Golden Gopher Fund Engages Young Alumni Through “Next Generation”

A few weeks ago we posted a study done by Ohio University sports administration graduate students that looked at best practices among young alumni giving initiatives.  As a follow up, we wanted to highlight the Next Generation campaign at the University of Minnesota.  This program is aimed at reengaging Golden Gopher young alumni from ages 30 – 50 years old.  The school is located within a major metropolitan area which has a multitude of entertainment and philanthropic options UM has to contend with.  For this reason, the Golden Gopher Fund set out to speak with the 30 biggest influencers amongst this group to find out how to get them more involved with Minnesota Athletics.

This past winter, the GGF met with these influencers individually to talk about the Next Generation initiative and invited them to a social hour and roundtable discussion event.  At the gathering, members of the athletic department, including coaches, along with the invited guests discussed ways to grow this young alumni group.  Following the meeting the group attended a home basketball game in which they all sat together.  Out of the 30 that were invited, three to four offered to champion the Next Generation effort to ensure its success.

There were a couple of key takeaways from this meeting.  The first being that the group identified three aspects that they thought needed to be incorporated within Next Generation for it to have broad appeal.   It was brought up that young alumni are particularly interested in networking opportunities, family oriented events, and the chance for increased amenities and access.   Also, the GGF staff identified that the best way to move forward with increasing young alumni membership would be through organic growth.  The efforts of those that were invited to attend the first Next Generation event would act as volunteer representatives of the Minnesota Athletic program and would develop a “representative program”.

The Golden Gopher Fund approached their need to have more participation from young alumni in a unique and innovative way.  It takes a lot to organize a program such as this but those efforts will surely pay dividends down the road.  To see more recent graduate program best practices examples please click here which will take you to a copy of the Young Alumni Giving report.

Special thanks to Jason Butikofer, Director of Annual Fund & Premium Seating for the Golden Gopher Fund, for his contribution with this story.

Young Alumni Giving & Support: A study with Ohio University and ADF

Over the course of the past year, Athletics Development Frontier partnered with the Ohio University Center for Sports Administration to research and analyze a frequent problem area in development: young alumni giving. Across the country there are numerous programs being implemented to create and sustain support from recent graduates, each with varying degrees of success.

This report was designed to be a compilation of the best practices of young alumni giving programs from all areas of development, not just athletics. By broadening the scope of the project, the researchers were able to find some success stories that could be implemented in athletics, and vice-versa.

The authors use four main themes to guide their research:

1. The need to develop a culture of giving
2. Young alumni will take advantage of benefits at reduced membership rates
3. Young alumni respond when challenged
4. Young alumni want more than game watch parties

Each of these themes are supported by research and examples of projects that are on the ground at various Universities from around the country.

You can read their executive summary by clicking here. The full report is available for reading and download by clicking on the image below.

ADF would like to thank the authors of the report, Beau Bauer, Phil Carden, Michael Speight, and Drew Ossakow for their work on the project.

Technology & Development: A Report of Best Practices

Over the course of the past four months, Rob Norris and I have been working with two other Ohio University Sports Administration Graduate Students (Jason Hill and Craig Decker) to compile a report of how technology is being used in Athletics Development. This project, done in conjunction with the National Association of Athletics Development Directors (NAADD), surveyed 50+ industry professionals on how they are using technology to enhance their operation.

In the end, the report uncovered many unique ways that technology is being used to enhance the donor experience. Whether it is a graphic filled e-mail, a timely Twitter post, or even a Personal URL campaign, offices around the nation are being creative in their approach to these new opportunities.

Click below to view the report or download it to your computer.

Taylor Wood

Evaluate your development website

Athletics Development Frontier is excited to announce the Development Website scorecard, a new offering designed to help you improve the functionality of your website while providing concrete, measurable feedback. Feel free to use the online version of the scorecard, just make sure you notify us upon completion at info@athleticsfrontier.com. If you would rather download your own scorecard Website Scorecard in PDF format, please click here.

Below is the online version of our website evaluation scorecard. This simplified version will allow you to gain an understanding of the important parts of a functional development website. Please keep in mind this is a simplified version of the evaluation tool used to create the Big 10 Development Report. For a full evaluation, contact us at info@athleticsfrontier.com.

Big 10 Development Website Evaluation

Athletics Development Frontier is proud to announce the release of their Big 10 Development Website report, an evaluation of the best practices found within the conference’s athletics development websites. Using a scorecard to evaluate all the necessary components of an effective website, Michigan State University, Purdue University, the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan were determined to be tops in the conference. Feel free to view the report in your browser by clicking on the document below. You can download and print the PDF once it has uploaded.

Feel free to contact us at twood@athleticsfrontier.com to send us any feedback you may have on the report or if you would like your own website evaluated.