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

In these update videos, they have an athletics department personality talk about the expansion and update donors on the progress of the construction. This interactive approach is in many ways better than a picture gallery or a webcam because it puts the viewer in the stadium with a personal tour.

Videos are a great way to engage your donor clients and keep those who donated to the project in the loop on the construction of the facility. This keeps all fans of Alabama Athletics in the loop on this high profile, high interest project, generating buzz amongst the fan base.

Special thanks to Brian Gainor for sending along information about this project.

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In the brief, but comprehensive video, a number of key fund raising tactics are employed. First, the video begins with a mural of student pictures, putting a face to those who benefit from endowed scholarships. Second, the basic financial aid model is explained in a simplified form, shedding light on the percentage of students who receive some sort of aid and the average amount of money students receive each year. Third, the opportunities available to students as a result of donor support as well as a complete breakdown of the allocation of donor funding are given.

Once this information is communicated, the stage is set to present a goal and to solicit support for the future – which is exactly the strategic approach taken in the video. The goal is to increase the endowment by $140 million, with $50,000 designated for student scholarships. The video continues to explain the amount raised and the total number of endowed scholarships to date – 623. The last major piece to any fund raising strategy, stewardship, closes the video with a formal “Thank You.”

In an interactive age, disseminating information in a short, easy to watch, entertaining way will surely reach a wider audience and be more effective at communicating the message. Many athletic departments publish brochures or attempt to explain the process illustrated above in written form on their website, a more traditional approach. The innovative and creative example shown here by Hope College sets the bar for future donor communication.

To view the Hope College Endowed Scholarships video, click here

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Matt Kirinovic

Jim Walden has been describing Cougar football for the past nine years and, in an attempt to spur giving to the Student-Athlete Excellence Account, is putting up his own money as a matching gift to the athletics department. For each $5 donated to the new account, Jim will donate $1 of his own, up to $100,000. However, if the account grows to $1 million, Jim will donate an additional $100,000 for a total of $200,000 for WSU student-athletes.

The use of radio/television talent in fundraising is not unique, but the degree that Washington State is utilizing their long-time football analyst is impressive. Schools looking for a unique way to engage fans and facilitate new donations should look to WSU for an example of a creative, and perhaps effective, plan. To see the “Make Jim Pay” video and read more about the account, click here.

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Rob Norris

Sponsorships

In a panel with representatives from some major sponsors in sports including Anheuser-Busch, Cintas, and Sports Clips, the consensus was do your homework and less-is-more in the early stages. Sponsors get hundreds of emails a day with ideas and proposals, but it is better to contact the sponsor after you have done extensive research into the company and ways the two brands match-up going into the future. This works the same in development. Very few schools have the luxury of getting large donations from unfamiliar figures. It is a daily challenge for fundraisers to gain the best understanding of the prospect to get the initial foot in the door. If you choose to approach the prospect via email, it isn’t going to do much good to send the large development brochure. Sum up the message into a couple of paragraphs and personalize it to that particular prospect.

New Media

New media such as Facebook and Twitter is a hot topic in sponsorship and marketing because no one has figured out how to make consistent revenue from the medium. Many development offices have dabbled in the practice, with the main goal spreading news about the offices to followers. While this can fulfill some objectives, one tactic being discussed extensively at NSF is using new media as a focus group to gain feedback. Allowing followers or fans to contribute to the school or feel as if they have insider information is a great way to build rapport with the group and gain important feedback from donors, particularly younger demographics.

Ticket Sales

Major League Baseball teams have one of the toughest tasks in attempting to sell tickets for 81 home dates between April and September. Because of this challenge, baseball teams have gotten extremely creative with season ticket holder programs. One such idea is a new customer reception at the beginning of each season. This reception not only allows the team to thank the new customer, but to also educate them. It is a great way to get in front of new customers early and ensure a relationship before renewals come up the next year. This is a strategy that can be utilized by development offices with new donors to grow their relationship but also to educate on the benefits of becoming a donor.

