The University of Tennessee is changing its rules on donations that result in the donor being...

The University of Tennessee is changing its rules on donations that result in the donor being eligible for athletic tickets, and it could shake up the way people donate to UT.

Donations made to specific academic departments will no longer make the donor eligible to purchase season tickets; all donations for tickets will have to go into a fund under athletic department control.

WBIR.com | Knoxville, TN | UT changes ticket policy for donors
Hmm. Anyone care to venture a guess at the impact of this change? (HT: raynoch46)

over 2 years ago Joel Hollingsworth 3 comments 0 recs |

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Without knowing any details, this makes more sense.

The Ath. Dep. has to account for all of its sports in one lump sum at the end of the year anyhow, so it only makes sense to ensure that the money is available for distribution as needed.

The obvious dangers are that football season ticket purchasers will now be subsidizing non-profiting sports and that the Ath. Dep. can spend more money on the fringe sports by using money that is normally not available (and subsequently raising donation demands to make up the difference). So we’ll have to see how they handle that over the next few years. But logistically, this does make more sense.

by David Hooper on Jul 1, 2009 4:09 PM EDT reply actions

Good points Hooper

UT is one of the few (perhaps only?) major universities which allows non-athletic contributors to receive athletic benefits.

This impacts about 2,800 current donors and around 4,000 season ticket holders. The discrepancy in numbers correlates to grandfathering of some lifetime donors. All totalled, the 2,800 donors in FY07 contributed $3M to non-athletic programs.

The campus development office has indicated its support of this plan, but my guess is that those – like me – in that 2,800 group will face the dilemma of giving to athletics instead of academics.

by raynoch46 on Jul 1, 2009 4:42 PM EDT up reply actions

This is stupid but can be fixed

The present design kills designated giving to a particular program. The money will now go to all academic programs with the administrators sending where they want.

Donors who have an emotional commitment (say to the medical school) don’t want their gift to go to an amorphous fund run by administrators who likely won’t have the same priorities. That’s going to be a deal killer for a lot of donors.

Do the fund, but keep track of donors intentions. Give the unrestricted/undesignated funds out based on the administrators’ allocations.

Take away the emotional connection and UT loses. People will revert to hanging onto their money & scalping tickets. Or, they’ll give the minimum – just to get the tickets.

by memphispete on Jul 1, 2009 6:04 PM EDT reply actions