The New Mexico State University Foundation set the stakes high in 2013 by creating the largest cash-only campaign in university history, aiming to raise $125 million by Dec. 31, 2019 for the NMSU system in a campaign titled Ignite Aggie Discovery.

As of Nov. 8 the campaign was 98% complete — meaning $122 million has been raised so far due to 28,646 donors and counting.

The idea for such a campaign was to create a collective fund that would support many of the academic activities taking place throughout the NMSU system, said Rebecca Galves, director of University Alumni Relations.

“It was a collective effort to raise $125 million to help support all the exciting events and projects happening throughout the NMSU system,” Galves said.

About 90% of the funds have been donated from individual donors, whereas the other roughly 8% of funds have come from corporations.

With Ignite Aggie Discovery being a cash-only campaign, the NMSU community — students, staff and faculty — will be immediately impacted, according to Tina Byford, interim president of the NMSU Foundation.

“This is the largest “cash only” campaign in the history of NMSU.  This enables our fundraising to have an immediate impact on our students, faculty and staff,” Byford said.

Galves said there are differences between cash-only campaigns and non-cash campaigns.

“This campaign is unique being that it is purely a cash campaign — so this does not include non-cash donation. A non-cash campaign is like planned giving — people who leave their estates or have planned estates that are being returned to NMSU or land that is donated to NMSU or building property,” Galves said.

Ignite Aggie Discovery raises funds in three different areas — student discovery, faculty and staff discovery and NMSU achievement.

Byford said the money raised goes beyond scholarships for NMSU students when looking at student discovery.

“It [Ignite Aggie Discovery] means more scholarships for our students.  Of the total, just under $36 million has been donated for student support, along with $9 million in facilities on campus,” Byford said.

When it comes to the next area of the campaign, faculty and staff discovery, $7.81 million has been raised in faculty and staff support and $55.6 million has been raised for program and research support.

The last area, NMSU achievement, revolves around NMSU being the state of New Mexico’s land-grant university. NMSU is responsible for maintaining working relationships with various institutions and stakeholders across the state.

When looking at funds raised for NMSU achievement, $71.8 million has been donated to current use funds, $35.3 million has been donated to endowment funds and $14.8 million has been raised in private grants.

Byford discussed the importance of funding an endowment pool for NMSU.

“Our focus has been to increase our endowment pool.  Endowments are important because these funds remain invested forever and provide earnings every year,” Byford said.

For more information about the Ignite Aggie Discovery campaign, visit ignite.nmsu.edu.