Football success could lead to increase in MU donations
The Mizzou Student Foundation, which reaches out to alumni for donations, saw a 100 percent increase in applications this year.
Published Nov. 2, 2010
In addition to heightening the spirits of dedicated Tiger fans, the football team’s successful season will likely result in increased alumni donations.
“As much as we’d like to see donations be a function of necessity here on campus, the reality is the most important factor in alumni giving is pride in their alma mater,” Mizzou Student Foundation spokesman Zach Wade said.
Wade said the Mizzou Student Foundation is an organization designed to educate the student body on the importance of giving back to MU. He said most students are unaware only about 15 percent of their tuition covers the expense of their education, with the remainder being funded through private donors, and to a lesser extent, taxpayers.
“To instill that feeling of pride and charitable behavior, the best thing to do is get students as connected to the university as possible, in hopes that they will be charitable givers in the future,” Wade said.
Although she said it is extremely difficult to predict whether donations will rise, Director of Development Catey Terry guesses there will be a minimal increase.
“In general, I think there is usually a small up kick after a season like what we’ve had, but nothing huge,” Terry said. “My guess is that there will be increased giving to athletics, but again small, and tickets will likely go faster.”
Donors are divided into several tiers, correlating with the amount they donate. The Jefferson Club denotes MU supporters who have contributed at least $25,000.
Tiger Calling Club supervisor Beverly Smith said though most donators tend to contribute to MU regardless of the team’s season, a successful one never hurts. The Tiger Calling Club is a group of more than 100 students who phone alumni, friends and family throughout the school year about the importance of giving back. In spite of the economy, she said many alumni have put MU in their budget, which she said is admirable.
“Anytime our team is doing well, it seems to put alumni into a much better frame of mind about the school in general,” she said. “They’re all fans of the Tigers.”
Smith said she has not seen specific statistics on how much the group has raised thus far, but she predicts it has been a good year.
Despite Saturday’s loss to Nebraska, he expects the quantity of donations from this group to grow the most because of the Tiger’s overall successful season, specifically Homecoming. He said he expects donations resulting from Homecoming to be high in quantity, but low in quantity.
“I’m not the biggest football fan myself, but I know the consequences of a win,” Wade said. “It was the perfect storm on Homecoming. The stars were aligned. We’re going to see larger numbers of smaller donations, which is great because it might get people into the spirit of continuing to give afterwards, regardless of our football successes in the future.”
Wade said the number of applications received by Friday’s due date for the Mizzou Student Foundation has exactly doubled from last year. Although he couldn’t provide specific numbers because of selection-process secrecy reasons, he cites team’s success as the reason for the 100 percent increase in membership applications.