Ways to Give
"May we never forget our responsibility to support education for those who will follow us."
Advancing Excellence and Opportunity
- Outright Gifts
- Deferred or Planned Gifts
- Gifts to Endowment
- Named Endowed Gifts
- Matching Gifts
- Corporations and Foundations
Your gift can be designated for immediate or current use or set up as a long-term investment through an endowment. These two types of gifts may also be blended to provide immediate impact while, at the same time, creating a legacy for the future of George Mason.
In addition, you may wish to designate your gift to Annual Giving to provide important regular yearly support for the ongoing needs of the university.
Current Use: Providing Immediate Impact
Gifts designated for current use are given with the expectation that the entire gift is to be spent in the near future, and usually restricted to a particular project. For example, you may designate a current use gift to be given over five years to support a key research project or to create an incentive package to bring a new professor to the university. Current use gifts are critical to begin new initiatives or expand existing programs. Sparked by private support, such projects often become self-sustaining.
Endowment: Building the Future
Gifts to endowment are invested in perpetuity by the George Mason University Foundation to ensure a steady source of income over time. The principal established by the endowment gift is permanently protected and only a portion of the principal's earnings is distributed annually for expenditure, thus protecting the endowment's value against inflation. Endowments provide many naming opportunities.
Blending your Investment
A current use gift can be blended with an endowment contribution in order to begin an immediate distribution of funds. For example, you may decide to establish a scholarship endowment through a five-year pledge, yet would like the awarding of the scholarship to begin immediately. By adding funds to support the scholarship right away, you may achieve both goals.
Your gift or pledge can be tailored to your philanthropic interests and financial goals. Please contact us for more information.


