On May 25, Martin interviewed Lt. Col. Gregory L. Clark,
president of the Florida A&M University National Alumni Association , about
the importance of donating money to support scholarships and research at
institutions geared toward the education of minorities and first generation
students. Around 70 percent of all HBCU students rely on federal grants and
work study programs to finance their education.
“We have an obligation to give. HBCU’s take us in, give us
an education and send us out into the world,” said Clark, who reported that the
association is working to increase FAMU’s 5 percent alumni giving rate. “The
giving rates have got to be up…that’s going to help us drive in those corporate
dollars and it’s going to show the corporations that we do care about our
institutions.”
Since that day, Martin has worn lapel pins while hosting
News One Now to highlight giving in support of HBCUs. According to the Pew Research Center, there
are more than 100 historically black colleges and universities in the United
States. In 2016, it was reported that several HBCU’s saw an uptick in freshman
class enrollment.
During a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, Martin
challenged everyone to adopt an HBCU, whether they attended one or not. He explained
that too often people get overwhelmed by the size of the gift and forget that
multiple small gifts can be just as impactful.
“We can’t rely on public dollars to save our institutions.
When the foundation says, ‘What’s the giving of your graduates?’ and they say
‘Only 3 percent of our graduates give.’ A foundation goes, ‘You’re asking me to
give you $10 million but only 3 percent of your graduates are giving?’ That
means 97 percent [of graduates] are not even sending a dollar back,” said
Martin. “For me, we have to be about saving our institutions, building our
institutions, and strengthening our institutions, whether it’s our civil rights
groups, whether it’s our HBCUs, or whether it’s our economic groups.”
To make a donation to FAMU, log on to: https://my.famu.edu/give.