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Nebraska Donor Fundraising

FFHusker

Newbie
Dec 4, 2014
37
71
18
Lincoln
Nice article posted on this site (it's free, I believe) detailing the upcoming facelift of the fundraising arm of the athletic department -> as well as the mountain that they will be tasked to climb. Looking around nationally, the dollars flowing into major programs via donations is unbelievable (hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases).

My general perception is that most folks believe that our athletic department is essentially an endless cash fountain. Those kinds of incorrect assumptions are going to cost us big-time long term. A decade of this kind of separation between us and the rest of the conference/country will take a toll.

I wish this new fundraising team success - they have quite the gap to close. According to the article (if I'm interpreting it correctly) - donor fundraising in the BIG was like this last year.

1. Michigan: $59+ million
2. Iowa: $52+ million
3. Ohio State: $50+ million
4. Illinois: $42+ million
5. Purdue: $40+ million
6. Penn State $39 million
7. Wisconsin: $37+ million
8. Minnesota: $30+ million
9. Nebraska: approx. $13.8 million (2017) - $18.4 million (2018 projected)


I didn't see any data for Maryland/Rutgers/Northwestern/Indiana/Michigan State.


Any thoughts on how Nebraska can close this gap given our limited population base?
 
Nice article posted on this site (it's free, I believe) detailing the upcoming facelift of the fundraising arm of the athletic department -> as well as the mountain that they will be tasked to climb. Looking around nationally, the dollars flowing into major programs via donations is unbelievable (hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases).

My general perception is that most folks believe that our athletic department is essentially an endless cash fountain. Those kinds of incorrect assumptions are going to cost us big-time long term. A decade of the kind of separation between us and the rest of the conference/country will take a toll.

I wish this new fundraising team success - they have quite the gap to close. According to the article (if I'm interpreting it correctly) - donor fundraising in the BIG was like this last year.

1. Michigan: $59+ million
2. Iowa: $52+ million
3. Ohio State: $50+ million
4. Illinois: $42+ million
5. Purdue: $40+ million
6. Penn State $39 million
7. Wisconsin: $37+ million
8. Minnesota: $30+ million
9. Nebraska: approx. $13.8 million (2017) - $18.4 million (2018 projected)


I didn't see any data for Maryland/Rutgers/Northwestern/Indiana/Michigan State.


Any thoughts on how Nebraska can close this gap given our limited population base?
Warren Buffett
 
Of the public universities in the Big 10 (Northwestern is the only private school), Nebraska is by far the smallest in student enrollment. Quite simply Nebraska as a university has to get bigger.
 
Of the public universities in the Big 10 (Northwestern is the only private school), Nebraska is by far the smallest in student enrollment. Quite simply Nebraska as a university has to get bigger.

Are you taking the 'long view' that more alumni eventually donate more money to the athletic department?

If not, how does a larger enrollment help donations?
 
How is Iowa getting so much in donations? Their enrollment isn't that much larger than ours, is it?
 
How is Iowa getting so much in donations? Their enrollment isn't that much larger than ours, is it?

Great question. My sense is that Iowa has hired a team of fundraisers and tied specific donation campaigns to certain projects. That seems to be how the best ones do this, which is why Nebraska is attempting to follow that model. K-State is currently in a donation campaign asking for hundreds of millions of dollars. The result? They've popped into the top donations programs a few times over the past 5 years or so.

It will be interesting to see how engaging the donor base in Nebraska for a large donation project (say...South Stadium) will go. Like I said in the OP, my sense is that people will turn their noses up at it because the AD is perceived to be made of money. I hope I'm wrong.
 
Great question. My sense is that Iowa has hired a team of fundraisers and tied specific donation campaigns to certain projects. That seems to be how the best ones do this, which is why Nebraska is attempting to follow that model. K-State is currently in a donation campaign asking for hundreds of millions of dollars. The result? They've popped into the top donations programs a few times over the past 5 years or so.

It will be interesting to see how engaging the donor base in Nebraska for a large donation project (say...South Stadium) will go. Like I said in the OP, my sense is that people will turn their noses up at it because the AD is perceived to be made of money. I hope I'm wrong.

I think it will be hard to get more donations when our athletic department is already bringing in enough money to where we are actually donating millions of dollars back to the university for non-athletes. And with the full share of Big Ten money now, seems like we would have plenty of money to renovate South Stadium if need be.

Our facilities for basketball, volleyball, baseball, etc. are as good as anyone in the country. I can understand other schools that might need to build entirely new stadiums or arenas or practice facilities that cost hundreds of millions. It doesn't seem like we have any major expensive projects on the horizon where we need to raise tons of money. I think that will make it harder to increase our donations to the level of the other schools in the conference.
 
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Nice article posted on this site (it's free, I believe) detailing the upcoming facelift of the fundraising arm of the athletic department -> as well as the mountain that they will be tasked to climb. Looking around nationally, the dollars flowing into major programs via donations is unbelievable (hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases).

My general perception is that most folks believe that our athletic department is essentially an endless cash fountain. Those kinds of incorrect assumptions are going to cost us big-time long term. A decade of this kind of separation between us and the rest of the conference/country will take a toll.

I wish this new fundraising team success - they have quite the gap to close. According to the article (if I'm interpreting it correctly) - donor fundraising in the BIG was like this last year.

1. Michigan: $59+ million
2. Iowa: $52+ million
3. Ohio State: $50+ million
4. Illinois: $42+ million
5. Purdue: $40+ million
6. Penn State $39 million
7. Wisconsin: $37+ million
8. Minnesota: $30+ million
9. Nebraska: approx. $13.8 million (2017) - $18.4 million (2018 projected)


I didn't see any data for Maryland/Rutgers/Northwestern/Indiana/Michigan State.


Any thoughts on how Nebraska can close this gap given our limited population base?


Stop going 4-8 in the fall

Make some noise in March

Play baseball in June
 
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