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Rick George fundraising update

Not looking like a fantastic start, but fundraising only needs one big donor and after that it seems to be a domino effect. Hey Frank step up!
 
I wish they would communicate the facilities upgrade donation drive to us little fish. Haven't heard a thing from the AD. Love the vision.
 
That's a rather gloomy picture of the situation. Sounds like right now our two biggest donors are Rick George and Bruce Benson. I do like the current facility plan better than Mike Bohn's, but the true question is if and when it finally kicks off.
 
nolabuff said:
That's a rather gloomy picture of the situation. Sounds like right now our two biggest donors are Rick George and Bruce Benson. I do like the current facility plan better than Mike Bohn's, but the true question is if and when it finally kicks off.
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RG said it is going to happen, there isn't a 'if' here.

The bolded....:bang:....no, Benson and RG are just putting their money where their mouths are, which is big and would be big in the eye of donors I would think. Next time I get a chance to talk to RG I'm going to ask him about a website and a brick campaign.
 
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nolabuff said:
That's a rather gloomy picture of the situation. Sounds like right now our two biggest donors are Rick George and Bruce Benson. I do like the current facility plan better than Mike Bohn's, but the true question is if and when it finally kicks off.
Click to expand...

I don't think it sounds like that, and in fact, it's false.

I do think our fundraising dept spends way too much time targeting those who've given in the past and not enough time in targeting those who should be giving. There's a lot of successful CU grads to target, not to mention just people who moved here and like to support the local school (myself). Nobody has asked me for anything except the donation with my tickets. Never once have I had a personal call. I get them all the time from my alma-maters and I ignore them easy enough (mostly). So while I'm not a gazillionaire, it makes me wonder if those with deeper pockets get any personal attention or if it's all showered on the same old givers.
 
buffaholic said:
I don't think it sounds like that, and in fact, it's false.

I do think our fundraising dept spends way too much time targeting those who've given in the past and not enough time in targeting those who should be giving. There's a lot of successful CU grads to target, not to mention just people who moved here and like to support the local school (myself). Nobody has asked me for anything except the donation with my tickets. Never once have I had a personal call. I get them all the time from my alma-maters and I ignore them easy enough (mostly). So while I'm not a gazillionaire, it makes me wonder if those with deeper pockets get any personal attention or if it's all showered on the same old givers.
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My parents are both CU grads and they get a phone call at least once a month about donating to athletics specifically, not just the university as a whole. Just for what it is worth.
 
Read the article and was disappointed in the progress. I thin RG is moving the right direction but he is fighting some history in his quest. Did you see the numbers of million plus donations and the record amount raised in one year? I knew our fundraising was bad, but this shows just how bad it has been. He needs to rebuild the foundation side of the house quickly to change strategies, tactics and thinking or we will never get where we want to be.
 
buffaholic said:
I don't think it sounds like that, and in fact, it's false.

I do think our fundraising dept spends way too much time targeting those who've given in the past and not enough time in targeting those who should be giving. There's a lot of successful CU grads to target, not to mention just people who moved here and like to support the local school (myself). Nobody has asked me for anything except the donation with my tickets. Never once have I had a personal call. I get them all the time from my alma-maters and I ignore them easy enough (mostly). So while I'm not a gazillionaire, it makes me wonder if those with deeper pockets get any personal attention or if it's all showered on the same old givers.
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I got a general donation call a few months ago. I said I only donate to the AD. So she took my donation and applied it to the excellence fund.
 
I wasn't all that serious about RG and BB being our biggest donors. Just drawing attention to the fact that the only positive mention of donations was related to them and other high level officials.

As far as if, we've been hearing about some rather ambitious plans since the Barnett days. The plan now seems to be to scratch the piecemeal plan and go for it all at once. I'm for that, but that requires that $50 million in hand before anything gets started. I'm confident that the IPF and Dal Ward renovations will be done, however, I'm not holding my breath that either will be done soon.

