$1 Million Match Gift

December 15, 2020

GeoFORCE Texas is thrilled to receive a generous $1 million match gift from an anonymous donor to support the program and alumni of GeoFORCE at The University of Texas at Austin.

The first $250,000 of this gift has already been matched dollar for dollar by the Texas Challenge scholarship fund to create the Advance GeoFORCE Texas Endowed Scholarship. It will generate approximately $22,500 per year in scholarship support to be awarded to GeoFORCE alumni who enroll at The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, Cockrell School of Engineering, or College of Natural Sciences.

“As GeoFORCE graduates move on to university studies—as almost all of them do—there remains a need to assure they have the financial support they need to be successful,” said the Jackson School’s Dean Claudia Mora. “This wonderful scholarship may be the difference that lets a student focus on their studies without simultaneously holding down a job, or to graduate without a crushing student debt. It will have great impact on the lives of our GeoFORCE graduates.”

GeoFORCE has the next five years to find donors to match the remaining $750,000 of this gift. This money is earmarked to support programmatic expenses for the GeoFORCE Texas summer academies. The generous donation was gifted to GeoFORCE in an effort to diversify funding, therefore donations are only eligible to be matched by new corporate donors outside of the oil and gas industry, individual donor gifts, or by “in kind” donations that offset programmatic costs (such as airplane miles or hotel points).

The GeoFORCE Team is overwhelmingly thankful for this gift and to all those who support the program. Your contribution continues to change the lives of our students and alumni and aids the fight for equality in STEM and the geosciences.