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.

From Marketing to PR to Development: Converting Goodwill into Fundraising

In my post last week, I wrote about the importance of PR and Marketing to development officers and promised an anecdote.

In this instance, both effective marketing and a devotion to public relations work cultivated a donor who will be a significant supporter for years to come.

This particular donor is a local small business owner and alumnus (as well as former student-athlete) who recently relocated to the area.  Upon his return, being a savvy buisinessman, he noted two things: 1) How prevalently and prominently our corporate sponsors were featured in our promotions and marketing of athletic events, and 2) How little his competitors seemed to take advantage of options available to them through our athletics marketing and promotions program.  In the earliest stages, it was the way that we effectively marketed businesses that caught his interest and piqued his imagination — if we could do this for other local companies, what could we do to help promote him and his operation?

Seeking a unique way to promote his business, we involved him in some lower level marketing programs, such as individual game sponsorships and eventually a season-long promotion to which he purchased the naming rights.  These programs increased foot traffic in his store and increased awareness and visibility of his business, as all effective marketing should.

Then, we stepped the game up.  The following year, we made his business the corporate sponsor of our athletic annual fund.  The alumnus and former student-athlete turned businessman was now a corporate partner of his alma mater. He earned recognition for his business on the nearly 5,000 brochures that we sent out for renewals, renewing and first time members of the Athletic Association earned a 20% discount at his store (increasing foot-traffic) and most importantly, in every press release about the annual fund on the website, newspapers, or via E-List includes a blurb about his business, his address, and his website.  We have promoted not only the benefits one receives from becoming a dues-paying member, effectively marketing his business, but we also published an initial release highlighting that an alumnus and former student-athlete was giving back to his alma mater, generating precious goodwill for him and his business.

By marketing and creating goodwill through public relations for this supporter, we have increased his in-kind and cash donations over twenty-fold YOY, with promises of more significant financial support to come.

This anecdote shows how effectively marketing and generating goodwill for your supporters can create favorable conditions for “asks,” where development officers do their best and most important work.

By William Broussard

Transparent ideas from the National Sports Forum

I have had the privilege to attend the National Sports Forum in Baltimore for the last two days. While the conference is more focused on sponsorship and marketing, I have found many parallels with development that can be utilized to help grow development offices.

Sponsorships

In a panel with representatives from some major sponsors in sports including Anheuser-Busch, Cintas, and Sports Clips, the consensus was do your homework and less-is-more in the early stages. Sponsors get hundreds of emails a day with ideas and proposals, but it is better to contact the sponsor after you have done extensive research into the company and ways the two brands match-up going into the future. This works the same in development. Very few schools have the luxury of getting large donations from unfamiliar figures. It is a daily challenge for fundraisers to gain the best understanding of the prospect to get the initial foot in the door. If you choose to approach the prospect via email, it isn’t going to do much good to send the large development brochure. Sum up the message into a couple of paragraphs and personalize it to that particular prospect.

New Media

New media such as Facebook and Twitter is a hot topic in sponsorship and marketing because no one has figured out how to make consistent revenue from the medium. Many development offices have dabbled in the practice, with the main goal spreading news about the offices to followers. While this can fulfill some objectives, one tactic being discussed extensively at NSF is using new media as a focus group to gain feedback. Allowing followers or fans to contribute to the school or feel as if they have insider information is a great way to build rapport with the group and gain important feedback from donors, particularly younger demographics.

Ticket Sales

Major League Baseball teams have one of the toughest tasks in attempting to sell tickets for 81 home dates between April and September. Because of this challenge, baseball teams have gotten extremely creative with season ticket holder programs. One such idea is a new customer reception at the beginning of each season. This reception not only allows the team to thank the new customer, but to also educate them. It is a great way to get in front of new customers early and ensure a relationship before renewals come up the next year. This is a strategy that can be utilized by development offices with new donors to grow their relationship but also to educate on the benefits of becoming a donor.

Sean Phifer

Jeremy Foley, Athletics Director at Florida, visits Ohio’s campus

Jeremy Foley has been Athletics Director at Florida since 1992.

This past week Ohio University received a visit from one of the premier athletics directors in the nation-Jeremy Foley of the University of Florida. Foley was visiting campus to receive his Medal of Merit, an honorary award presented to alumni who have achieved distinction in their professions and shown loyalty to the university.

Upon receipt of the award, Foley spoke to a crowd of 250 people on numerous topics, ranging from the culture of an organization to how people should be treated. He spoke of his own transformation as a manger, from a person who relied on his position of power early in his career to someone who treats people with respect and dignity. He spoke of the family atmosphere at Florida and how all employees must pull in the same direction, helping the entire department to reach their goals.

He mentioned that dealing with people is the biggest part of his job. Disdaining turf wars, he spoke of his high profile head coaches who still take the time to thank the staff who lines the football field or sweeps the gym floor. This requires checking your ego at the door and seeing the worth in all individuals. He was quick to mention that this does not mean there are no disagreements at Florida, but just like any family, they get together and solve them.

Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer are two of the high profile coaches that work at Florida.

Drawing upon wonderful examples for integrity and compliance, he spoke about holding his coaches and players to a high level of sportsmanship, encouraging them to give credit to the other team if they win. He repeatedly mentioned shaking their hand to congratulate them on their victory.

One of the most interesting areas Foley spoke about was the small things you can do for your organization to increase morale. At Florida, if an employee has been working at the athletics association for 10 years, they have to take a mandatory four week sabbatical to get away and re-energize themselves, similar to Nike’s policy. He mentioned how this has done wonders for the organization and the people who work there.

Foley’s speech was a model for what he sees as crucial success factors in the athletics industry: high energy, high passion, and high commitment. One needs to look no farther than Jeremy Foley’s career at the University of Florida for an example of this in action.

The Difference between Marketing and PR to a Development Officer

Dr. William Broussard works at Northwestern State University in both an athletics and faculty capacity.

First of all, I’m grateful for the opportunity to become a member of this community and want to share with everyone a little about me as a means of introducing myself.

I am Associate Athletic Director at Northwestern State University, Louisiana, a Division I member of the Southland Conference. I am also a professor of Journalism and Public Relations.  My full-time gig in athletics is as a development officer, overseeing the identification, cultivation, and stewardship of donors to NSU Athletics.  And my gig on the side is as a professor in the public relations component of our New Media studies-centered Journalism program, where I teach the basics of PR writing, management, and campaigns.  There is an interesting, fertile, and symbiotic relationship between these two roles and rhetorical spaces that I inhabit, and through both roles I’ve learned that effective fundraising and promotion of intercollegiate athletic programs require excellent marketing and its more often overlooked but no less important counterpart, public relations.

Much of what we do in intercollegiate athletic development involves securing funding and in-kind support for various initiatives.  There are fixed costs (scholarships, books) which require annual funding, campaign costs which require significant one-time investments, and always, always, tickets to sell and seats to fill.  This means that marketing, or the creation, acquisition, and satisfaction of customers, has as its end a monetary gain of some sort.  And plenty can be used to market athletics — interesting story lines, record-breakers, high performers, championships to defend — and so much more.  Look at any athletics website (check out www.nsudemons.com, for example) and you’ll find evidence of the prevalence of sports marketing, including game promotions involving corporate sponsors, branding, deals on tickets, and opportunities to get involved.

But the development officer should also be sure to produce or make available ample amounts of public relations materials, or materials which generate goodwill for your organization.  Examples include feature narratives about coaches and student-athletes, press releases about off the field accomplishments (like academic awards or community service), and routine contact with donors through E-lists, hand-written notes, and other forms of contact that simply keep them feeling good about your operation.  A nicely produced annual report, or a clipping sent with a note about a student-athlete sent to a benefactor of an endowed scholarship does not have the soliciting of funds as its end game.  Rather, it shows appreciation for past support and, hopefully, sets the stage for future asks.  It also creates goodwill among potential donors and supporters out there whom you may not have come into direct contact with.

So remember, take time to develop good marketing strategies and attend to the ways that you promote your program through public relations.  Both are keys to identifying, acquiring, and retaining consistent supporters of your athletic program. I will post some examples in upcoming submissions.

Mobile iPhone Applications stand to benefit athletics development efforts

A large number of universities are now offering Mobile iPhone Applications for their athletic department. The University of Iowa is the latest school to announce the official iPhone Application for Hawkeye Athletics. Although this technology is not being used for the sole purpose of raising money, its many ancillary benefits will surely contribute to development efforts.

Villanova , Oklahoma State , Michigan State and Indiana are among the many universities that are taking advantage of this increasingly popular technology. For each athletic department, the application will serve the same primary purpose: to offer “easy access to up-to-the-minute news, scores, schedules, rosters and audio and video streaming” at a price of around $5.00 per year. The application’s content is fed directly from the athletic department’s official web site. As is the case with all mobile applications, the selling point is that fans are no longer required to have a computer with internet access to get the most up-to-date athletics information.

Any time an athletic department becomes more accessible to its fans, it serves to benefit in a big way. A large number of donors will be a part of the contingent of fans who see value in downloading this application, further strengthening their affiliation with the university and the athletic department. The increased accessibility will also draw new donors to the fold.

It is only a matter of time before development officers find a way to directly reach both existing and new donors through this distinctive technology, offering a much needed new revenue stream to fundraising efforts.

Find this post helpful? Click HERE to sign up for our e-report, the ADF Scouting Report.

Matt Kirinovic

Schools shift temporary fundraising focus to Haiti

After disasters like the earthquake that occurred in Haiti two weeks ago, many schools and athletics departments change their fundraising focus from the student-athlete to people in need. It is times like these that show the true character of individuals and schools alike as they work to help people they have never even met. There is a different objective in asking for donations for a disaster than for asking for money for a facility upgrade. Instead of focusing on developing student-athletes and athletics departments for the future, I am going to highlight some of the steps being taken by schools to help the people of Haiti through this crisis.