On the positive note, Tulane managed to get $50 million in donations for their stadium in a relatively short period of time and when they were doing very poorly on the field. A bulk of it came in multi-million dollar donations from three people. One from Tom Benson, owner of the Saints, but not a Tulane grad. Second from the owner of Certa who gets his namesake on the stadium (Yulman stadium). Again he's not a Tulane grad, but his daughter went there. Lastly, Avi Glazer, the owner of the Bucs and Manchester U (heir apparent), donated a hefty chunk of change. His connection was his wife. So maybe we should start tapping into rich parents and spouses.

To me, this isn't going to be a grassroots thing, we need some major donations and hopefully in the not so distant future.
 
It certainly sounds like RG is committed, but I think he also needs to try retapping the alumni base's that reside in California, NY, etc. He could use the problems the flood created to play to doners emotions.
 
I actually prefer the piecemeal approach. Doing it "all at once" gives the impression that this is one, singular effort. It's not. Go build what you can, and continue raising funds for the next project at the same time. This isn't a one and done effort.
 
I have to agree with those who said there isn't enough reaching out. I made my first donation to the athletic dept last year (just $50 if I remember correctly). I received a personal note in the mail, I then emailed that individual about upping my donation to become a Buff Club member. Never heard anything back. I then called the athletic dept at the end of the year so I could up my donation before the end of the year. My donation was accepted, but in a condescending manner I was essentially told "you know you're going to have to continue to donate every year to keep your membership." WTF...I've lived out of state since I graduated, and before the football team completely fell apart, I was strongly considering buying season tickets even though I probably wouldn't make more than 2 games per year. I'm open to making small contributions, but I've never received a single call from the athletic dept, only from the college of Arts and Sciences.
 
buffaholic said:
I don't think it sounds like that, and in fact, it's false.

I do think our fundraising dept spends way too much time targeting those who've given in the past and not enough time in targeting those who should be giving. There's a lot of successful CU grads to target, not to mention just people who moved here and like to support the local school (myself). Nobody has asked me for anything except the donation with my tickets. Never once have I had a personal call. I get them all the time from my alma-maters and I ignore them easy enough (mostly). So while I'm not a gazillionaire, it makes me wonder if those with deeper pockets get any personal attention or if it's all showered on the same old givers.
Click to expand...

What's your solution? First, when it comes to CU grads, I know there is and has been a strong fundraising effort to get in touch with CU grads. Unfortunately, MANY grads do not have updated contact information in the alumni database, so it's difficult to not just contact them but also to just send them some propoganda mail about what is going on around CU. And then...unfortunately CU just does not have the sense of pride in its school like many other schools - ala Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina, etc. I unfortunately can say that I'm the only donor out of all my CU friends that I still keep in touch with. Also, how are fundraisers supposed to know who has "deeper pockets" and who doesn't...

If you're talking about people that have no affiliaion with CU outside of proximity, then I'm not sure how to handle that either. Should CU send everyone a mass giving form or pamphlets? Should CU be cold calling people just because they live in Longmont? I'd think you agree with me that those two approaches are bad ideas. I imagine Benson and George do contact the wealthy in the area - I say this based on gifts by Anschutz and others. I will say that CU could do more in the community to raise CU awareness and sentiment locally, but this may or may not lead to donations, especially the ones we're hoping for.

If you give, great. Hopefully you remain blessed enough to continue to do so. I think the answer to getting more people to give lays with the current donors in addition to the continual push by the current CU administrators/staff. We as donors, even on the small scale as I am, need to be willing to approach friends about giving back to a school that has helped us succeed. Sure, many/most people seem to be a little egocentric and think they did all the work, and while there's some validity to this, I think the concept of giving back needs to be spread. We can't wait for the CU staff to contact us or our friends - be proactive and just give and encourage others.
 
sackman said:
I actually prefer the piecemeal approach. Doing it "all at once" gives the impression that this is one, singular effort. It's not. Go build what you can, and continue raising funds for the next project at the same time. This isn't a one and done effort.
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In agreement with you on this. There is so much work that needs to be done, it can't be done all at once. Especially with the recent article saying the facilities need to start over. IMO our facilities aren't quite that bad.
 
BuffUp said:
In agreement with you on this. There is so much work that needs to be done, it can't be done all at once. Especially with the recent article saying the facilities need to start over. IMO our facilities aren't quite that bad.
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They may actually be that bad though. Balch field house is not good. at all. Dal Ward sounds like it was damaged extensively during the flood. Folsom is in poor repair. The practice fields are the only thing I feel good about right now. We need an investment. Soon.
 
