To all,
I wanted to provide you with some other information that we received that came from this meeting.
1. Dr. Bradley stated that he would do everything possible to develop a positive attitude within the University about the program. He stated that any bad press that was published in the past about the football program did not come from his office. With that said, he acknowledged that criticism is a hard thing to police and that no matter what, there will always be a group that will not support collegiate athletics, let alone football. Additionally, winning football games will help.
2. Also, last Friday, for the first time in ISU history, an ISU Athletic Foundation has been established with 30 members which include 6 former ISU football players. This will allow for a focused university effort on the needs for the athletic programs and athletics fund-raising.
The ultimate fund-raising goal is not to place it all on the former players. The main strategy is to run our fund-raising through the Varsity Club which is open to all alumni of ISU and we have Chris Sapp, Quentin Mikell and 4 other players are assigned to the Varsity Club Committee to make this happen with the Athletic Foundation.
3. The ISU Athletic Department is given 7.5% of all revenue and fees generated to the University of the top, then the rest of the University programs get 50% of their funding from the remaining revenue and 50% from State allocations.
4. Dr. Bradley informed us that he would be sitting down with his CFO to review the in-state/out-of-state eligibility issue and push to get this to work from a University budget standpoint. Additionally, preliminary discussions on this matter were discussed at the first ISU Athletic Foundation meeting last Friday.
5. Over the last 4 years, these are the contributions that have been made to the football program: FY2007 13 donors - $ 4,715 (3 donors account for 64%),
FY2008 56 donors - $28,986 (6 donors account for 48%), FY2009 62 donors - $36,600 (8 donors account for 57%), FY2010 44 donors -$33,362 (6 donors account for 65%). The University is looking for improvement is this area. Just for an example, there were over 130 donors to the ISU women's basketball program last year.
I did mention that when Trent first came on as head coach, there was a big upswing in donations. However, I felt that part of the flattening-out of the contributions in the following years was related to the bad press that was released during that time period regarding whether football would continue at ISU.
6. Dr. Bradley pointed out that one of the realities that the University must always address is Title 9 and the requirement to keep women's sports on an even footing with men's sports. He mentioned this because if we are successful in our fund-raising efforts and build the football program back and beyond, some of our dollars may be required to be invested in women's programs for equipment, uniforms, etc. because of the Title 9 mandates.
7. I suggested an idea to the Foundation after the meeting about an off-season event. Maybe something like an NFL day in Terre Haute with all the former ISU coaches & players who coached/played in the NFL and who are currently coaching/playing in attendance in an effort to raise money for the program. They were receptive to the idea.
To keep the momentum moving on the Capital Campaign, we will be looking for former players to volunteer their time in the following areas:
1. Work on a Committee devoted to developing and implementing fund-raising ideas for the Campaign on an on-going basis.
2. Work as a liaison to players in their time period to reach out to them for this Capital Campaign. There are a few ways we can do it. Example, we could have a player from the 1970s contact other players from the 70s or we could do this and add a regional aspect like a player from the 1970s living in Illinois can contact all those players from that era living in the Midwest.
3. Work to help Trent in identifying potential football recruits.
4. Work with our formers players sitting on the ISU Athletic Foundation to help drive things for us.
We are still waiting on the mailing list of former players to start the Campaign. However, the brochure is complete. For those who volunteer to contact players about the Campaign, we will get a copy of the brochure to you and go over it so you can explain accurately to the players of the Campaign mission. While we are waiting to finalize the mailing list, I thought it would be good that we start forming these things now so that when we are ready to mail the brochure, we are ready behind the scenes.
Answer 5: The ultimate fund-raising goal is not to place it all on the former players. The main strategy is to run it through the Varsity Club which is open to all alumni of ISU and we have Quintin Mikell assigned to make this happen with the Athletic Foundation.
Here is an idea of what we would be looking at as far as contributions to the Football Campaign to reach the $250,000 annual target:
1. Just with graduating football classes from 1960-2009, that gives us 49 classes. If there is, on average, 15 players per class still available to contribute, that gives us 735 alumni.
2. If 50% of this group or 368 players contribute, on average $680 a year or $57/month, we would hit the $250,000 figure. This is only if former players contributed. This does not include the potential contributions from other alumni and supporters.
Based upon this estimate, I believe that the University's goal of $250,000 annual contributions to the football program is realistic.
