Larry Goddard, who served as executive director of the Tyler ISD Foundation, will be honored at the National School Foundation Association in St. Louis next month.  Goddard, who was the first professional certified for school foundation fundraising and management, was also a master faculty member for certification as well as many of their NSFA conferences.

Goddard retired from Tyler ISD Foundation three years ago and created The Goddard Company and The Goddard Foundation.  His clients are school districts seeking state and federal academic-related grants; education foundations related to private and public schools as well as higher education; and hospitals creating and sustaining associated public charities.

Goddard previously served as Assistant Provost (Special Program for the Board of Regents of the Texas A&M University System); Assistant Vice President for Marketing, Public Relations and Outreach for Texas A&M University-Commerce, and multiple award winning Associate Vice President-Development and Executive Director of the Texas A&M University-Commerce Foundation. 

Earlier, Goddard was the Manager of the Tyler, Texas Directory Assistance office (over 120 employees) and continuously had the best results in the five state area of Southwestern Bell; state budget coordinator for Southwestern Bell, and public relations for the East Texas area.
Goddard was educated in the Stephenville ISD, Bryan ISD, Commerce ISD, Cooper ISD, and Texas A&M University System.  He is an ordained clergy and performs weddings and other clerical ceremonies all over the world.  He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive on an international basis.

During his tenure at Tyler ISD Foundation, his first year donations were 22 times any of the previous 15 years of existence; he tripled the number of directors; and provided more than 8 times of dollars to classrooms each year.  The average annual fund campaign averaged for 7 years at $184,00 each year.

One week before his retirement, the Tyler ISD Foundation was awarded the highest national public relations award in the history of education foundations.  The Foundation won state honors in campaigns, events, board directors, writing, and many awards never won by education foundations--but by mega-large school districts.  Goddard was named as Key Communicator of Education in Texas; Most Valuable Member of Texas School Public Relations Association; and appointed twice by Governor Perry to the OneStar Foundation and the National Workforce Commission.

The honor at the National School Foundation Association will include recognition at the plenary session and a reception later during the opening day in April. 

"I continue to value the kind and benevolent donors who understand that our classroom teachers need to be able to create a dream in their classroom--and for the donations to help them fulfill that dream for the success of students," said Goddard. 
Goddard, who is well-known as a pioneer in K-12 school district fundraising, first created a public school district education foundation in 1987.