When Embree was fired, I went to the cubuffs.com to donate $100. Not much of course, but I wanted them to know we (the fanbase) were paying attention.

Anyway, the site wouldn't let me donate. I remember thinking that the organization was doomed. The AD relies on donations. But there is no way to donate. What could possibly go wrong?
 
Had an argument with a SC friend last year who insisted we simply don't deserve nice things. We blame our administration - he blamed our fans. Got a text from him a couple weeks ago - less than 40,000 for a conference game? Yeah, I can't argue much with him anymore. We'll get the first building built soon - but with the debt the CU AD continues to run it only makes it more difficult. Consider we added another 6+ million in revenue this fiscal year and are still coming up with over 5 million deficit. Sad. Can only hope George figures it out.
 
Just heard some encouraging whispers at the burrito stand. It's possible that George was sandbagging in that article.
 
Stanford, one of the worst attended, worst supported football teams in the nation, just built a new practice facility. We have to find a way to get it done.
 
Buffnik said:
Just heard some encouraging whispers at the burrito stand. It's possible that George was sandbagging in that article.
Click to expand...

Can't even begin to tell you how confusing Ringo's article was from what I heard earlier in the week. Guess we'll see. At this point, I don't trust anything any longer.
 
Buffellow85 said:
Petro dollars. RG needs to listen to Skiddy
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I think I just built a new facility for TCU. We just completely a bunch of oil wells in South Texas on scrub land that was willed to TCU decades ago. I think TCU had even forgotten they owned it. Anyway, they're making $50,000 a day on the oil revenue.:bang:
 
KDBuff said:
I have to agree with those who said there isn't enough reaching out. I made my first donation to the athletic dept last year (just $50 if I remember correctly). I received a personal note in the mail, I then emailed that individual about upping my donation to become a Buff Club member. Never heard anything back. I then called the athletic dept at the end of the year so I could up my donation before the end of the year. My donation was accepted, but in a condescending manner I was essentially told "you know you're going to have to continue to donate every year to keep your membership." WTF...I've lived out of state since I graduated, and before the football team completely fell apart, I was strongly considering buying season tickets even though I probably wouldn't make more than 2 games per year. I'm open to making small contributions, but I've never received a single call from the athletic dept, only from the college of Arts and Sciences.
Click to expand...
In pains me to read this, mostly because I am in the same boat. As a recent grad I have not been engaged AT ALL by anyone trying to solicit a donation, for anything. I have donated a few times already since graduating and have never received more than an emailed receipt. I hope the athletic department does more in the future to make alumni feel like their donations are part of a concerted effort to raise the profile and reputation of their Alma mater.
 
I have heard on this site at least once, that all the alumni contact information is kept within the alumni association. They do not share with the athletic department which makes it very difficult for them to organize any sort of donor out reach.
 
Shldr2Shldr said:
I have heard on this site at least once, that all the alumni contact information is kept within the alumni association. They do not share with the athletic department which makes it very difficult for them to organize any sort of donor out reach.
Click to expand...

Believe that is no longer the case with the restructuring of the CU Foundation.
 
Orr said:
When Embree was fired, I went to the cubuffs.com to donate $100. Not much of course, but I wanted them to know we (the fanbase) were paying attention.

Anyway, the site wouldn't let me donate. I remember thinking that the organization was doomed. The AD relies on donations. But there is no way to donate. What could possibly go wrong?
Click to expand...
I made the same decision. But I called the Buff Club directly and they happily took my money (and I happily told them exactly WHY I was making the donation). However, I agree that they need to make it much easier to donate, at whatever level you are interested in donating.
 
Sounds very close to the CSU fans claims that hte stadium capital raise is done.

Buffnik said:
Just heard some encouraging whispers at the burrito stand. It's possible that George was sandbagging in that article.
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I'll believe it when it happens. I was very surprised to see the current budget is $5 mil upside down. I know they are still paying off two prior staffs, but I thought the PAC 12 TV money covered this. CU is now getting a full share, right?

The money it takes to run division I sports is crazy.
 
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