Author Topic: Fundraising fanatics  (Read 3243 times)

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Offline pmp6nl

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Fundraising fanatics
« on: June 19, 2007, 11:26:52 PM »
I found this article rather interesting!


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Fundraising fanatics
Jeff Kolpack
The Forum - 06/17/2007

The consulting firm sounded more like a board game, but the influence of Convention, Sports & Leisure International was immeasurable. Its favorable projection of North Dakota State’s revenue potential was a major reason the school went Division I.

Five years later, the Twin Cities firm was right – and then some.

It estimated NDSU’s revenue for 2008-09 – the first year it is eligible for NCAA championships – to be between $6.7 million and $7.9 million.

The school has blown that figure out of the water. This year’s budgeted revenue is $10.9 million.

“But don’t get too hung up on that number,” athletic director Gene Taylor said. “That could go down.”

Not much has gone down since Taylor was hired in 2001. When NDSU contracted with CS&L in 2002, its budget was $5.1 million. The athletic department had budgeted revenue of $9,529,230 last year.

If this year’s $10.9 million budgeted revenue holds true, that means NDSU has already exceeded CS&L’s projection for next year by almost $3 million. It’s a long way from the days of NCAA Division II.

“I’ve always said, Division II was status quo and nobody felt the need to help us anymore,” said Erv Inniger, NDSU senior associate athletic director.

They’re helping out now in unforeseen increments.

The CS&L report: Inside the numbers

Why the sudden increase? Figures released by the university show revenue has exceeded CS&L’s high projections in donations, institutional support, appropriated funds, guarantee games and other sources such as advertising, the USA Wrestling tournament, commissions/licensing and radio and television rights.

Ticket sales and money from student activity fees are in line with the CS&L report. Only sponsorship revenue is lagging from the 2002 projections.

CS&L projected institutional support dollars at $996,000, but this year’s budget has it much higher, at $2.6 million.

Revenue from guarantee games, a big source of money for Football Championships Subdivision teams, is also much higher.

The University of Montana, for instance, got $500,000 to play at the University of Iowa last fall. That’s almost NDSU’s entire guarantee budget next year. In football, the Bison are getting $300,000 to play at the University of Minnesota and $200,000 to play at Central Michigan.

Men’s basketball is getting $150,000 in assorted guarantees.

NDSU will not receive any money this year from the NCAA because it is still in reclassification. But once eligible, it should receive at least $150,000 of dispersal income via the NCAA’s 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS.

The athletic department received $910,310 in student activity fees last year and is expected to get around $967,000 this year. That’s still lower than what CS&L thought was the top end of possibilities and is lower than South Dakota State’s revenue from student fees five years ago, which was almost $1.1 million.

“It’s interesting,” Taylor said. “You look at this report and how fairly accurate they were.”

They’re accurate despite double-digit increases in tuition by the state. For every dollar it goes up, NDSU has to find a revenue source to fund it.

Early success helped fundraising surge

Jay Lenhardt of CS&L, who worked on the 2002 report, said he’s not surprised NDSU has surpassed expectations.

“We were purposely conservative in our projections,” he said, “so that the university could make decisions based on numbers that they would, at a minimum, meet but most likely exceed.”

The CS&L report noted that “on-field performance, marketing efforts, economic conditions or other such factors could impact the revenues estimated herein.”

The footnote was right.

Those factors impacted NDSU’s fundraising in a big way, Inniger said. The poster child was the men’s basketball win over the University of Wisconsin in 2006.

The 62-55 victory over the No. 13-ranked Badgers made national news.

“I would say that was our crowning moment,” Taylor said. “People went, ‘Wow, they can get this done.’ ”

That wasn’t the only landmark victory. In football, the Bison defeated Ball State (Ind.) last fall in their first game against a Division I-A opponent.

Then came the 10-9 near-miss at the University of Minnesota, a game in which NDSU fans were well-represented at the Metrodome.

“A lot of naysayers said North Dakota State couldn’t compete,” said Brady Lipp, a former standout Bison basketball player who made the trip to Minneapolis from his home near New York City. “How about the football team going down to Minnesota and knocking them around the field? We didn’t win the game, but we won statistically. And the crowd almost sounded like it was split 50/50. Those kinds of things get people excited.”

One year later, the basketball team repeated its Wisconsin feat with another upset, this one over eighth-ranked Marquette. NDSU finished the year with 20 victories.

That kind of momentum helped fundraising, Inniger said.

“The early success woke a lot of people up,” he said. “Nobody saw it coming. All of the sport’s great successes, nobody envisioned that this early.”

