In recognizing this, officials at Arkansas State University administered its “License to Howl” program this past Saturday.  At the event, officials from ASU Athletics, including student-athletes, coaches, cheerleaders, and Howl, attached special “A-State/Howl” license plates to the front bumper of ASU supporters vehicles.  By day’s end, over one thousand cars ended up leaving the ASU campus with “A-State/Howl” license plates, giving ASU Athletics a tremendous amount of support and visibility throughout the state of Arkansas.

Time and again, many athletic departments look to use license plate holders as a way donors can show their support.  However, in most instances supporters are sent or given license plate holders, with no mechanism for ensuring they are used.   With the success of the recent “License to Howl” program at ASU, many universities could begin using similar initiatives to ensure usage of membership identifiers like license plate holders.

Michael Speight

Specifically, the BASF is hosting this event through one of its graduates, Dave Lethin, owner of the Aleutian Ballad.  The Aleutian Ballad was featured on the Discovery Channel original series Deadliest Catch, which chronicles the lives of crab fisherman on the Bearing Sea.  For a number of years, Lethin and his crew have been organizing tours for fans of the Aleutian Ballad.  However, this particular tour of the Aleutian Ballad exclusively for the BASF shows a great deal of creativity in attracting supporters of OSU Athletics to the BASF.

Overall, unique events like the “OSU Crab Fisherman’s Tour” with OSU Athletics and the dueling pianos event with Oakland University Athletics are becoming more and more common.  By and large, they provide athletic departments with a fun and unique way to attract and meet potential supporters.

Michael Speight

This year, to purchase season tickets for Texas Tech basketball, Red Raider fans need to only purchase tickets at their listed season ticket prices.  From there, Texas Tech is offering season ticket holders the option of purchasing a 3-Point Option plan, which provides enhanced benefits on gamedays as well as first right to renew seats in subsequent years.  Furthermore, all current paid-in-full PSL account holders and yearly PSL purchasers will be given the highest priority in the new seat selection process.

Overall, the removal of PSLs in the premium seating section at Texas Tech University signals a major shift of importance in the athletic department.  With this decision, Texas Tech is hoping to uncover a new group of fans that have been looking for an affordable way to watch Red Raiders basketball.  More importantly, this shift in seating pricing could spawn an entire new generation of young fans and long-term supporters of Texas Tech Athletics.

Michael Speight

Annual members to this elite club are those who generously contribute $1,200 or more each year to UC Football’s Traditions Fund.  In becoming a part of the 1200 Club, members are privileged to regular inner-circle updates through email communication, 1200 Club apparel, and invitations to exclusive 1200 club events.  Overall, Cincinnati football is looking to entice potential supporters by offering incentives that give fans access to inside information.

For a long time university athletic departments have been receiving donations for specific sports.  However, in the case of the 1200 Club, the University of Cincinnati athletic department is soliciting incremental donations for a sport where specific spending discretion for the head coach is directly related to the amount of support received.  In the future, look for more athletic departments to instill similar programs if much support is garnered from the 1200 Club for Bearcats football.

Michael Speight

In attempt to receive similar forms of goodwill, University of Georgia Athletics recently made a $2 million gift to university.  In fact, the $2 million gift is in addition to the $6 million given to the university by UGA Athletics last year.  The decision to increase UGA Athletics commitment to the university was only possible after their yearly budgets had been calculated and interpreted.

To date, donations to the university by athletic departments are becoming more and more prevalent.  In fact, look for more athletic departments to consider and make contributions to their university as fund drives and budgets become finalized.  Moreover, as long as athletic departments continue to see a return of goodwill on such contributions, expect them to become even more common.

Michael Speight

The John Purdue Club at Purdue University is hosted a full slate of events this past weekend, ranging from two golf outings, two special dinners, an awards ceremony, a silent auction and a “Huddle in Heels” women’s football clinic. With such a jam-packed weekend of events, the John Purdue Club can count on many donors coming back to campus for the entire weekend to celebrate the sport and annual fund year that has just been wrapped up.

