Texas Wesleyan University

Wesleyan Fund

Support the Wesleyan fund

Annual gifts to the Wesleyan Fund support student scholarships, faculty recruitment, program development, cutting-edge technology, and maintenance and upgrades to the residence halls and classrooms.

Planned Giving

The Ella C. McFadden Circle is a giving society for families and individuals who have named the University as a beneficiary in their wills or who have established some other planned gift that will provide long-term benefits to the University.

Throughout its long history, Texas Wesleyan has been blessed by the vision and planning of so many benefactors. We recognize the names – Mulkey, Armstrong, Oneal, Sells, and Waggoner – individuals whose belief in the school and whose commitment to the mission of education called them to plan for the future.

Included among these thoughtful individuals was Ella C. McFadden. She was married to W. C. McFadden, chairman of Southland Royalty Company, and during their life together, they made many gifts to the University. Mrs. McFadden continued to support the school after her husband died and made provisions in her own will to establish the Ella C. McFadden Charitable Trust. When the trust made its final distribution in 1985, the $14.5 million directed to Texas Wesleyan nearly doubled the University’s endowment. Through her thoughtful planning, Mrs. McFadden helped secure the promise of affordable private education.

While the size of the McFadden bequest was impressive, it was the heart behind the gift that made it more important to the University. Mrs. McFadden understood the vital importance of education and planned her gift to benefit students well into the future she knew she would not see. Texas Wesleyan has honored her vision and her heart by creating the Ella C. McFadden Circle to recognize all those who have planned a gift to the University.

Many individuals and families have made planned gifts to Texas Wesleyan. Planned giving options are often called deferred because they allow a donor to defer a gift to some future date – for example, after you and your loved ones have benefited from any assets, which you might earmark for a gift.

If your financial goals and needs include determining how best to:

1. fulfill your philanthropic wishes;
2. enhance your income stream;
3. provide support for loved ones;
4. reduce income taxes;
5. simplify your investment management and custodial life;
6. avoid capital gains taxes;
7. reduce the delays and expenses of probate;
8. reduce estate taxes;
9. plan your retirement income; and/or
10. reduce the taxability of retirement plan assets,

There are several deferred gift planning options available that can help you fulfill these goals and needs and provide a benefit to you and Texas Wesleyan University. These gifts benefit the giver and the giver’s family by enabling them to use philanthropy as a means to pass more assets to their heirs, pass less to the state in taxes, and support the mission of the University.

The planned giving tools/techniques that can help you accomplish your goals include the following:

1. Bequests in a Will
2. Charitable Remainder Trusts
3. Charitable Lead Trusts
4. Charitable Gift Annuities
5. Deferred Charitable Gift Annuities
6. Gifts of Life Insurance
7. Gifts of Tangible Personal Property
8. Gifts of Real Property
9. Gifts of Stock and/or Other Securities
10. Gifts of a Remainder Interest in a Personal Residence or Farm
11. Gifts of Retirement Plan Assets (IRAs)

The greatest benefit, however, comes in knowing that a planned gift will make an extraordinary difference in the lives of students as they prepare for their own futures. Texas Wesleyan University is deeply grateful to those recognized as members of the McFadden Circle. They have proven so well that a gift from the heart enriches the spirit.

Please contact Mac McLain for a confidential discussion of how planned giving might help you attain your goals and wishes, and what device(s) might be best tailored to your personal situation.

Mac McLain
Director of Major Gifts
817.531.4494
lmclain@txwes.edu

Endowment

Investing in the Future

The University currently has more than 170 named endowed funds with a current market value of $36 million, providing significant and greatly needed scholarship support for both undergraduate and graduate students as well as support for outstanding faculty and academic programs.

Endowed funds are one of the most important sources of support for private education today. Endowed funds are invested as capital, rather than used as cash for immediate needs. They operate like a savings account for the University.

Earnings from the endowment are a significant source of annual income. A portion of the earnings is spent each year in support of University operations; the remainder is added back into the principal, ensuring steady growth of funds. Endowed funds create a foundation for fiscal growth and stability, while generating a reliable portion of each year’s operating income.

