Contributions to AGO's Annual Fund

Chapter registrars and treasurers, how would you like to never have to fill out a membership report form again? What if the chapter portion of each member’s dues appeared automatically in your chapter bank account without your having to process a single check? What if members could join the Guild and pay their dues online?

Many questions I receive about the Annual Fund and Endowment Fund are queries about what these funds actually cover. We are grateful for each member’s dues, and we are aware that membership in the AGO isn’t inexpensive. But it’s also important to know that membership dues pay for only part of all the AGO does. (The major portion of each member’s dues goes toward costs of producing The American Organist each month.) We are therefore very dependent upon donations to the Annual Fund to enable other important projects to move forward. The above questions illustrate one of those possible projects, currently un-funded: the development of a new software package that will eliminate 90% of the work that chapter officers now do to process membership forms and payments. Contributions to the Annual Fund will help turn this project into a reality.

Please contribute to the Annual Fund. Thank you to those who are already regular donors to the Fund. These monies are well-managed and very carefully spent.

The dollar amount of each individual's and/or chapter's contribution is not as important as the goal that each member and chapter DOES contribute. When the AGO applies for grants from outside funding sources, one important area considered by those organizations is the percentage of our membership that believes enough in our organization to contribute themselves. The percentage of AGO members in Region VI who donate now is 5.4% -- higher than the national average of 5.1%, but still it could be a lot better. I would appreciate your help to increase those percentages. 100% of your National Council members are personal contributors to the Annual Fund. Please join us!

To contribute: send a check to Headquarters marked "Annual Fund," or contribute on-line at www.agohq.org.