The golf outings took place on Friday and Saturday and featured the ability to win team and individual prizes. Each outing was followed by a special dinner. On Friday, participants had the chance to hear an update from the Athletics Director and other coaches. On Saturday, members of the John Purdue Club gathered to recognize those who have helped Purdue Athletics the most through their personal philanthropy and work as a volunteer for the club. This time also allowed the club to recognize those with 10 and 25 years of membership in the John Purdue Club.

The women’s Huddle In Heels event took place on Saturday afternoon and featured a chalk talk from the head football coach as well as the ability to meet many football student-athletes. This type of event makes sure all members of their club had an activity and reason to be on campus on Saturday.

Through an event weekend like this, the John Purdue Club is repaying their members and making them feel appreciated. This past weekend was an excellent example of stewardship for the members of the club and, in a way, provides an excellent chance to say “Thank You” to those who have helped make a difference for Purdue Athletics.

Taylor Wood

Fortunately for their donors, Penn State staff sought out a creative way to answer questions that their donors had about the new program. Using technology that provides them with an online and live chat-room, the staff in the Nittany Lions Club (including their Associate Athletics Director) answered questions for 60 minutes on their website. Fans and donors could submit questions in advance or during the program that the staff would answer in real time with all the answers that their fans needed.

This type of online forum could be used for any number of functions for an athletics development department. Obviously, new initiatives come to mind, but special press conferences, event announcements, and interviews can be conducted using similar technology and the donors or fans of the school would benefit.

Rob Norris

Most athletic boards already require a minimum donation/attainment for participation, but even that isn’t enough these days.  In 2009, Northwestern State University introduced a minimum attainment standard for members of its Board of Directors that could either be met by making personal donations or assisting the department in soliciting donations or ticket sales.

This year, for the 2010-11 Demon Victory Fund drive, we’ll introduce a team drive concept.  Individuals who have been identified as people interested in assisting the department in fundraising efforts have been asked to form teams of four. Those teams will be supplied with annual fund literature and call lists/prospect lists as requested.  They will then compete against other four person teams to see who can raise the most money and sign up the most new members.  We are optimistic about signing up a minimum of 15 teams, and are hopeful that we can sign up even more.

Each team will receive membership benefits based on how much they raise (if a group raises $X, they receive the membership benefits based on $X).  The team that signs up the most new members will receive a home football prize package that includes a tailgating party, sideline passes, and passes to watch a home football game from the President’s Box. The team that raises the most money will receive flight and hotel accommodations, as well as passes and a Friday evening meal with the team for our September 3^rd-5^th trip to Colorado Springs where we will take on the Air Force Academy in our season opening football game.

I will post each week on the progress of this team drive, as the next two weeks will be our recruitment phase. Then, for the next eight weeks, we will have the team drive competition. Finally, I’ll announce the final tally once the competition concludes on august 15^th. Wish us luck, and let me know if you have similar initiatives at your institution.

Dr. William Broussard,  Associate Director of Athletics, Northwestern State University

The press release is very transparent in describing the need for the increase amount of donors and donations. With their scholarship bill being near $6 million, the athletics department needs to have some donors step up to cover the rest of the bill. Doing this will allow Washington State to become more competitive in the Pac-10 and increase their sport budgets.

This type of appeal will help the donors and prospects know the purpose of the Athletics Foundation and also help encourage new donations. Telling the story of need and what the funds will accomplish is a big part of any athletics operation. While it reamains to be seen if Washington State can reach the 10,000 goal, it is almost certain that their constituents will know what the money is going towards.

Taylor Wood

Although auctions to raise funds for student-athletes are not new to the collegiate athletics fundraising landscape, the size and scale of these auctions are.  In fact, a high bidding auction item at the True Blue Celebration was the opportunity to dine with men’s basketball Coach Ben Howland and his wife Kim, going for $2,500.  Overall, the auction offered many unique items and packages, which included many signed pieces of memorabilia from past UCLA student-athletes like; Troy Aikman, Darren Collison, and Kevin Love.

As shown with the annual True Blue Celebration, when run on a large scale, auctions can become a major source of support for athletic departments.   More importantly, auctions can serve as a fun and creative way to engage former student-athletes in the helping of current student-athletes.  With the additional fundraising UCLA Athletics has begun to receive from its auction, it may not be too long before we see many other athletic departments look to auctions as a significant source of fundraising.

Michael Speight