Endowment income, along with tuition, student fees and gifts to the Annual Fund, are the main sources of revenue to support the University’s annual operating expenses. These sources must provide most of the revenues to pay utility bills, maintain classrooms, compensate faculty, acquire library resources, equip laboratories, field athletic teams and fund all of the day-to-day educational operations of a small liberal arts urban university.

The University currently has more than 170 named endowed funds that support the operations of the campus. Our goal is to dramatically increase the size of the endowment to significantly strengthen the financial foundation upon which our educational efforts are built.

The following areas have been targeted as the highest priorities for endowment support:

1. Student Scholarships
2. Faculty Professorships
3. Faculty Development
4. Technology Enhancement
5. Salary Enhancement
6. Unrestricted Endowment
7. Community Outreach

An increased endowment will benefit Texas Wesleyan by:

1. reducing the pressure to raise tuition, thereby keeping students' expenses as low as possible.
2. serving as a reliable financial aid resource, which in turn assists in recruiting and retaining students.
3. providing resources that enable the University to attract and retain talented and dedicated faculty.
4. enhancing our ability to invest in technology, which is essential to the educational experience of students today.
5. increasing the quality of academic life on campus by supporting exceptional faculty, outstanding facilities, challenging academic programs and talented students.
6. securing the financial foundation and academic reputation of the University.

The last point is particularly critical. Colleges and universities with substantial endowments typically enjoy strong academic reputations because they are able to attract the finest teachers and maintain the best libraries and facilities. Their endowments provide the financial stability to weather economic adversity and, if necessary, survive an occasional crisis. In today’s competitive higher education marketplace, prospective students are quick to note the enhancements endowed funds provide and to assess the differences between institutions.

A larger endowment will enable Texas Wesleyan to withstand both the ups and downs of the economy and the changes in enrollment that are unavoidable from one academic year to the next.

An endowment gift may be designated for a specific purpose, such as faculty development or scholarships, or it may be undesignated. It can be made in many forms, such as cash, stock, life insurance or real estate. In any case, the gift will be invested and only interest income from the gift will be used each year for the purpose designated by the donor.

To find out more about how to contribute to an endowment fund, please visit the Establishing an Endowed Fund page. To see a list of the current endowment funds, please visit the Current Endowed Funds page.

Guide to Giving

Ways to give

In making a gift to Texas Wesleyan University, you join a large group of alumni, friends and community members making a difference in the lives of our students. Learn more about how you can help.

Cash/Check – The method most frequently used to make a gift to the University is a personal check. Checks should be made payable to Texas Wesleyan University.

Bank Draft – Set-up monthly giving via bank draft from your checking account. The University will process bank draft charges the last week of each month. Call the Advancement Office at 817.531.4433 to request a copy of the Bank Draft Enrollment Form.

Credit Card – Wesleyan can accept gifts and pledge payments made with a credit card by mail, telephone, fax or online. We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.

Online - Click here to make contributions online through our secure website.

Gifts of Securities – Publicly traded securities, shares of stock in closely-held companies, bonds and government issues may be given to the University.

Gifts of Real Estate – The University may accept gifts of real estate, including homes, condominiums, commercial properties, farmland, rental properties and undeveloped land after a thorough review of several factors, including an appraisal, a marketability assessment and an environmental assessment. Gifts of this nature normally take 60-90 days to complete. If considering such a gift, please allow for the appropriate time to complete the transaction.

Gifts of Tangible Personal Property – The University may accept gifts of tangible personal property, including works of art, jewelry, antiques, coins, stamps and other collections, automobiles, manuscripts, books, etc. that are in line with the University’s educational objectives. To accept gifts of this nature, the University may require donors to also make a cash gift for an endowment to underwrite the maintenance and/or display of the property.

Non-traditional Gifts – The University may accept gifts of non-traditional investments, such as partnership interests, after a thorough review of several factors, including the nature of applicable restrictions.

Contact Information
Office of Advancement
1201 Wesleyan Street
Fort Worth, TX 76105
817.531.4404