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.

NetwitsThinkTank.com – A great online resource for fundraising

Netwits is a good resource for the application of technology and development.

Over the past few years it seems like there are so many questions for an athletics development operation to face when it comes to technology and its ability to impact the bottom line. Whether it is personal URL campaigns, video appeals or greater segmentation amongst their donor base, development offices now have more options to utilize technology to interact with their bases.

However, with these options comes the need for research and discussion. One place where this takes place is at netwitsthinktank.com. This site, which is funded and operated by Blackbaud (the makers of Raiser’s Edge software), is a great resource to learn about new ideas in fundraising and how new technology can be applied to help a non-profit.

While the site is not geared towards athletics, there are certainly items that can be learned and applied to the athletics realm. Articles about the rise of online giving, how to add calls to action to online videos, and the three social media metrics you should use all have some great information that can be applied to athletics.

Taylor Wood

Thinking about Text Messaging? Make sure you have enough fans.

Image via Wikipedia

As technology continues to race forward in the effort to make us all more connected, it is worth noting that several foundations and non-profits have started reaping great rewards from text message giving. The coming out party for this new technology was the Haiti earthquake and the subsequent response from all of America with over $2 million raised from text message giving.

This makes text-message giving a great new way to solicit and engage current and potential donors on national scale. However, I would encourage that any athletics department debating on the merits of mobile giving programs give a good look at the pros and cons of text giving and apply those to their current situation. For most departments, text message giving is a very easy way to raise a quick $5 to $10 from an individual at a sporting event. Yet one must wonder, among other things, if the gift could have been larger from each of these donors.

For the most part, text message programs need a large audience to be successful. The following is a break-even analysis for two text-to-give companies that place their pricing online (Please note that the prices for this analysis are the stated costs on the website of the organizations mGive and Give By Cell. They do not reflect any discounts in pricing or the cost after arrangement of an official contract with either company. Prices are based on minimum agreement lengths).

mGive Foundation

• Prices – $500 for one time set up fee, then $399/month for 12 month minimum. mGive charges $.35 for every text, plus 3.5% of the total raised.
• To break even, one would need 569 texts of $10 or 1,182 texts of $5 over a year.

Give By Cell

• Prices – $500 for one time set up fee, then $49 per month for three months, then $299 per month for next six. Give By Cell charges $.48 for every text.
• To break even, one would need to get 213 texts of $10 or 448 text of $5 over the 9 month period of service.

From the above breakdown, one can see that a large amount of texts are needed to break even on the set-up of text message giving. However, there is an opportunity for increased revenue if a large, captive audience donates through the simple act of texting.

For more information on text-give-programs, visit the Mobile Giving Foundation to learn about the procedures and processes that surround this new and exciting form of technology.

Taylor Wood

4 Technology Tools Development Officers Should Use

Summer is typically a time when a development officer can focus a little more on professional development instead of rushing around to a full schedule of games and events. In an effort to utilize more of these opportunities, here are five technology tools all development officers should think about using:

Google Alerts - These allow a development officer to get a daily or weekly e-mail with the top search engine hits pertaining to that keyword. Great keywords to use would be a high-end prospect’s name or company, names of current donors, or even your school’s name.

Goodsearch.org - This is website that donates portions of its proceeds back towards charities for every search made. While this will likely not result in a large amount of money raised for your school, it can result in some incremental cash that could enhance the current fund. Simply register your charity or non-profit and then spread the word to your co-workers and supporters. The more people who search who are affiliated with your school, the more money to be directed your way.

Twitter – While it is not necessary for a development office to manage its own Twitter account, there should be some effort to get your school’s message out to the masses through this new media. By using personalities with more star appeal, your message can be carried out to a wider audience of prospects.

Google Voice – This new technology was just opened to the masses and is a big help in organizing and managing multiple voicemail inboxes. Some of the main features include transcribing voicemails into text and e-mail, allowing certain calls to ring multiple telephone numbers, and personalized greetings for those VIP callers, and many others.

Taylor Wood

Conference Realignment and Athletics Development

I was tempted throughout the past week to write a post on conference realignment and what could happen to the development offices of those schools. While I am sure that we have not heard the last of this, it appears that the scene has settled for a while with only Nebraska and Colorado leaving the Big 12 and Boise State moving to the Mountain West.

Throughout this process, athletics development offices in the moving schools are more than likely geared up in an external public relations campaign, educating their donors on the processes for switching conferences and dealing with questions. The University of Colorado posted this lengthy article to laud their role as the “first domino to fall.” The piece includes quotes from the athletics director as well as University President and Regents. The article is complete with a video and reasoning behind the move.

The University of Nebraska has approached the situation similarly, placing video of press conferences as well as releasing this lengthy article on the move to the Big 10. It includes quotes from numerous others around the nation congratulating the Cornhuskers on their move.

Boise State has also placed video of the Mountain West press conference on their site and sent out this press release to begin educating their fans and donors on their new opponents.

It remains to be seen the next steps necessary in the conference realignment process. From the donor perspective, there will be plenty of changes in the opponents on the field and their travel. For some, it may include a reduction in their gifts if they disagree with the move. However, for the most part, those loyal to the school will continue to support their school. To some extent, it is exciting to see the new conferences and think about how Nebraska, Colorado and Boise State will compete. Donors are sure to enjoy the new match ups and rivalries.

Taylor Wood

Selling the New Cowboys Stadium

Recently, the Ohio University Center for Sports Administration held its 38th Annual Sports Administration Symposium.  One of the featured speakers, Chad Estis, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Dallas Cowboys New Stadium, was kind enough to share his experiences in selling tickets, suites, and other gameday packages.  Specifically, Estis addressed the way he and his whole staff  were able to go after the entire Dallas market in an efficient and calculated process.

