number of Aggies currently giving to Athletics by 2030.

7) An AAS Committee is being formed to drive and shape this initiative, but we will win when we have ALL AGGIES, ALL IN-GET-IN WHERE YOU FIT-IN.

8) A&T became the largest HBCU in 2014, that journey was guided by the strategic plan Preeminence 2020. Athletics Excellence was a key component of that plan.

9) No Donation is too large or too small; We need you to make a pledge to AAS, in order to keep track of where we are against our goals.

Finally, I am going to provide you a fact you probably didn't know about A&T Athletics each time that I communicate with you: Ever wonder what it costs to outfit a football player from head to toe?  Answer- $2400

"ALL AGGIES, ALL IN - GET IN- WHERE YOU FIT-IN!"

Best regards,

Willie A. Deese
Class of 1977

RUN THE CAA---WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS

 Aggies,

In our ongoing effort to keep you informed and up to date on the status of the All Aggies, All In Campaign, we are publishing a monthly scorecard to document our campaign progress over the next five years. 

• It measures how we are doing against our primary objectives of raising funds to support scholarships, growing the donor base and recruiting younger Aggies and friends to support A&T Athletics.
• It details progress in securing donors, donors under the age of 45 and dollars received and pledged, each toward its own goal.
• The first scorecard (below) provides a snapshot of where we ended in the month of September.

It has been said that “If you’re not keeping score, you’re just practicing.” We are keeping score, and we are playing to win!