How To Raise Money In College Athletics

The pandemic has created a very unique budget situation within college athletics that is forcing our industry to get more creative than ever. Expenses can only get cut so much and most are fixed, while revenue is down by many variables that are uncontrollable like ticket sales, donations, sponsors, concessions and others affected by no live sports or butts in the seats in many cases.

Unfortunately for the collegiate athletics industry, expectations have not changed one bit as far as winning teams, successful coaches, new facilities and other robust services. All of those come with large price tags. So right now, it really comes down to generating increased levels of revenue and giving. The million-dollar question becomes: How do athletic departments leave no stone unturned?

Relationship Management

For athletic departments, relationships and communications have never been more important. Prioritizing those basic objectives will provide the best chance for implementing new ideas or tactics.

Strong relationships in 2021 will be at a premium regardless of the internal or external audience. As everyone is expected to do more with less, it is imperative to have trust and confidence in those around you along with senior leadership. In the case of donors, they have to trust in the direction of the athletic department and the relationships have to be strong enough to ask things that have never been asked of before now. This will require twice as many outreach calls and double the number of Zoom meetings for the sole purpose of cultivating relationships and providing confidence that things will get better. Hopefully, the hard work has been put in prior to the pandemic so donors are willing to step up and make gifts during a time of need. For many athletic departments that were already communicating with donors, 2020 turned out to be better than expected for annual fund giving and major gifts. If your athletic department is not in that camp, the next best time to start reaching out to donors is today.

Communication will have to be more consistent and more transparent than in previous years. Season ticket holders, donors, fans, letterwinners and sponsors need to be kept in the loop on a regular basis as athletics is the one place that provides some normalcy in a time of chaos. As a country, we have moved into a virtual world, making it not a matter of if you are digitally engaging, but really how you are doing it. It is becoming more and more obvious that things like virtual reunions, town hall meetings and video updates are starting to be expected and may never go away because of the convenience of the digital world. It is now common place to do virtual tours of facilities during construction and at completion for those donors who made it possible as well as former student-athletes, future student-athletes, parents, fans and sponsors.

Target Audience

In these tough fiscal times, it is imperative to be more strategic and more efficient. One audience that holds the most potential, but yet often is the most overlooked are former student-athletes. The myth that athletes don't give back needs to be addressed because indeed they have proven to be generous in their giving. According to a recent Gallup study, NCAA student-athletes are more likely than the general study body to have donated to their alma mater in the last 12 months.

However, former student-athletes do for the most part feel mistreated and need to be nurtured differently than other non-athlete alumni. Historically, former student-athletes felt ignored during their 20's and 30's, which makes it challenging to get them involved again later in life. That for the most part is because they were provided with resources, support, facilities, trainers, not to mention wearing the uniform and giving their blood, sweat and tears to the school - and those expectations carry on beyond their competitive days.Butthedata shows beyond a doubt if letterwinners are engaged and happy, they will give back.

Proven Strategies

The solution is to provide a platform that allows athletic departments to directly engage with student-athletes and letterwinners in an authentic and meaningful way. Of course, that is enhanced by providing relevant content and innovative ways to deliver the services specifically to the athletes.

Over the last year, the Penn State Varsity S Club has seen a 186% increase in the number of their S Club alumni athletes giving back (and at the moment, we're only six months into this fiscal year!). This includes 754 letterwinners that had never contributed to athletics in the past. What did Penn State do differently this year to increase giving? It is a direct correlation to improved engagement and communication by launching a digital network for letterwinners.

Another example of revenue generation has been proven by the Air Force Letterwinners Club. In early January 2021, they launched a premium level membership for letterwinners that has already generated over $14K through 205 exclusive members in just a few weeks. After launching their digital athlete network in 2019 and consistently communicating with their members through sport-specific content, messages and resources, a premium level was the natural next step to offer their 2,200+ Letterwinners Club members. By cultivating the pathway for giving, they created a value without any new expenses to implement.

For years athletic departments have needed to find innovative ways to connect with alumni and bring them back to campus more often than just Homecoming or an annual event. If 2020 taught us anything, it was how to use Zoom. The virtual reunion concept has turned into one of the most fruitful ways to not only engage with former student-athletes, but also as an organic fundraising tool. The University of Kansas K-Club held 12 virtual reunions in the last quarter of 2020, which included coaches' updates and participation. As a part of a simple follow up and thank you to each attendee, K Club saw phenomenal giving numbers that were highlighted by a $96K matching gift campaign.

Yet another basic fundraising campaign that has seen growth in its success is sport specific giving as a stand alone or part of "Day of Giving" activities. By playing into the obvious competitive nature of athletes, athletic departments would be remiss if they did not pit sports against each other in a form of a giving competition. In their inaugural event and only a few weeks after launching their digital athlete network, Illinois State saw this campaign create quite a buzz among former student-athletes and generated over 500 of them to give back. Incredibly, 58% of the gifts were from former student-athletes who were first-time givers to their athletic department. Imagine the giving numbers next year after consistently engaging with their former student-athletes!

Those are just a few of the creative ways our partners have increased fundraising over the past year (and I didn't even mention Syracuse's multi-million dollar gift). Another growing trend generating dollars among partners is monetizing employers looking to hire student-athletes and former student-athletes. Many companies have budgets and interest in hiring this demographic, so providing a conduit to connect employers and student-athletes is something that many are willing to spend on. This is a way to creatively generate revenue through non-traditional methods by tapping into new budgets with local sponsors and companies who will be hiring in 2021 and beyond. Partners like Sacramento State, Purdue and Georgia Tech have monetized this into program funding and have only scratched the surface of the massive potential.

Having a branded digital network for current and/or former student-athletes also has the potential to create new and unique inventory for sponsors. Partners such as University of Albany and CSU-Bakersfield have been able to find network sponsors and generate thousands of dollars by leveraging this valuable segment.

Creative revenue can come in many innovative forms as shown by these partners and others. Our goal at Athlete Network is to help our partners in collegiate athletics generate revenue and giving at a time when it has never been more important.

For more information, visit www.athletenetwork.com/colleges-universities or schedule a free overview to see how you can unleash the power of your athlete network.