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

Vanderbilt launches Commodores On Board Campaign

Vanderbilt University has recently launched a new program designed to increase a crucial part of any annual giving fund – referrals. Just like small businesses, referrals are generated when a current donor refers a friend to join the club. In the Commodores On Board campaign, current members of the National Commodore Club are rewarded for their efforts of bringing new donors and dollars in to the fold.

A unique part of this new program is that all members who refer a new donor receive a prize. There are no quotas of dollars generated or new members referred to earn rewards. As a current member, this makes achieving the prizes more realistic and guaranteed instead of having a “chance” of winning in a large prize in a drawing.

However, there is an opportunity to win a couple of grand prizes. For the member who refers the most new donors and the member who raises the most new dollars, an all-expenses paid trip to an away Vanderbilt game will be awarded. For more information, be sure to review the chart here and directions here. Vanderbilt also announced the program on their Facebook page.

These types of programs work well to reach a new group often times the current development staff does not have the time or energy to reach. In the small business world, current customers often lead to the best new customers. The same can be said for an active athletics annual fund. Vanderbilt has taken a step to turn their current member base in to a volunteer fundraising force.

Special thanks to Sterling Frierson of the National Commodore Club at Vanderbilt University for bringing this program to our attention.

Taylor Wood

Smaller schools upgrading campus rec facilities, benefiting athletics

The rendering for the new pool at Denison.

The phrase “facilities arms race” is typically reserved for describing the rivalry amongst BCS level schools as they try to keep the quality of their facilities ahead of the competition.  However, as explained in a recent Columbus Dispatch article, smaller colleges and universities are pushing for the construction or enhancement of campus recreational buildings in an attempt to lure more students to their schools.  According to information from the article, approximately 80 institutions across the US are working on building or are expanding their recreational sports facilities.  The total expenditures are expected to reach $1.7 billion with an average project costing $13.2 million.

The article focuses on Denison University and Ohio Wesleyan University as OWU recently opened a new $10 million rec center and DU is moving forward with a $38.5 million expansion of their current facility.  For the Big Red, the facility construction broke ground this fall after the announcement of the lead $7 million gift that was given by a former Denison basketball player.  The new recreational center will feature an Olympic size pool, an athletic training suite, athletics hall of fame, athletic department offices, and a two story fitness center. Renderings of the new Mitchell Recreation and Athletics Center, which is set to open in the spring of 2013, can be found here.

Ohio Wesleyan’s Meek Aquatics and Recreation Center, which opened this past fall, is the first of its kind in the Delaware, OH community.  The planners for the building wanted to put an emphasis on sustainability and made sure this building was environmentally friendly.  This is why the 25 yard by 25 yard pool features a geothermal energy system, reflective clay-tile roof, and low-VOC building materials.  According to Bill Preble, vice president for enrollment at OWU, he believes the new pool shows potential students their “commitment to the student experience”. The Dispatch also mentioned that the new pool is the first part of a long term strategy to upgrade more OWU athletics facilities.

The perceived athletics facility competition between these schools is not unique to central Ohio.  However, its interesting to note that Ohio State finished a $140 million, 570,000 square foot recreation center, and Kenyon University, a Division III school in Gambier, OH opened a $70 million facility both since 2005.  According to Scott Hirko, chairman of the commission for recreation and athletics of the American College Personnel Association, the facilities race is no longer exclusive to the Division I level.  Smaller schools will continue to join in on building new athletics complexes as they aim to increase enrollment and add value to their campus as the competition to attract both in-state and out-of-state students continues to go up. Many of these smaller athletics departments can expect to benefit from these arrangements.

Drew Ossakow

Encourage Support for Specialized Recruiting Fund

Overall, university athletic supporters enjoy knowing how their contributions will directly benefit student-athletes.  Traditionally, most universities encourage unrestricted athletic giving, which gives the athletic department the freedom to allocate funds at its own discretion.  However, the University of Mississippi athletic department recently made a push to increase overall support by giving contributors an opportunity to see the direct benefits of their donations in a new way.

