June 4, 2010

Penn State’s Nittany Lion Club

The Nittany Lion Club, comprised of Penn State alumni and friends of the department of intercollegiate athletics, was established in 1959 to create greater interest in and financial support of Penn State varsity athletics. Members of the Nittany Lion Club make possible grant-in-aid support for student-athletes among 29 varsity programs and provide operational support for the university’s entire intercollegiate athletics program. The 22,000+ members that comprise this group help to support the entire intercollegiate program with an average of $25 million annually in funding.

COMPREHENSIVE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students is a comprehensive university-wide capital campaign focusing on initiatives to enable Penn State to realize its full potential as an institution, to create prosperity, to keep us nationally competitive, and to enhance the quality of life for our students.

Intercollegiate athletics, under the umbrella of the Nittany Lion Club, is charged with a campaign goal of $225 million. To date, campaign totals have eclipsed the $112 million mark and progress is on track to achieve this lofty target.

Athletics is focusing on four distinct areas of support:

Scholarships: Ensuring Student Opportunity - $140 Million

Penn State is committed to offering the full number of scholarships (328) authorized by the NCAA. Intercollegiate athletics currently funds more than $10 million annually for student-athlete scholarships in 29 varsity sports. In such a climate, establishing endowed scholarships is one of our highest priorities.

Annual giving comprises a major component of this goal, but the establishment of endowments through the Forever Blue & White program, reduces the impact of fluctuations in the department’s annual operating budget and provides intercollegiate athletics with the resources and the flexibility to invest strategically in areas of particular need or opportunity.

Coaching Endowments: Building Strength & Capacity - $10 Million

Coaches are among the most valuable members of any athletics program. Nowhere is this truer than at Penn State, where success is measured by more than just win-loss records. Endowments to name and support coaching positions provide well-deserved recognition to these men and women, as well as generate revenue that provides greater flexibility across the entire athletics program. Expenditures are intended as enhancement funds to address timely and often unexpected needs of the program. Such flexible resources will ensure that our coaches always have a source of discretionary funds to respond quickly to the program’s most urgent need.

Facilities: Sustaining a Tradition of Quality - $70 Million

Athletics facilities are a home away from home for student-athletes. Top-notch facilities that rival those at other Big Ten and nationally competitive programs demonstrate to students and families that Penn State is committed to providing the very best for our participants.

Penn State’s football, baseball, basketball, wrestling and indoor track facilities are among the nation’s finest. We are on the verge of national success with many other teams. At this point, however, too many of our other teams are dealing with aging structures and technology.

As part of the campaign, we will secure funding by offering attractive naming opportunities for four primary projects:

    Natatorium Renovation and Expansion
    Soccer Facility
    Indoor Tennis Complex
    Softball Stadium

Intercollegiate athletics is also offering naming opportunities for our recently renovated men’s and women’s basketball office suites and the Lasch Football Building. In this day and age of sports, the ability to provide first-class facilities enables Penn State to continue to recruit the nation’s top student-athletes and compete on a national scale year after year.

Program Endowments: Enriching the Student Experience - $5M

The university would not be able to field 29 varsity teams and support more than 800 student-athletes without excellent sports medicine and academic support programs. Health care and academic counseling opportunities are playing an increasingly important role in recruits’ decision-making process. However, the rising costs of maintaining exceptional health care for student-athletes present a significant obstacle to Penn State’s commitment to maintaining the winning tradition and diverse character of our athletics programs.

At Penn State, the phrase “student-athlete” is taken seriously—the “student” comes first. Given their demanding practice schedules, frequent travel and pressure to perform, our student-athletes’ lifestyles can make it difficult for them to focus on studies.

The long-term benefits of endowments are clear: past donors to the Morgan Center have used their generosity for the Morgan Center Director’s Position, the Nagle C.H.A.M.P.S. Life Skills Program, the Sue Paterno Mentoring Program, the Jaffe Senior Seminar and the Penn State Alumni Association First-Year Enrichment Program, and all of these programs continue to provide great benefits to our student-athletes.

SEAT TRANSFER AND EQUITY PROGRAM

Above and beyond the four monetary goals set forth in the campaign, the Nittany Lion Club (NLC) has also embarked on seat equity and transfer program (STEP) within the football stadium. Starting in 2011, seating will be based on a per-seat donation as well as including changes involving reserved parking allocations and ticket account maximums. The first step in the program is the introduction of a limited time transfer of seats to family and friends. This is the first of its kind for Penn Staters and helps to reward the loyalty of our donors with the opportunity to place tickets in a new account. The massive student section (21,000 seats) will also see a shift in location, in order to open up premium seats along the sidelines. Penn State projects increased revenues of $3-5 million annually through the STEP initiative.

VARSITY ‘S’ – Preserving the Tradition

Varsity ‘S’ seeks to provide former student-athletes the opportunity to foster and maintain relationships across different sports, generations and geographical locations. Re-organized under the Nittany Lion Club in 2006, intercollegiate athletics has committed a full-time staff member to coordinating this initiative. As part of the campaign, Varsity ‘S’ has formed a committee comprised of an alumni representative from each sport, six team captains to coordinate each sporting season for both men and women and a committee chair to oversee the volunteer efforts. Varsity ‘S’ has set a goal of 30% participation of former student-athletes in the NLC during the campaign. Alumni are provided the opportunity of giving directly to their sport and enabling the coaching staffs to have discretionary, budget-enhancing funds. To date, participation is at 15%, up from 10% at the start of the initiative.

The Nittany Lion Club, as outlined in this article, is engaged on many fronts in providing intercollegiate athletics with the resources to be successful both on the field and in the classroom. Through private support and unique programming, we hope to fulfill Penn State’s mission of Success With Honor.

About RJ Gimbl: RJ Gimbl was named director of major gifts for Penn State intercollegiate athletics in January 2008. His focus is primarily on the identification and cultivation of donors at the $50,000 level and above, with regional responsibilities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, New York City and the Southeastern United States.

Previously, Gimbl served as Marshall's associate athletics director and executive director of the Big Green Scholarship Foundation. He oversaw all areas of development for Marshall University intercollegiate athletics. At Marshall, Gimbl directed the re-organization of the annual giving program, instituted and branded a coaches tour, and re-created the game-day experience at Joan C. Edwards Stadium for premium seat holders.

Before his arrival at Marshall, Gimbl served as the assistant director of development at West Virginia University (WVU) since March 2004. During his tenure at WVU, Gimbl oversaw the annual giving and ticket priority program, helped to manage more than 5,500 donors, and assisted in the cultivation and solicitation of prospective donors for the Mountaineer Athletics Club. He also was involved with the Mountaineer Athletics Club's annual Coaches Caravan, the WVU 1100 Club and helped coordinate the WVU Varsity Club for former student-athletes.

A native of Holbrook, N.Y, Gimbl, graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science and Psychology from Rutgers University in 2000. He earned a Master's in Business Administration from West Virginia in 2002. Gimbl and his wife, Sarah, are the proud owners of Chip, a Chocolate Labrador.