What are the birds and the bees?
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New Article Series on Colorado Athletic Facility Improvements
- Thread starter Dark Bohner
- Start date
It's who you feed when you want a stork to deliver a baby to you.
Note to self: Kill all birds and bees within 500 yards of home.
Get a pellet gun with a scope.
Deleted member 807
Guest
The smell of Trust Fund is strong in this thread.
Maybe its time to drive your expensive Audi back to your townhomes, rip a bong hit, and contemplate dear old CU'S illegal college football cabal.
There is a lot of negativity in this thread, and understandably so, but the administration is also kind of throwing down the gauntlet saying we will fund a big portion with the increased revenue, but we need increased donations too. Kind of like we have been pointing out to gasm all of this time. I think the Colorado faithful need to open up their wallets a little bit to help out. I will give a little more this year if it will somehow help with facilities improvement, which is exactly what we are being asked for.
Deleted member 807
Guest
Just a suggestion...can the fundraising be a little more organized?
Who is driving the bus, DiStephano or Bohn or some nameless person at the foundation? Or are some boosters supposed to step up and rally the fans of CU?
Is there a website that states a concrete fundraising goal and tracks pledge amounts brought in under the campaign? Or is the expectation that fans just "step up" without explicit instruction and tracking?
exactly. so far nothing has been done except to create awareness of the need to "step up"
Deleted member 807
Guest
DiStephino said I should buy tickets. CHECK. I should attend games. CHECK. I should make private donations to the CUAD. CHECK.
I wear CU gear. I am doing exactly what has been asked. Many of us are in the same boat.
I'm holding up my end of the bargain....
I'm just asking for a little integrity and leadership. It's disingenuous from my perspective to shuffle this topic off on the fans if the AD isn't developing those relationships.
Don't tell me. Respond to the email that they sent you ASKING for your input so they can answer those questions.
Deleted member 807
Guest
Guys, I think it's important to provide a little background on how a capital campaign is run. There is a silent phase and a public phase. The silent phase involves recruiting big dollar donors and often takes a few years to complete. The public phase involves the "buy a brick" stuff that we all see all the time. It typically comes into play once 80%+ of the fundraising goal has been achieved. We're all dying for the public phase, but it seems pretty clear to me that they're still in the silent phase of this campaign. I think they "thought" they'd be out of that phase by now, which is why they had the announcement of something coming in September. Maybe that's still the case, maybe something has happened to make them reassess their thinking. In any case, it's frustrating because we don't see where they are in the process. We're not supposed to know that.
This is the proper way to run a campaign. The way CSU is doing it is all bass-ackwards, and will very likely backfire on them. I honestly think patience is going to be key. I'm fairly certain that the upgrades will happen, we just have to allow the process to play out.
This is the proper way to run a campaign. The way CSU is doing it is all bass-ackwards, and will very likely backfire on them. I honestly think patience is going to be key. I'm fairly certain that the upgrades will happen, we just have to allow the process to play out.
I think the issue most of us are having is that we cannot get a consistent message out of CU about the facilities. If you cannot effectively communicate short-term and long-term goals, you got issues.
Patience can only go so far. That patience has already allowed 95% of the BCS schools to pass us in the facilities race.
There could be several reasons for the inconsistent message. The most likely of which, frankly, is that CU doesn't have a designated PR person to handle these kinds of issues. You have DiStephano saying one thing, coming from his perspective, Bohn saying something similar, but not exactly the same based on his perspective.
Patience is all we have, unless you're willing to pony up the money to get it done yourself. The process has already begun. Firing the whole lot and starting over from scratch would only make the process take that much longer.
Do not disagree.
Must be nice to be a CU administrator though. Really nice job security with low expectations because you know, "things could be worse".
Great points from both of you. I totally agree that the inconsistent message has been pretty annoying.
Deleted member 807
Guest
Patience is all we have? Really?
C'mon. We've been patient for a dozen years. The last admin had commissioned a study and made a plan that included an IPF being built on Franklin Field at the turn of the millennium.
CU has gone from the penthouse to the cellar during this period of passive indifference. And we remain in a feasibility study mode since the Clinton administration was in the whitehouse.