Southeast Missouri collected donations for the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund at each of its basketball games as well as the WWE professional wrestling match it hosted. Kentucky raised over $1 million for Haiti in five hours using a last-minute telethon that featured Men’s Basketball Coach John Calipari and had the #1 Wildcats basketball team answering phone calls. The University of Utah’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council partnered with Soles4Souls to collect gently used shoes for Haiti. They collected the shoes and spare change at Utah’s Men’s Basketball and Gymnastics meets last week. These are just a few of the hundreds of commendable fundraising efforts being done by schools across the county.

There are a few distinct differences between fundraising for relief efforts by athletics departments and the day-to-day fundraising done by athletics departments. Relief fundraising is more dependent upon normal events taking place at the school. Southeast Missouri not only took advantage of its home basketball games but also a WWE event that came to campus. While development takes place everyday and at every sporting event, you will very rarely see collection boxes for a scholarship fund at a basketball games. Schools collecting aid for Haiti aren’t expecting to receive major gifts; those will be given directly to the Red Cross, UNICEF, or another aid organization, whereas a large percentage of schools have development staff devoted to major gifts. Collecting money for Haiti is a great public relations move by a school, but schools rarely release press releases when they are putting on a donor specific event because that is part of its day-to-day operations. In the end, fundraising for Haiti and for an athletics department has similarities, but they each fill a different objective for the athletics department.

Find this post helpful? Click HERE to sign up for our e-report, the ADF Scouting Report.

Sean Phifer

Reseating program aids schools, excites donors

Click on the picture for Seton Hall's interactive seating diagram

The University of Indiana has recently joined the growing number of schools who have chosen to utilize Ballena Technologies for their donor reseating and ticket sales processes. The Ballena program, which works with the university’s existing ticketing system, allows its users to access virtual seat previews, compare seat prices, and pick their seats all from the comforts of their own home. During an otherwise time-consuming reseating process, the university can now rely on this technology to distribute seats among their donors based on priority points in a real-time  and simple computer based program.

Of course, Indiana is not the only university taking advantage of this technology. Seton Hall is using Ballena for their seating diagrams that show ticket prices and donation requirements for their entire basketball arena. This gives Seton Hall fans the opportunity to calculate their own totals for basketball tickets without having to contact members of the athletics department.

ADF has posted previously on basketball reseating methods with suggestions for a hands-on and  on-site selection process along with others which are primarily priority point driven. The correct way to handle a donor reseating effort will depend largely on the university, but a department looking for online interactivity should follow the examples set by Indiana and Seton Hall.

Find this post helpful? Click HERE to sign up for our e-report, the ADF Scouting Report.

Rob Norris

Enhancements coming to Athletics Development Frontier

There will be some exciting new offerings coming from Athletics Development Frontier in the near future. With the site quickly approaching its one year anniversary, we will be introducing some new original content that will continue to enhance the field of athletics development.

For one, we will begin to offer an Athletics Development Frontier “Scouting Report,” which will be an e-report sent to our subscribers’ email addresses. The report will be a summary of some of the best practices we have uncovered teamed with some new original content offerings. Like any scouting report, we hope to provide you a glimpse of the strengths and weaknesses of the athletics development industry.

If you haven’t already, please be sure to click on the Subscribe link on the navigation bar and enter your name and e-mail address. Your information will not be distributed for any reason. Also feel free to leave any comments or suggestions.

For all of you who use Twitter, you can follow our website @icadevelopment, or on our personal accounts, @taylorhwood and @norrisrob. As always, feel free to comment on any post or e-mail us with any comments or suggestions.

In addition, our site has been optimized for mobile viewing, allowing you to access Athletics Development Frontier with your phone from anywhere.

Deacon Club plays role in charitable auction

Wake Forest University

Bidding began last week for a one-of-a-kind portrait of the late Wake Forest basketball coach Skip Prosser. The Deacon Club, the fundraising arm of the Wake Forest University Athletic Department, is playing a key role in the auction that will benefit the Wake Forest Literacy Program, founded in honor of Coach Prosser.

All proceeds from the auction will go to support the second year of the program, which was uniquely designed to promote reading among Winston-Salem area students. The driving force behind the program was Prosser’s reputation for being an avid reader and always stressing the importance of reading to his student-athletes. In its first year, the program proved to be very successful, involving over 4,000 fourth grade students from area schools. The top 20 students in the program were recognized at halftime of The Skip Prosser Classic on January 3^rd.

The Deacon Club has communicated two key messages to the university community and Demon Deacon Athletics’ fans and boosters. First, the Deacon Club operates with an active, service-oriented approach to fundraising. Secondly, they are flexible in their ability to raise money in a number of different capacities, using their established platforms, relationships, and fundraising expertise to benefit charity. In both cases, the Deacon Club proves their reach goes far beyond offsetting annual athletic department expenses.

Bidding on the painting continues until January 28^th, and fans can participate by going to WakeForestSports.com and clicking on the auction box.

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Matt Kirinovic