Every year, I get to witness something that most people outside our world never see: thousands of volunteers, parents, teachers, and community members, pouring their evenings and weekends into making schools better for kids. No salary. No recognition beyond a thank-you email. Just the belief in helping children achieve their potential.
That’s who PTAs are. And that’s who AIM has had the privilege of supporting for over 35 years.
When we founded AIM back in 1989, we were moved by something painfully simple: a PTA had purchased playground equipment for their school. A child was hurt. And that group of dedicated volunteers, people who had done everything right, found themselves facing a costly lawsuit they had no way to survive financially. They didn’t have resources. They just cared about the kids and wanted their school experience to be the best it could be.
That moment never left us. It became our mission.
Today, AIM insures more than 24,000 PTAs across all 50 states. We work alongside 48 of the 50 state PTAs. Those aren’t just numbers. Each one represents a community of people who show up, day after day, for the children in their schools. Our job is to make sure no one has to stop doing that work because something went wrong and they had no protection.
So when the National PTA created the Endowment Fund, a vehicle designed to fund long-term resources that address the education, health, and well-being of children, supporting it wasn’t a business decision. It was the natural extension of our existence.
This year, as we head to Pittsburgh for the 2026 National PTA Convention, AIM is proud to match gifts to the Endowment Fund again, up to $5,000, doubling the impact of every contribution made during the convention. We’ve matched Endowment Fund gifts for years because we believe that protecting parent groups and investing in the future of children’s education are the same mission, expressed two different ways.
If you’re attending the convention, I want to encourage you to take a moment to give. Not because AIM is matching it, though I’m glad we can. But because the Endowment Fund is one of the few mechanisms that outlasts any single school year, any single board, any single volunteer cycle. It compounds. It builds. It does what PTAs do, but across generations.
What you contribute in Pittsburgh this June will continue to work for children long after the convention ends.
I’m grateful to be part of a community that takes that seriously. I’ll see you in Pittsburgh.
– Elgin B. Allen Jr., Founder & CEO, AIM