We have more than patience. We have passion. We have a hunger for respect and a desire to return to relevency. We have an online community of a dozen incestuous 35 year old trust fund baby assholes who recyle the same inside jokes. We are allbuffs.
How about an Allbuffs pledge drive?
Are Allbuffs members willing to rally and make a collective statement of support?
As an on-line alumni and support organization who are passionate about the Colorado Buffaloes, we probabaly should develop a collective voice that speaks in terms of ticket sales and donations.
Do you think allbuffs members and guests could pledge a sizeable amount towards the facility project? I do.
With a little help from the Junta web monkeys and someone with a little fundraising experience, we should be able develop a slick little pledge drive area that tracks ticket purchases and pledge amounts.
I like the passion, but even if AllBuffs did some huge fundraising effort all season and handed Bohn a check for $1,000,000, I don't think that would move them any faster or have them make a concrete public statement.
The problem seems to be that the big guy at the top is an overly cautious windsock. That's what we need to focus on changing.
BuffaloSoldier76
Unsound Meat
My suggestion to the AD on this was to set up something like Colorado Public Radio's "evergreen partner" program specific to the building fund. Based on last night's Ringo article the AD wants to use $5 million of the Pac12 TV money over 20 years to fund this, but that leaves them with a shortfall of $75 million to the low-end projected cost. By most of the estimates, we have a season ticket holder base of 20,000. If you can target getting each of those season ticket holders to make a commitment to an ongoing monthly-billed contribution of $25 for the next 20 years, that brings in an additional $120 million. That right there gets us to the high-end of the projected cost WITHOUT any involvement from the big-fish donors that they are spending all of their time pursuing. At that point, if they can find the big donors to help get this done, that's great but it is also gravy.
They need to make this easier for us. I'd be more than willing to give the AD $25 a month if it was auto-billed and I didn't have to think about it after the initial setup. If I'm asked to make a $6,000 contribution to the AD over the course of the next 20 years, my answer is "absolutely, I can do that". Unfortunately, the MO of the fundraisers here is to ask me for that $6,000 today, and if I can't give it to them today in one lump sum they forget about me and move on to the next.
Assuredly, you wouldn't get 100% buy in from the season ticket holders to do this. There are lots of people who can't make that work in their finances, but there are also others who could and would do more (and possibly significantly more) than $25/month that could offset those that can't swing it.
Just my $0.02.
Soldier is right on. We need what we call a "continuity program" in the direct response business. Let people set up at $10, $25, $50 and $100 a month gift levels that automatically hits their credit cards. Send some free gifts every now and then. Have businesses able to tie-in with promotional discounts they offer to folks who are on the program. This would get absolutely huge in a hurry.
BuffaloSoldier76
Unsound Meat
Yup, I didn't even get into the corporate match programs that can accompany this. My company is a lot more likely to match my donation at $25 a month than if I go ask my CEO for $5,000 today to give to Dear Old CU.
This isn't rocket science. I don't understand why this doesn't already exist...and if it DOES exist, why hasn't it been marketed.
One of the gifts they could/should tie in is an escalator system for your priority points. If you contribute at $25/month, you get 5 priority points for each month that pledge is paid, but for every consecutive month the pledge is paid, you get a growing number of priority points. (month 2 = 6 points, month 3 = 7 points, etc.) That costs the university absolutely nothing to do.
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Quick - everybody who has personally been involved in the leadership of a capital campaign raise their hands.
:wave:
The realities of these kinds of campaigns are a lot more challenging than simply setting up a designated giving campaign. Those are wonderful and all, and should be implemented, but they aren't going to pay for our new indoor practice facility and upgrades to Balch & Folsom.
I'd far rather be in the situation we're in than the situation CSU is in. They're doing this exactly the wrong way, and I can nearly guarantee you it will backfire on them. Fundraising at this level is not intuitive. It's relationship building. Some of those relationships take a while to build. That's reality. There's no way to make this process go any faster. It's possible that there are people more qualified to do this than the ones we have doing it right now, but we're stuck with what we have.
It's too complicated to discuss on a message board, but if somebody really wants to talk about the challenges involved in running a capital campaign, I'll gladly tell you all about it at a tailgate.
