Welcome to Fundraising Friday, AB Today's weekly digest of recent developments in development.
Though not entirely an athletics donation, we at FF are giving the four-generation Virginia Tech family behind the anonymous $75 million commitment to the university full credit. The largest commitment in the Tech's history will advance its ambitious athletics strategy and expand one of its most innovative academic programs. According to the university's Thursday announcement, a majority of the commitment, made anonymously, was to Virginia Tech Athletics, while a sizable portion was directed to the Honors College. The athletics portion includes philanthropy for the Invest to Win initiative to ensure Hokie competitiveness in today’s rapidly changing collegiate athletics environment, unrestricted funds to be used at the discretion of the university’s athletic director, and additional support to be administered through the new Hokie Ventures affiliation approved Tuesday by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
Tropicana Homes — a builder of family homes in the El Paso, Texas, area since 1950 — has made a $500,000 gift to the UTEP football program. According to the athletics department's announcement Wednesday, the gift will support competitive excellence by providing essential resources to aid the program's transition to the Mountain West this fall.
Murray State University in Kentucky has secured pair of six-figure gifts totaling $375,000. An investment of $250,000 was announced May 27. The gift from an Illinois-based investor counts toward the Vision For Excellence Fund as part of the atheltics department's Leading The Pack capital campaign that the Racers publicly announced in March. The campaign supports numerous strategic initiatives, capital progress and revenue share, per the MSU athletics department release. Also counted toward that campaign is a $125,000 donation from Bob and Joyce Hughes, announced Wednesday. Over the last two years, Murray State has raised a school-record $43 million dollars in support of new facilities, initiatives and championship resources. That total was made possible by a school-record 15 seven-figure gifts, many of which have been chronicled in this space.
Total amount of these gifts:
$75,875,000
Running total for 2026:
$464,777,000
Total amount tracked by AB Today in 2025:
$1,671,578,500
