President Willie Larkin has issued a challenge to the employees of Grambling State University for the ALL-IN University Giving Campaign. Can you raise $50,000 in 45 days for the love of Grambling State University? Grambling’s employees answered in a big way by raising more than $25,000 since the campaign’s kickoff breakfast on Aug. 28. President Larkin answered his own challenge with a $1,000 donation. “Giving money is a state of mind,” Larkin said. “Philanthropy is not something that a lot of people automatically do. As a culture, we’ve always given, but to give hard earned money, a lot of time it is hard to give the money and let it go and trust that it will be used properly. What I am asking you to do is to trust, and that will be evidenced as to whether your trust is well placed. We are going to do some really great things, and at the end of the day, we’ll all be excited about it.” The ALL-IN University Giving Campaign is an annual fundraising effort that directly benefits the students of GSU as well as university employees. When you give a gift to the University Giving Campaign, your gift provides critically needed scholarships, departmental support for academic excellence and other special project funding that benefits our students and employees. The first phase of the ALL-IN University Giving Campaign is the employee-giving campaign that serves as an opportunity for employees of Grambling State University to support the university financially. The importance of taking the time to donate now is in the benefits it will yield for the future Tigers who will attend Grambling State University long after we are gone. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could stretch our minds to the point where we could fathom a 100-year strategic plan and know that we are not going to be here to see it,” he said. “The power in that is that we are thinking about future generations. I have four grandsons and they are young, and they will be the benefactors of everything that I do and every contribution that I make to society. We have got to think bigger and farther than just ourselves.” The campaign will end on Oct. 22, just in time for the results to be announced during halftime of the Homecoming football game against Mississippi Valley State on Oct. 24. Donations can be made by cash, check, money order, credit card and pledge card/payroll deduction. For more information on how to give to the ALL-IN University Giving Campaign, please contact Rose Wright at 318-274-2217.
