Recently, the Texas Retired Teachers Foundation (TRTF)—the charitable arm of the Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA)—mailed out a special request for donations to its generous donors as part of their annual appeal to raise funds for several valuable programs.
Thousands of members of TRTA are dedicated to the causes supported by TRTF, such as the retiree assistance program “A Helping Hand,” classroom assistance grants for Texas public school teachers, and the newly established Beginning Teacher Scholarship program for recent college graduates who are about to begin their careers in education.
Unfortunately, an error was made when the special request for donations was mailed, due to a mistake in sorting by the print company utilized by TRTF.
TRTF wishes to apologize sincerely for this error, and let our donors know that the print company is reprinting and resending the donation request immediately at no cost to the Foundation. If you have received a donation request from TRTF and your enclosed donor card has the wrong name and address printed in the donor section, please discard the incorrect card and wait for the corrected version to arrive in your mailbox within the next week.
As many of our members know, TRTF was established in 1988 as a trust to raise funds to build TRTA’s home office building in downtown Austin, just steps from the east door of the Capitol. After successfully accomplishing this goal, TRTF began supporting charitable programs to benefit educators of the past, present and future.
In addition to the programs mentioned above, TRTF also supports the Legacy Campaign, which promotes a positive image of public education and our hardworking educators in Texas through videos and fact sheets. The campaign also promotes the strength and reliability of the defined benefit plan and Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) pension fund, which provides retirement security for more than 375,000 public education retirees and nearly 1,000,000 pre-retirees!
This year, TRTF also launched the Lehr-Pritchard Endowment Fund in honor of two of TRTA’s and TRTF’s most notable volunteers, Mike Lehr and Tom Pritchard. The endowment fund, being established in celebration of the 25th year of the passage of the CPI Catch-Up plan, will raise interest from donated funds to support “A Helping Hand” indefinitely.
You can view a video about the fund, its purpose, and goals by clicking here. The video features TRTA Executive Director Tim Lee, TRTF Trustee and TRTA Retirement Consultant Ronnie Jung, and TRTF Board President Jamie Larson explaining the inspiration behind this landmark initiative.
As always, TRTF appreciates your genuine support of its charitable efforts. Because of you and your fellow retirees, TRTF has been able to provide over $244,000 in assistance to educators of the past, present and future, including $93,000 for retirees experiencing critical financial emergencies.
All members of TRTA will receive TRTA’s annual appeal letter in the third quarter issue of The VOICE, which should be in members’ mailboxes by mid-October. Please consider making a donation at that time using the enclosed envelope, or donate online today to any of our amazing programs!
If you would like to learn more about our programs, please click on the following links: “A Helping Hand,” the Lehr-Pritchard Endowment Fund, Classroom Assistance Grants, Beginning Teacher Scholarships, and the Legacy Campaign.
To download the newly released Beginning Teacher Scholarship application, click here!
Thank You
Thank you for your membership to TRTA. We appreciate all that you do to help TRTF impact the future every day! Since 2008, you have helped 93 retirees get back on their feet, 10 residents of West recover from a devastating disaster, 97 teachers implement projects benefitting their students, and 106 future educators pursue their passion.
If you are not yet a member, please join TRTA today!
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