President’s Club donates money to BYU-I students

Megan Miller MIL04034@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Most BYU-Idaho students know that a portion of their tuition is paid for with tithing funds from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but few students know of the contributions made by members of the President’s Club.

Every year, an additional 30-40 members join the 660 households that make yearly gifts to BYU-I and its students.

All donations qualify a person for at least a yearlong membership within the President’s club.

Donations range from the base membership fee of $1,000 a year to the minimum $5,000 a year for business and foundations. Others leave donations for the school through one-time gifts, left in their will, or with defends gifts, a gift through a stock, bond or a trust.

“You never can foretell the consequences of a dollar invested in education,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley while commenting on the President’s Club and other such programs. “It goes on multiplying itself. It becomes not an expenditure, but an investment which pays returns far and wide and through generations to come.”

Members have many areas in which they can place their donation, a few of which are scholarships, grants-in-aid, work study and mentoring, learning assistance, or in the trustees/president’s fund, which allows the Board of Trustees to use the funds where they are most needed.

Dave Richards, director of LDS Foundations at BYU-Idaho and the assistant to the president for Philprophic Support and Alumni Relations, said over 50 percent of the students at BYU-I receive grants and aids from funds from the President’s Club.

About 30 percent of the students are somehow personally touched, either by the work-study and mentoring programs or by one of the other many academic support programs. While those who receive these gifts are asked to write a letter of gratitude that is given to the member who made the donation, several students who receive these are unaware of there connection to the President’s Club.

“[President’s Club donations] help students by providing the quad they walk though or the computers they learn on,” said Richards. “Development money is used in almost every aspect here at BYU-Idaho.”

Some of the benefits provided to club members include a subscription to “Alumni and Friends Update,” a subscription of the biannual “Summit Magazine” and an invitation to special campus activities, including the President’s Club annual banquet. This year’s banquet took place Sept. 17 in the Manwaring Center.

Students can learn more online at President’s Club or in learning more about its programs can visit www.byui.edu/presidentsclub.