With Inniger as the driving force, NDSU started a “Cornerstone” program to finance scholarships. He said one person, for instance, funded 10 scholarships for three straight years. Scholarships carry a value of around $11,000 per year.

Larry Kaufman, an NDSU alumnus with homes in Tennessee and Arizona, endowed one full ride for $360,000. In all, 35 people gifted a full scholarship last year and 48 provided a half scholarship.

“You add them up, and it’s over $600,000 in just those two categories,” said Pat Simmers, executive director of Team Makers.

And many of them, like Kaufman and Lipp, are from out of state.

“I think the university has done a much better job in the last three years in getting the word out to the alumni spread out across the country,” Lipp said, “and making them aware of what’s going on.”

Team Makers dollars continue to increase

Many area fans who belong to Team Makers – the school’s booster group – have been aware of the Division I move for several years. They’ve apparently been receptive: membership continues to go up.

And so do the dollars.

Last year, Team Makers had 1,450 members who raised $1.3 million for scholarships. That number has grown to more than 1,600 this year with $1.65 million billed.

Simmers estimates that figure will approach $1.7 million by the time the fiscal year ends in December.

The group’s big financial push ended two weeks ago. It will do another one as basketball season approaches in October.

“Success is No. 1,” said Team Makers president Shirley Solberg. “With the quality of the coaches and the quality of the athletes, we’re really lucky that way.”

That success was most evident during the SDSU football game last fall. It was a sellout with people unable to get tickets watching the game on TVs in the Fargodome lobby.

Simmers said it put an emphasis on getting season tickets, which have gone up by more than 700 since last year.

Team Makers has seen a dramatic rise in fundraising since the Division I move. It hovered around the $700,000 level for several years.

NDSU raised the money despite having other costs to deal with. The football offices were moved from the Bison Sports Arena to the Fargodome at a cost of $3.4 million, which got a big boost with a $1.5 donation by NDSU graduates Dave and Marlys Sunderland.

The athletic department is in the process of raising money to either renovate the BSA or contribute a significant portion for a new arena adjacent to the dome.

“I think that stretched us,” Inniger said. “The facilities stressed us.”

Inniger ‘cranks it up and gets it done’

Lipp graduated from NDSU in 1981 but took a long layoff from visiting the campus until five years ago. He made his name as a Bison basketball player but is making his living in the business world in New York.

He was amazed with the changes at his old school. He couldn’t believe the business school started an MBA program. Moreover, he was surprised at the qualifying scores of students enrolling for an MBA.

He said they were comparable to Ivy League schools, and he would know: He’s been in the investment business for more than 20 years and owns his own asset management company in Manhattan.

“I wasn’t aware of what was going on until I got invited to go back there,” Lipp said. “I started looking around and was amazed. I’ve been a supporter because I believe the money is going toward something good.”

He’s not alone.

Tod Gunkelman, a 1947 NDSU graduate and longtime Bison supporter, said the administrative leadership – starting with school President Joe Chapman – has connected with the school’s alumni and athletic backers.

He also noted the program’s success and the alliance with The Summit League and Gateway Football Conference.

“You have to admit, they are in two very good conferences right now,” Gunkelman said. “You have to say the Lord has been with them.”

Many of the donors, including Lipp and Gunkelman, were approached by Inniger, who has traveled the country in search of bucks for the university.

“Erv is the one that cranks it up and gets it done,” Gunkelman said.

It didn’t help that tuition at NDSU increased by 13 to 14 percent instead of the 9 percent projected by the athletic department.

“All of a sudden, we had to find that money,” Taylor said. “If you don’t get it done, what are you going to do?”

It wasn’t easy.

“It’s an unbelievable, exciting time for us but extremely tough,” Inniger said. “Much tougher. I’m a pretty positive guy, but it was immensely tougher than I thought it would be. They don’t walk up and give it to you. You have to ask and know the amounts you need to reach those goals.”

Taylor said he sees the expense side of athletics calming down in the coming years with the addition of The Summit League for most of its sports and the Gateway for football. Teams won’t have to go as far to find competition.

NDSU’s fundraisers, however, will go anywhere. Exceeding the CS&L projections have proved that.

NDSU lags behind in allocated money

North Dakota State receives substantially less revenue – percentagewise – from allocated resources like student fees and state funding than most NCAA Football Championship Subdivision members.

The average revenue from allocated resources among the 116 active members of the FCS (formerly Division I-AA) is 71 percent.

NDSU receives 41 percent from such resources, which also include institutional support. The Bison raise 59 percent from external sources, such as fundraising and ticket sales.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546.

Kolpack’s NDSU media blog can be found at www.areavoices.com
CampusDakota.com

 

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