Sean Phifer

Villanova , Oklahoma State , Michigan State and Indiana are among the many universities that are taking advantage of this increasingly popular technology. For each athletic department, the application will serve the same primary purpose: to offer “easy access to up-to-the-minute news, scores, schedules, rosters and audio and video streaming” at a price of around $5.00 per year. The application’s content is fed directly from the athletic department’s official web site. As is the case with all mobile applications, the selling point is that fans are no longer required to have a computer with internet access to get the most up-to-date athletics information.

Any time an athletic department becomes more accessible to its fans, it serves to benefit in a big way. A large number of donors will be a part of the contingent of fans who see value in downloading this application, further strengthening their affiliation with the university and the athletic department. The increased accessibility will also draw new donors to the fold.

It is only a matter of time before development officers find a way to directly reach both existing and new donors through this distinctive technology, offering a much needed new revenue stream to fundraising efforts.

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Matt Kirinovic

Throughout the nation on a daily basis, athletics annual funds will issue a press release to promote events, games, and key donors. However, many of these releases are just that, simple informational articles that describe their purpose. While this by itself is fine, Miami of Ohio has started to integrate them into their online giving strategy.

Recently, the Red & White Club (the annual giving arm of Miami) released a statement about a barbecue luncheon held on January 13. In the release, they talk about their upcoming event the key coaches who will be attending the event. However, at the very beginning of their press release, there is a linked graphic that states, “Make a Gift.”

If a user clicks on this link, they are taken directly to the foundation page for athletics, allowing the user to make a donation in just a few clicks. By doing this, anyone who views the article will be able to make a gift in a manner similar to ordering a pair of shoes online-by inputting their information and clicking submit.

While placing this tab on all press releases may portray the department as a little desperate, a well timed press release that details an annual fund or development activity can serve as the perfect medium for reminding or encouraging people to give. The efficiencies that can be realized from online giving will not only help raise funds, but also free up hours for staffers to work on other items.

Taylor Wood

The competition is using many social media avenues to promote the campaign to the wide-ranging alumni base. The homepage features YouTube videos of each school’s Dean of Students encouraging support from site visitors as well as videos by spirited students promoting the involvement of their fellow classmates. The competition also promotes each school’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, which promote the Mascot Face-Off. The challenge also features an RSS feed that gives subscribers regular updates about the competition.

This is a great example of using a rivalry to generate donations from donors. While many development departments use rivalries in everyday competition, but this campaign is unique as the two schools are working together to generate donations for the respective schools. Schools at every level could benefit from this Division III example.

For their home game against the University of Utah this past weekend, Colorado State, with assistance from Mobile Accord, Inc. (owned by a CSU grad), launched its first-ever mobile giving campaign. Fans at the football game (approximately 30,000) had the opportunity to support the university’s Athletics General Scholarship Fund by texting RAMS to a given number. Participants will see a $10 charge on their next phone bill, thus leaving credit card numbers out of the equation. The $10 will then be directed to the university.

At the time of this writing, it is still unknown how many fans participated with a text-gift. However, even a small response rate could yield noticeable results in CSU’s scholarship fund. Other schools, such as Florida A & M University, are also using this technology for fundraising.

Donors often cite interaction with student-athletes as the most rewarding part of giving to an athletics department. Every Day… provides the supporters of Auburn football with a personal look into life of the football team from the comfort of their own home or computer. A show such as this could provide Auburn with unique opportunities to recruit new members to their annual fund through commercials and advertisements on the show.

In addition, a show like this (at universities not large enough for a commercial broadcast) could also be provided as a benefit to donors. If the show is broadcasted online, a password-access to the content would provide a unique and desirable benefit to supporters. For non-donors, perhaps a fee could be charged to view the material. Based on the success of similar reality-based shows in sports, the benefits of a program such as this are essentially endless.