:wave:
The realities of these kinds of campaigns are a lot more challenging than simply setting up a designated giving campaign. Those are wonderful and all, and should be implemented, but they aren't going to pay for our new indoor practice facility and upgrades to Balch & Folsom.
I'd far rather be in the situation we're in than the situation CSU is in. They're doing this exactly the wrong way, and I can nearly guarantee you it will backfire on them. Fundraising at this level is not intuitive. It's relationship building. Some of those relationships take a while to build. That's reality. There's no way to make this process go any faster. It's possible that there are people more qualified to do this than the ones we have doing it right now, but we're stuck with what we have.
It's too complicated to discuss on a message board, but if somebody really wants to talk about the challenges involved in running a capital campaign, I'll gladly tell you all about it at a tailgate.
BuffaloSoldier76
Unsound Meat
That is fine and good. I'm saying that I'd be willing to give them $25 a month if they had some sort of continuity program set up, and that money could be helping them get to their goal. Right now, they are not receiving that money.
I'm not saying it is easy to do any of this. I just feel that as one of the minnows in the donor pool, my dollars aren't as good as those of some trout because it doesn't come with multiple zeros at the end of the check. The additional revenue they could make from a continuity program could be significant...or I could be talking out of my ass. It is not my department of expertise.
Sobered up enough to read this morning's second part. I'm switching to rubbing alcohol. If tomorrow's thrilling conclusion is as good as the first two, I'm switching to gasoline.
Deleted member 807
Guest
Your description is textbook. No fault with the theoretical process.
But the CU fan base has known for atleast 15 years that upgrades will be needed.
During this last decade and a half, CU left cash on the table. We alumni know there will be more capital upgrades. If the stadium and IPF ever gets built, then the next topic of discussion might be a football dorm (like Bama and A&M), or a baseball stadium, or a swimming center or a hockey rink or whatever.
There are those of us who would have agreed to a $10/month payroll deduction starting back in 2000 for the sole purpose of CUAD capital projects. Assuming 10,000 people agreed to participate, then that's $14M unasked for and uncollected.
And in that 15 years, we've had the East side luxury box expansion, locker room expansion & update, practice bubble and a big new basketball/volleyball practice facility built, even during a time of incredible upheaval in the department. We've gone through four AD's, four football head coaches and five University Presidents in the last 15 years. Yes, we all know what needs to be done. I suspect even Benson and DiStephano know what needs to be done. I get the impatience. I really do. I'm impatient too. The facilities race started at a time when we were simply not equipped to participate. We're getting there now, but it's still going to take some time.
@zbuff - oil guy (Solich) got his money, but I don't have any idea how much, if anything, he pledged to the athletic department. For all we know, he took the money and is starting a new business with it and can't give any of it up.
sacky brings a lot of wisdom to the table, but I also think that there's something to be said for the way that companies are starting to realize capital now as well with the likes of indiegogo and kickstarter. CU missed the boat and doesn't seem to have the whales that other large state universities do (we missed the boat on CompSci even though the co-founder of Apple went to school here for a while, oil, etc...). Our "whale" is a KU grad (Solich).
Perhaps 80% is an old reality and the new barrier should be 60%. I don't know anything about marketing though. I'm just pulling that out of my ass.
But imagine if CU got an auto donation of $8 per month from each alum instead of calling you asking for, at least, $100 in a single payment; that number seems like a lot to people at a single moment in time. The school would be better off with over 25K+ alums giving 8 dollars a month. That's 200K per month coming into the University. Perhaps that's enough to keep the J-school in tact, perhaps not. At the cost of a netflix monthly payment I know I could swing that.
Perhaps 80% is an old reality and the new barrier should be 60%. I don't know anything about marketing though. I'm just pulling that out of my ass.
But imagine if CU got an auto donation of $8 per month from each alum instead of calling you asking for, at least, $100 in a single payment; that number seems like a lot to people at a single moment in time. The school would be better off with over 25K+ alums giving 8 dollars a month. That's 200K per month coming into the University. Perhaps that's enough to keep the J-school in tact, perhaps not. At the cost of a netflix monthly payment I know I could swing that.