To encourage increased giving, Rebel Athletics launched the 5 Star Recruiting Fund, a specific fund where supporters contribute to help budget in the recruitment of future rebels.  All revenue garnered from the 5 Star Fund will directly go to the recruitment of 5 Star recruits for all Ole Miss sport teams.  Moreover, supporters will receive priority points for donations to the 5 Star Fund in the same manner as they receive priority points for seating.

In creating a 5 Start Recruiting Fund, the University of Mississippi has made a fun and exciting way for annual contributors to see a direct benefit of their giving.  More importantly, in giving to such a fund supporters can have some ownership over the type and quality of student-athletes Ole Miss can recruit.

Michael Speight

Tis the Bowl Season

Happy New Year from all of us at Athletics Development Frontier!  The past few weeks were a great time to both reflect on the year that has passed as well as look forward to the next one.  That is part of the reason watching football bowl games is so exciting as fans get to celebrate both the current successes of the team and catch a glimpse of what their team may look like in the following season. Additionally, the end of the year has been a time where many look to help those who are less fortunate.  The UConn Club got in on the spirit of the holidays through their Help the Huskies campaign.

The UConn Husky football team was the 2010 Big East Conference champion and played in the BCS Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day.  As part of playing in the game, UConn athletics was required to purchase 17,500 tickets at an average value of close to $200.  In an effort to be both charitable and put more Husky fans in University of Phoenix stadium, the UConn Club asked donors to participate in the Help the Huskies campaign which partners with greater Phoenix area charitable military and youth organizations to bring them to the game.  Donors had the opportunity to make a gift where the funds went towards the required bowl ticket allotment.  All donations to this program were considered tax deductible charitable contributions and received UConn Club priority points.  Gifts were made through this website created for the campaign.

While in the past we have looked at ways athletic departments and development offices have partnered with travel agencies to make it easier for fans, alumni, and donors to attend the bowl, the UConn Club tackled the ticket issue from another angle.  By encouraging Husky fans who cannot make it to Glendale to donate bowl tickets, it allows military service men and women along with local youth groups in the surrounding bowl community to enjoy some big time college football during the holidays.  This is a great idea created by the UConn Club and it will be interesting to see if other athletic departments will develop similar initiatives.

Drew Ossakow

Advice on how to use social media in development

via www.theconversationprism.com

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the CASE-KY Convention in Louisville. During my time there, I heard some great advice during a session led by Jason Falls as he discussed Social Media and its application in University Advancement.

Falls started out his presentation by comparing many people’s thoughts of social media to that of a “magical unicorn” (as evident by this complicated graphic called The Conversation Prism). He admitted there is a lot of mystery surrounding social media because of its relative novelty, but recommended that it be viewed as a tool, not a mysterious cure-all.

With that in mind, he does mention that social media often operates a little differently than your regular media. This relies primarily on the fact that there must be a conversation occurring in social media, something that does not traditionally happen with a brochure or direct mail. People want that human interaction with their social media assets.

If a university or an athletics department interacts with their fans and supporters, they are creating conversations. This is something development officers do everyday through traditional means, such as the telephone, email and face-to-face contact. Social media should be utilized as another way to have a conversation. He commented that when a conversation is made, it becomes a market. That market is full of human beings who are interested in your cause.

Falls went on to say that what people want the most out of social media is relevant, easily-shared content, ability to comment on articles, and the ability to follow their interests on their channels. In doing this, the university can create a community of users who can share the news about the school’s accomplishments. Essentially, it creates a conversation that can then be leveraged to generate revenue.

When asked what would be the largest investment if a university were to start a social media campaign today, Falls quickly responded by saying that it is the people who will run the outlets. In his mind, there needs to be a person who is responsible for connecting the dots between the Universities activities and the conversations they are creating.

