Associated Agencies

The Mississippi State University Alumni Association Inc.

The Mississippi State University Alumni Association was founded June 17, 1885.  The mission of the Alumni Association is to foster lifelong support for the university’s mission through programs, activities and events for alumni, future alumni and friends of Mississippi State University.

The alumni of Mississippi State University have their permanent headquarters in the Hunter Henry Center on the university’s historic campus. Housed there are nearly 250,881 address records of alumni, friends and corporations associated with Mississippi State University. In addition, the Henry Center is used frequently by faculty, students and alumni for meetings, conferences and other events.

Some of the services rendered by the association annually in the promotion of the university are:  maintaining and updating biographic and demographic information of all alumni; communicating with alumni and friends through direct mail (including the Alumnus magazine), email and social media; planning and organizing numerous alumni meetings and special events including an alumni awards banquet and leadership conference; supporting various fundraising programs for the university through the MSU Foundation’s annual giving program and the Bulldog Club; providing support for alumni chapter scholarship programs; supporting the university’s appropriation requests from the Mississippi Legislature; assisting in the recruitment of prospective students to Mississippi State University; sponsoring the Alumni Delegates, student leaders preparing to be alumni leaders; partnering with the university’s Career Center to assist students and alumni with employment opportunities; and supporting excellence at the university through the annual faculty recognition program.

Currently, the Association has 102 local alumni chapters and clubs, including 62 in Mississippi and 40 in states throughout the nation.  In addition to a national board of directors, most chapters and clubs have officers, committees and boards of directors.  This totals more than 2,500 volunteer workers on all levels and provides for wide participation of former students and friends in the promotion of Mississippi State University each year.

For more information, visit the association’s website at www.alumni.msstate.edu.

The Mississippi State University Foundation, Inc.

Since 1962, the Mississippi State University Foundation, Inc., has served as a nonprofit corporation offering a comprehensive program of giving opportunities for alumni and friends of Mississippi State University. The MSU Foundation’s purpose is fourfold:

• to provide the university a way to recruit and draw on the expertise of a network of dedicated volunteers who can assist in soliciting gifts from alumni and friends;
• to provide a mechanism to keep private gifts clearly separate from public funds and to provide flexibility in the use of private funds;
• to assist the university in the investment of endowed funds (the foundation has greater flexibility than the public university to seek the most favorable return on investments); and
• to ensure that funds designated for a particular purpose are used in the manner intended by the donors, and to ensure that funds unrestricted by the donors as to their use are appropriately distributed.

Alumni and friends have invested over $1.3 billion in the university through the MSU Foundation since its incorporation. The MSU Foundation administers Mississippi State University's academic fundraising activities and endowment funds, which currently total approximately $450 million.

For more information, visit the MSU Foundation’s website at www.msufoundation.com.