Jan. 7, 2010

Scott Koskoski, associate athletics director for development, Temple University tells NAADD how the Owls reinvented their annual fund to adapt to changing times, environment.

NECESSARY? YES. DIFFICULT? YES. PRODUCTIVE? YES.

Like all athletics programs today, Temple University must put a greater emphasis on generating private resources to supplement state dollars allocated to our institution. Our goal, as with all universities, is to become a stronger athletics program by cultivating relationships with donors, alumni and community members interested in supporting our vision.

Since 1984, the Owl Club has served as the official fundraising arm of Temple athletics. The Owl Club operates from the athletics development unit of the university and invites donors to support the needs of more than 550 student-athletes across 24 sport programs via an annual gift. However, upon my arrival in late November 2008, it was evident that the structure put into place in 1984 largely existed still. Rampant turnover in my position (11 Associate ADs in 24 years) probably contributed to a lack of long-term "strategery" (to quote George W. Bush), but a multitude of issues were apparent that, if not addressed, had the potential to significantly weaken our annual fundraising operation. Our structure was great in its day, but this was not its day. A variety of things needed changed, and quickly.

To view full .pdf's of Owl Club, click the above image.

As a new administrator that had been part of great teams at past institutions, I asked that my new staff, donor board, volunteers and others view me as the "independent consultant" that could audit, assess and evaluate our development operation and within 90 days, propose the needed changes to our structure. Certainly, any new development administrator needs to quickly establish trust and form relationships, and the lessons taught in many NAADD conventions over the years were all implemented at Temple.

Through a series of conversations and meetings between Temple athletics, the university and our Owl Club volunteer leadership, where we shared valuable input and insights, we adopted an Athletics Development Business Plan with a “best practices” approach. The endorsement process for these changes included everyone from our head football coach to the university president, and all points in between. We communicated changes to our donor base via a series of mailings and as a staff, became committed to "Premier Service" and patience in responding to their concerns.

At no point in our process did we endeavor to "convince" our constituents of the need for change. Our goal was - and contiunes to be - to make data-driven decisions while separating the emotion from our actions. We relied heavily upon benchmark data, let the statistics tell the story, then presented a rational (to us, anyway) multi-step plan of how to change our fortunes and actually create them.

These "Year 1" changes, described in several documents on this page, included:

• Owl Club benefits will be extended during the same fiscal year (July 1-June 30) a gift is made. In the past, donors gave in Year A in order to access benefits in Year B. The result was a difficulty in controlling benefits expenditures, and no ability to predict revenue and control expenses.

• All Priority Seating gifts made to acquire men’s basketball season tickets will go to the Owl Club Unrestricted Fund. In the past, any gift of any kind to any fund designation qualified for Owl Club member benefits. As a result, we were never able to educate our donors properly on the true purpose of - and need for - an athletics annual fund.

• Xtra Point Club (football) and Fast Break Club (basketball) gifts come with their own unique set of benefits and do not also double-qualify a donor for Owl Club benefits. In the past, a $1,500 annual fund donor could designate $1,000 to basketball (earning Fast Break Club benefits), $500 to football (earning Xtra Point Club benefits) and still receive $1,500 in Owl Club credit. Three sets of benefits on the same gift!

• Owl Club benefits will be extended to donors making cash annual fund gifts (either to Unrestricted Fund or Restricted to a sport), or approved gift-in-kind. Endowment and capital fund gifts, while very valuable to Temple Athletics, will be recognized and rewarded in other ways.

• In 2009-10, the above changes apply only to new donors. Current donors will “transition” into this system in 2009-10 and will not be affected until 2010-11. We felt this was the fairest way to provide proper education of our changes and a full year to adjust to them.

Please re-read the modifications to our annual giving structure outlined above. Those represent a massive "sea change" to our donor base and yet are not inclusive of all the improvements we put into place. To make our operation more effective, we also had to address development staff structure, resulting in both the elimination and creation of position(s). Finally, we gave a complete makeover to our donor board: consolidating two groups into one, re-writing by-laws and even changing the name of the board.

Our vision was for an athletics development operation built of stone, not straw. The house is only half-built to date, but the process has provided our donor base with a new degree of confidence in our athletics program, as measured by a donorship increase of 35% over any point in the prior five years, and a record number of dollars committed to Temple athletics through December 31.

Our job is to invite friends of Temple athletics to develop and sustain a relationship with our program in order to strengthen not only our athletics department, but the university and the student experience for all. Little changes like benefits allocation can make a big difference to those that we ask to participate in the relationship. While we haven't achieved 100% approval by each of our donors, we do know that the changes implemented will result in a stronger long-term program and ultimately, a better relationship.

About Scott Koskoski: Scott Koskoski is in his second year as associate athletics director for development at Temple, where he oversees the university’s comprehensive athletics fundraising effort. Included among Koskoski’s management portfolio is the Temple Owl Club, the department’s official annual fundraising arm; major gifts, endowment and capital campaign management; the department’s Owl Club Executive Board and Ambassador groups; staff and budget direction; and sport liaison administration. Koskoski serves on the Temple athletics senior staff and is the department’s liaison to the university’s Alumni Association and Institutional Advancement areas. He is currently completing the university’s Leadership Academy, a year-long course designed for rising leaders at Temple.

Koskoski’s previous stops include Tennessee-Chattanooga, James Madison, Niagara and Robert Morris. He is a graduate of Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA and resides outside Philadelphia with his wife and one year-old son.