In the end, Falls stated that social media does not raise money, people raise money. Regular development avenues will continue to be effective, but adding a social media campaign has the potential to increase the conversation and drive more people in to your market.

Jason Falls can be found online at www.socialmediaexplorer.com. You can also follow him on twitter at @JasonFalls.

Taylor Wood

Nebraska gets creative with Husker Air Force Program

Recently, the University of Nebraska’s athletic department used the excitement surrounding the early national signing period to help publicize a new donor program. This program allows participants to have a direct impact on which current high schoolers become future Husker student-athletes.  This new initiative called The Husker Air Force Program is aimed at assisting the football coaching staff’s national recruiting efforts.  Through a partnership established with Jet Linx Aviation and UltraAir, the Nebraska Athletic Department will give Bo Pelini and his assistant coaches the ability to visit with multiple future student-athletes within a short period of time.  In a letter to Husker donors, coach Pelini and Nebraska Associate Athletic Director Paul Meyers explained the new program and told them that this is their opportunity to help them “recruit the next national championship team!”.

There are multiple options in which a donor can contribute to the Husker Air Force Program:

1. Purchase hours with Jet Linx or UltraAir
2. Donate purchased hours
3. Donate personal airplane hours
4. Donate cash to the Husker Air Force through the University of Nebraska Foundation

Donors are told to visit these Husker Air Force Program specific websites through Jet Linx and UltraAir in order to contribute.

The Nebraska Athletics department offers tiered benefits at three contribution levels $1,000-$4,999, $5,000-$9,999, and $10,000 and above.  Some of these benefits include a jacket with wings, an annual program specific gift, and private event with coaches.

This program allows donors to directly impact the efficiency in which the football program recruits.  Fundraising initiatives such as this also would be a great complement to national signing day events athletic development offices have begun to utilize.

Drew Ossakow

Creative Touch Point to Meet With Supporters

All across the country development officers are continually looking at new and exciting ways to meet with supporters.  At this year’s season-opening doubleheader basketball games, Temple University officials capitalized on a great opportunity to meet with Temple supporters.

Two weeks ago, Temple supporters were encouraged to come by the Fox-Gittis Room during any time of either game and mark their place in Temple history.  Supporters who stopped by the Fox-Gittis Room were asked to put their signature on a 15 foot steel beam that will go into the construction of the new athletic facilities at Temple University.  Overall, this action by Temple University Athletics sheds light on the construction of a $13.5 million basketball practice facility for both men’s and women’s basketball teams.

At the event, members of the Owls athletic development staff were on hand to provide information and answer any questions on the upcoming capital improvements to Temple Athletics.  In general, the signing of a steel beam is a creative way to draw attention to capital improvements and provides a great touch point to Temple supporters.  In showcasing the impact financial support can have on athletics facilities, an athletic department provides itself with an overall boost to any and all athletic development operations.

Michael Speight

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

Using Technology to Fundraise

Today, university athletic departments are continually looking for unique and innovative ways to alter their fundraising efforts.  Moreover, with the increased ease and prevalence of online giving, many athletic departments are focused around instilling an online component to their campaigns.  Recently, through their partnership with Pursuant Sports, Oregon State unveiled a new website for its athletics fundraising efforts.

For Oregon State Athletics, this new website marks the next phase in their “12,000 by 2012” campaign.  At www.ourbeavernation.com, Oregon State supporters are provided with multimedia video and specifics about the campaign, in addition to online giving capabilities.  Additionally, the website provides a multitude of links to various social media platforms that the BASF is looking to incorporate alongside this campaign.  To a large extent, with this website Oregon State is centering much of its campaign efforts toward new methods of engagement.

With advancements in technology coming everyday, look for more and more university athletic departments to begin to expand into aspects of online giving in the near future.  In fact, to date Pursuant Sports already advertises mobile giving applications as part of their offerings, which may provide a glimpse as to where the next type of innovation with technology in athletics fundraising will occur.

Michael Speight