Throughout the whole process of going after new clients, the Cowboys used a CRM system.  Although basic in its applications, the Cowboys were diligent in the use of the system.  Every potential season ticket holder was entered in the system, ensuring complete understanding of where each potential client was in the purchasing process.  Also, Estis emphasized the ability to “manage-up” with CRM data, helping him describe to upper management where his team was with consumers.

Additionally, Estis explained the significant boost in consumer awareness the Cowboys were able to receive through their partnership with Channel1media.  Through Channel1media, Cowboy fans were allowed to get a complete view of their seat before purchase.  From there, Estis and his team were empowered with the selling of something tangible that the consumer had actually seen and experienced (virtually).

Most offices have a donor tracking software, but accurate management by the entire staff will make the operation that much more efficient.  There are also companies such as Ballena Technologies that can build virtual models of stadium for premium seating opportunities.  Overall, some of the same practices that helped the Cowboys go after the Dallas market can be applied to collegiate athletics development.  Whether it be keeping track of the stewardship process of donors through a CRM system, or using interactive web applications to help validate seat license purchases.

Michael Speight

Using Social Media effectively in your athletics department

John Calipari has 328 times more twitter followers than the entire University of Kentucky account does.

When looking at the application of social media and athletics development, it is important to note one trend that is emerging amongst internet followers–they follow people, not companies or organizations. If one looks at the top 20 twitter accounts with the largest amount of followers, only one is a company (@cnnbrk), and there are only six organizations in the top 40.

What can be deduced from this information is that people are interested in using social media to track their friends, family and other personalities, not necessarily corporations or businesses. When applying this knowledge to athletics development, it is important to recognize those in the athletics department with the largest name appeal and following. For instance, @UKCoachCalipari has 1.1 million followers. The official University of Kentucky account (@universityofky) has only 2,800 followers.

In addition, many coaches are now hosting their own sites, such as Tom Izzo at Michigan State and Nick Saban at Alabama. While the main purpose of these sites may be recruiting, there does remain a possibility to utilize these sites and personalities to raise funds for the athletics department. In some cases, the person does not even need to be real. The University of Wyoming has created a Facebook page for Cowboy Joe, their official mascot. To date, the page has garnered ~1,200 friends and followers.

Simple links stating, “Give to Athletics” or “Facility Expansion” can serve to increase the awareness of mission of purpose of each fundraising arm. Using the departments largest personalities can at times be a challenge, but everyone can stand to benefit from a personal appeal from a celebrity personality.

Taylor Wood

Find this article useful? Be sure to subscribe to our eReport.

Diversity in the Development Workplace: The NAADD Diversity Initiative

The official release regarding the call for applications for this year’s National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD) Diversity Initiative came out recently, and as a past recipient, I thought I would do my best to promote and recommend development officers, interns, and graduate assistants to apply for this award.

As a recipient in both 2008 and 2009, I was able to attend the NACDA national conference, which is an invaluable networking opportunity and educational experience.  As is the case with all national conferences, attendees have time to attend sessions which are extremely valuable, interact with peers and potential mentors from across the nation, and conduct important business.  In addition to this, the Diversity Initiative provides a training session called “Fundamentals of Athletic Development” that pair each attendee with a mentor in the field and in peer groups of young professionals. My mentors, Kay Hargrave, Associate AD at Auburn, and Lu Merritt, Director of Athletic Development at Virginia Tech, are seasoned professionals in athletic development, and my participation afforded me an opportunity to pick their brains and profit from their experience and insight.

Furthermore, having an opportunity to interact with the NAADD Executive Committee members is an unusually neat experience.  They are clearly devoted to increasing diversity in the field of athletic development because of the amount of time they spend genuinely interacting with each participant and the large group. I can’t think of many fields where individuals who are immensely successful, and at very successful athletic programs, would not only spend their time with you and encourage your development, but also share secrets of the trade.

More information is available in the release, but individuals interested in applying for the NAADD Diversity Initiative scholarship should contact Jason Galaska, NACDA Assistant Executive Director, at jgalaska@nacda.com.  And by all means, if you have more questions regarding my experiences as a participant, please feel free to contact me at broussardw@nsula.edu.

Dr. William Broussard

Sign up for the monthly e-report from Athletics Development Frontier, the Scouting Report.

What’s in YOUR subject line? How to increase your open rate

When sending a mass e-mail out to a large group, be it donors or season ticket holders, determining the correct subject line can play a large role in the open rate. How often will you open an e-mail that says, “Event on Tuesday” over an e-mail that claims, “Meet Head Coach on Tuesday!” My chances are with the latter.

In the February 24 edition of “Selling It,” an e-newsletter sent by the National Sports Forum, the Los Angeles Clippers‘ email strategy was described in detail and its application can pay dividends across the sports industry.

In an effort to grow their e-mail open rate, the Clippers devised a plan to determine the best subject line for mass blasts. Let’s say they were going to e-mail 2,000 people who had purchased tickets in the past year to advertise a special rate. They would take 10% of those 2,000 (200 people) and divide them into five different groups of 40 each. From here, the team would devise five different subject lines and send the e-mails to the subscribers.

After waiting two hours to allow subscribers to open their messages, they checked the monitoring software for each group. The subject line with the most opens and click-throughs was determined to be the most appealing and sent to the remaining 90% (1,800) of subscribers.

This approach allowed the Clippers in increase their open rate from 8% to over 12% in a short amount of time. While this approach was designed for a ticket office, it no doubt has applications for a development operation. As e-mails become a more important part of the communication process, having the correct subject line will become increasingly important to get your message across.

Find this post interesting? Click here to subscribe to our e-report, The Scouting Report.

Taylor Wood