David
1980-84
David A. Allen
I wanted to provide you with some other information that we received that came from this meeting.
1. Dr. Bradley stated that he would do everything possible to develop a positive attitude within the University about the program. He stated that any bad press that was published in the past about the football program did not come from his office. With that said, he acknowledged that criticism is a hard thing to police and that no matter what, there will always be a group that will not support collegiate athletics, let alone football. Additionally, winning football games will help.
2. Also, last Friday, for the first time in ISU history, an ISU Athletic Foundation has been established with 30 members which include 6 former ISU football players. This will allow for a focused university effort on the needs for the athletic programs and athletics fund-raising.
The ultimate fund-raising goal is not to place it all on the former players. The main strategy is to run our fund-raising through the Varsity Club which is open to all alumni of ISU and we have Chris Sapp, Quentin Mikell and 4 other players are assigned to the Varsity Club Committee to make this happen with the Athletic Foundation.
3. The ISU Athletic Department is given 7.5% of all revenue and fees generated to the University of the top, then the rest of the University programs get 50% of their funding from the remaining revenue and 50% from State allocations.
4. Dr. Bradley informed us that he would be sitting down with his CFO to review the in-state/out-of-state eligibility issue and push to get this to work from a University budget standpoint. Additionally, preliminary discussions on this matter were discussed at the first ISU Athletic Foundation meeting last Friday.
5. Over the last 4 years, these are the contributions that have been made to the football program: FY2007 13 donors - $ 4,715 (3 donors account for 64%),
FY2008 56 donors - $28,986 (6 donors account for 48%), FY2009 62 donors - $36,600 (8 donors account for 57%), FY2010 44 donors -$33,362 (6 donors account for 65%). The University is looking for improvement is this area. Just for an example, there were over 130 donors to the ISU women's basketball program last year.
I did mention that when Trent first came on as head coach, there was a big upswing in donations. However, I felt that part of the flattening-out of the contributions in the following years was related to the bad press that was released during that time period regarding whether football would continue at ISU.
6. Dr. Bradley pointed out that one of the realities that the University must always address is Title 9 and the requirement to keep women's sports on an even footing with men's sports. He mentioned this because if we are successful in our fund-raising efforts and build the football program back and beyond, some of our dollars may be required to be invested in women's programs for equipment, uniforms, etc. because of the Title 9 mandates.
7. I suggested an idea to the Foundation after the meeting about an off-season event. Maybe something like an NFL day in Terre Haute with all the former ISU coaches & players who coached/played in the NFL and who are currently coaching/playing in attendance in an effort to raise money for the program. They were receptive to the idea.
To keep the momentum moving on the Capital Campaign, we will be looking for former players to volunteer their time in the following areas:
1. Work on a Committee devoted to developing and implementing fund-raising ideas for the Campaign on an on-going basis.
2. Work as a liaison to players in their time period to reach out to them for this Capital Campaign. There are a few ways we can do it. Example, we could have a player from the 1970s contact other players from the 70s or we could do this and add a regional aspect like a player from the 1970s living in Illinois can contact all those players from that era living in the Midwest.
3. Work to help Trent in identifying potential football recruits.
4. Work with our formers players sitting on the ISU Athletic Foundation to help drive things for us.
We are still waiting on the mailing list of former players to start the Campaign. However, the brochure is complete. For those who volunteer to contact players about the Campaign, we will get a copy of the brochure to you and go over it so you can explain accurately to the players of the Campaign mission. While we are waiting to finalize the mailing list, I thought it would be good that we start forming these things now so that when we are ready to mail the brochure, we are ready behind the scenes.
Answer 5: The ultimate fund-raising goal is not to place it all on the former players. The main strategy is to run it through the Varsity Club which is open to all alumni of ISU and we have Quintin Mikell assigned to make this happen with the Athletic Foundation.
Here is an idea of what we would be looking at as far as contributions to the Football Campaign to reach the $250,000 annual target:
1. Just with graduating football classes from 1960-2009, that gives us 49 classes. If there is, on average, 15 players per class still available to contribute, that gives us 735 alumni.
2. If 50% of this group or 368 players contribute, on average $680 a year or $57/month, we would hit the $250,000 figure. This is only if former players contributed. This does not include the potential contributions from other alumni and supporters.
Based upon this estimate, I believe that the University's goal of $250,000 annual contributions to the football program is realistic.
David
1980-84
David A. Allen
