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

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

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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.

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Taylor Wood

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.

ESPN highlights College Athletics Endowments

ESPN’s Outside the Lines has recently published a story highlighting the success many schools are having endowing scholarships for their programs. The story covers USC’s endowment of position scholarships for their football program, Duke University’s endowments within their basketball program and Braylon Edwards‘ recent endowment of a football scholarship at the University of Michigan.

The endowment of scholarships is certainly not the largest avenue for revenue in the athletics department, but covering the scholarship bill is a large part of an athletics budget. The endowment of scholarships will free funds for other uses. Additionally, these scholarships are allowing players to give back to their alma mater in a way that will allow their legacy to be remembered in perpetuity.

by Taylor Wood

Note: This article was sent to ADF by Garrett Munro, a member of the MSA Class of 2010 at Ohio University.

Young Alumni giving programs allow recent grads membership at lower rates

Throughout the country, one of the biggest questions faced on a daily basis is how to get the graduates who received diplomas in May to donate to athletics within the next twelve months. While this segment may not represent the most wealthy, engaging the recent graduates early will enable involvement for a longer period of time, which will eventually lead to more gifts. ADF has posted on this topic before, and has sought out more examples from around the nation due to reader interest.

North Carolina State University, one of the most successful annual giving arms in the nation with over 20,000 members, offers a unique way for young alumni to build up in their giving efforts. Giving increases from complimentary the first year, to $30 the second, $60 the third and $90 the fourth, all while gaining priority points at the lowest level, which will benefit the donor down the road. Additionally, the young alums are given a window decal, a monthly newsletter, and invitations to events. To read more about this program, click here.

Indiana University has a similar model, giving young alumni their first year of membership for free. Upon receipt of their registration, the Varsity Club sends out a donor package that consists of a welcome letter, a window decal, membership card and a license plate with the Varsity Club logo. Perhaps the most interesting part of this deal is the license plate, which if placed on a vehicle, has the ability to increase the club’s branding and awareness among young alums.

In addition to these successful athletics programs, there are also many non-athletics young alumni giving programs. Duke University has over 3,300 young alumni who graduated between the years 1998-2008. Their unique solicitation methods include Young Alumni Development Councils, reunions, and young alumni peer networks. Elon University recently launched a new program to host regional networking opportunities for members of their annual fund.

Many of the young alumni programs from around the fundraising industry all include a few basic tenants: reduced rates, complimentary gifts and networking opportunities.

NAADD Survey Research and Resources

During this past year, Matt Kirinovic and Mike Milliron compiled data from a survey conducted for the NAADD organization in an effort to gather the best practices and peer comparison analysis from the industry. The two alums of the Ohio Univeristy Sports Administration Program were kind enough to share the final products of the research with Athletics Development Frontier.

The data was collected through an online survey of over 200 schools from around the nation at all levels of competition, from Junior and Community Colleges all the way to D-1 FBS. Kirinovic and Milliron also conducted 30 personal interviews to gather some qualitative answers to questions.

To see their findings, please click the below links to view their PowerPoint presentation as well as their written deliverable. There is some very useful information and real life data to be found within the documents.

NAADD PowerPoint

NAADD Written Deliverable

Revenue generation projects uncover economic impact

Chapel Hill gained $6.4 million in one football game this fall.

A recent trend in college athletics has been the disclosure of economic impact studies of athletics departments. Perhaps brought on by the recession, these studies are proving the worth of a strong athletics program to their surrounding community.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently released a study done on one specific football game against Notre Dame. According to the study conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Sport Leadership, the game brought $6.4 million for the Chapel Hill and Orange County economies. The study also states that the game raised $325,000 in local and state tax revenue.

The Ohio University Center for Sports Administration and Facility Management recently conducted a study for the athletics department on the economic impact of their program for their community. This study uncovered an economic impact of $8-10 million to a region of the state that has been historically economically stagnant.

While these studies can be applied directly to sponsorship revenue, they can also be used to build strong community relations. As a development officer, it is increasingly important to show the value of your program to the community. For those donors who are intrinsically motivated to give, knowing their money will also impact the surrounding community may be worthwhile information.

Additionally, for those departments with Gift-In-Kind giving programs, having such a number in literature and as a talking point can help sell the local businesses to provide trade as the value of the department has been quantified.

Academic Research on Athletics Donors