Draft:University of Georgia Alumni Association
Alumni association in Athens, Georgia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The University of Georgia Alumni Association is the alumni organization of the University of Georgia (UGA), a public research university in Athens, Georgia. It originated as the University of Georgia Alumni Society, organized in 1834 by 71 graduates, making it the fourth alumni society established at an American college.[1] Formally incorporated as University of Georgia Alumni Association, Inc., a Georgia nonprofit corporation, the association is governed by a volunteer board of directors and operates administratively within the university's Division of Development and Alumni Relations.[2][3] It is headquartered at the Wray–Nicholson House on the UGA campus in Athens.[4] All graduates of the university automatically become members upon graduation, with no dues or application required.[5] The university's alumni network has numbered around 300,000 in recent years and has been ranked among the nation's top 10 public-university alumni networks by The Princeton Review's annual college rankings.[6][7]
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Comment: Please use WP:GOLDENRULE sources Czarking0 (talk) 00:19, 15 August 2026 (UTC)
| Formation | 1834 (as the University of Georgia Alumni Society) |
|---|---|
| Founder | 71 graduates of the University of Georgia (collective founding) |
| Type | Alumni association; 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation |
| Headquarters | Wray–Nicholson House, 298 South Hull Street, Athens, Georgia, U.S. |
Parent organization | University of Georgia Division of Development and Alumni Relations |
| Website | alumni |
History
Founding as the Alumni Society (1834)
In 1834, a group of 71 University of Georgia graduates met in the campus chapel to organize an alumni society, adopting a constitution and electing officers; this made the organization the fourth alumni society established at any American college.[1] Prior to the establishment of a dedicated university fundraising body in the 20th century, organized alumni fundraising consisted chiefly of two limited drives to collect money from graduates for the construction of new campus buildings; proceeds from these drives also funded the office of an alumni secretary and an alumni magazine.[8]
1937 split and the creation of the University of Georgia Foundation
By the mid-1930s, leaders of the Alumni Society concluded that the organization had no structured mechanism for raising funds in support of academic programs or faculty salaries, as distinct from building construction. On December 4, 1937, a group of alumni based largely in Atlanta — including Hatton Lovejoy, Hughes Spalding, Pope Brock, Philip Weltner, Harold Hirsch, and George Woodruff, several of whom had served or would go on to serve as president of the Alumni Society — obtained a separate corporate charter to establish the University of Georgia Foundation as an independent, tax-exempt endowment-holding corporation.[8] The Foundation was organized as a legally distinct nonprofit governed by its own self-perpetuating board of trustees, separating the university's endowment and major-gift fundraising functions from the alumni engagement functions retained by the Alumni Society.[8][9] That same year, the association began presenting the Alumni Merit Award, which remains its oldest and highest honor.[10]
Relocation to the Wray–Nicholson House (2000)
The Wray–Nicholson House, an antebellum house in Athens built around 1825, was acquired by the university in 2000 to serve as the headquarters of the Alumni Association.[4][11] The association also maintains a satellite office, the Atlanta Alumni Center, in Atlanta.[12]
Abraham Baldwin statue (2011)
In 2011, the association independently led and financed the commission of a bronze statue of university founder Abraham Baldwin, located on North Campus in front of Old College. The Alumni Association pledged the lead funding for the project — initially $60,000 and later increased to a $90,000 matching grant — and oversaw fundraising for the remainder of the cost from private donors.[13][14] The statue was dedicated on September 16, 2011.[14]
Programs and Awards
Bulldog 100
Bulldog 100 is an annual recognition program, established in 2009 with its first celebration held in 2010, that ranks the 100 fastest-growing businesses owned or led by UGA alumni based on each company's compounded annual growth rate over a three-year period.[15][16] Submitted financial information is independently verified by the Atlanta office of Warren Averett CPAs and Advisors, which has served as a program partner since its founding.[17] The program has been covered repeatedly by the University of Georgia's independent student newspaper, The Red & Black, which has profiled individual honoree businesses each year it has run.[18][19][20] The Michael J. Bryan Award, established after 2017 in memory of a repeat honoree, is presented annually to a returning Bulldog 100 company.[15]
Alumni Awards
The association has presented an annual Alumni Merit Award, its oldest and highest honor, since 1937 — the same year the University of Georgia Foundation was chartered.[10] The award is presented at an annual Alumni Awards Luncheon that traces to 1936.[21] Additional honors presented at the same event include the Faculty Service Award (presented since 1969), the Family of the Year Award (first presented in 1966 and revived in 2007 after a period of discontinuation), the Friend of UGA Award (established 2002), and the Young Alumni Award.[10][21]
Founders' Day Lecture
The association co-sponsors an annual Founders' Day Lecture with the UGA Emeriti Scholars, held each January in observance of the university's 1785 charter date.[22]
Affinity groups and chapters
The association coordinates four affinity networks — Black Alumni, Latino Alumni, Women of UGA, and Young Alumni — and more than 60 regional alumni chapters spanning three continents, including a London chapter covering the United Kingdom that has hosted joint football watch parties with other universities' London alumni groups and established a scholarship fund supporting UGA students studying abroad in the U.K.[5][23] The Latino Alumni Council, formed in 2021, subsequently established a scholarship fund for undergraduate students.[24]
Publications
The association's alumni magazine began publication on August 15, 1920, as the Georgia Alumni Record, distributed to raise $1 million for a War Memorial Fund honoring UGA students and alumni who died in World War I; the campaign exceeded its goal.[25] In 1995, the publication was renamed Georgia Magazine and repositioned as a university-wide publication produced by UGA's Division of Marketing and Communications rather than the Alumni Association alone, though it continues to carry a recurring alumni-focused section.[25][26] In 2022, Georgia Magazine received a silver award in the magazines category of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education's (CASE) Circle of Excellence Awards.[27][28] The Alumni Association and Georgia Magazine also received CASE District III awards of excellence in 2005.[29]
Governance and Structure
The association is formally organized as University of Georgia Alumni Association, Inc., a Georgia nonprofit corporation operating under the state's Nonprofit Alumni Association Code and organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity.[2] Despite this separate incorporation, the association operates within the Office of Alumni Relations, a department of the university's Division of Development and Alumni Relations (DAR), which provides its accounting, budgeting, and financial support.[2][3] The relationship between the association and the university is further defined by a memorandum of understanding signed May 14, 2010.[2]
Under its bylaws, the board of directors is composed of 15 to 40 elected members serving three-year terms, renewable once, with the president of the University of Georgia (or a designee) sitting as an ex officio voting member.[2] Non-voting university representatives — including the chair of the University Council and the presidents of the Student Government Association, Student Alumni Council, and Graduate Student Association — are entitled to attend board meetings.[2] New members join the board annually, and the board includes standing committees such as Signature Programs, Nominating, Student and Young Alumni, and Affinity.[30][31] Officers (president, vice president, secretary, and immediate past president) serve one-year terms; the president additionally serves as a voting member of the University Council, the University of Georgia Foundation, and the Georgia Athletic Association board.[2][32]
Administratively, the division is led by a vice president for development and alumni relations who concurrently serves as executive director of the University of Georgia Foundation, linking staff support for alumni programming to the same administrative office that oversees the university's separately incorporated fundraising foundation.[33]
See also
Further reading
- Dyer, Thomas G. The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785–1985. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985.
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