Schools shift temporary fundraising focus to Haiti

After disasters like the earthquake that occurred in Haiti two weeks ago, many schools and athletics departments change their fundraising focus from the student-athlete to people in need. It is times like these that show the true character of individuals and schools alike as they work to help people they have never even met. There is a different objective in asking for donations for a disaster than for asking for money for a facility upgrade. Instead of focusing on developing student-athletes and athletics departments for the future, I am going to highlight some of the steps being taken by schools to help the people of Haiti through this crisis.

Southeast Missouri collected donations for the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund at each of its basketball games as well as the WWE professional wrestling match it hosted. Kentucky raised over $1 million for Haiti in five hours using a last-minute telethon that featured Men’s Basketball Coach John Calipari and had the #1 Wildcats basketball team answering phone calls. The University of Utah’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council partnered with Soles4Souls to collect gently used shoes for Haiti. They collected the shoes and spare change at Utah’s Men’s Basketball and Gymnastics meets last week. These are just a few of the hundreds of commendable fundraising efforts being done by schools across the county.

There are a few distinct differences between fundraising for relief efforts by athletics departments and the day-to-day fundraising done by athletics departments. Relief fundraising is more dependent upon normal events taking place at the school. Southeast Missouri not only took advantage of its home basketball games but also a WWE event that came to campus. While development takes place everyday and at every sporting event, you will very rarely see collection boxes for a scholarship fund at a basketball games. Schools collecting aid for Haiti aren’t expecting to receive major gifts; those will be given directly to the Red Cross, UNICEF, or another aid organization, whereas a large percentage of schools have development staff devoted to major gifts. Collecting money for Haiti is a great public relations move by a school, but schools rarely release press releases when they are putting on a donor specific event because that is part of its day-to-day operations. In the end, fundraising for Haiti and for an athletics department has similarities, but they each fill a different objective for the athletics department.

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Sean Phifer