Northwestern University Athletics
Murphy's Mark: Fund-raising Effort Underway
2/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
Feb. 15, 2006
Athletics Initiative
Last fall, we established an important fund-raising effort -- the Athletics Initiative -- to stabilize the financial future of our athletic program. The goal of the Initiative is to raise $12 to 15 million in support of our athletic program.
Having been in my position now for almost three years, I feel that I have a good sense of the major issues facing our athletic department. Without question, the biggest challenge facing our department is that we do not have the financial resources of the other schools in the Big Ten (or the other schools we compete against athletically). While the Big Ten has an equitable revenue sharing plan (which definitely helps us), we still generate much less than the other schools in the conference through ticket revenue and annual fundraising. As a result, it is difficult for us to keep up with our competition in terms of operating budgets, salaries and staffing.
The focus of the Athletics Initiative is to raise endowment monies in support of our program. We presently have the smallest athletic endowment in the Big Ten. Our athletic endowment is $11.6 million (roughly half the median endowment among Big Ten institutions), while Illinois tops the Big Ten with an endowment of $46 million. Our priority is to raise endowment in support of scholarships. Scholarships represent our largest cost -- roughly a third of our budget is set aside for scholarships. A donor can endow a named, unrestricted athletic scholarship fund for a minimum donation of $50,000. We are also hoping to endow coaching positions. These endowments would work similarly to endowed chairs in academic departments. An endowed position is the highest honor the University can bestow upon a coach, and directly underwrites his or her salary and related expenses.
As part of the Initiative, we also hope to increase the amount of money that we raise on an annual basis in support of our athletics program. Our priority in this regard is the Wildcat Fund. If we can increase the amount that we raise annually through the Wildcat Fund, this will be a tremendous help to our program. The Initiative also includes a facilities component. We plan to build new locker rooms for our men's and women's basketball teams (in the field house in Welsh-Ryan), as well as officials' locker rooms and a women's coaches' locker room. These new locker rooms will obviously help our basketball programs, and the two additional locker rooms will give us two visiting team locker rooms in Welsh-Ryan Arena and allow us to more effectively host tournaments and games.
Despite these financial challenges, our teams have enjoyed great success over the past decade. A big reason for this success has been the leadership of President Henry Bienen. Last year, more than half of our teams qualified for postseason play, and we had our best finish ever in the Directors' Cup. Henry has been a tremendous proponent of striving for excellence in athletics, and takes great pride in the academic and athletic achievements of our student-athletes. Henry and the current administration see athletics as an investment that provides great benefits to the University. As we look to the future, though, we cannot assume that we will always have this kind of support. This is why the Athletics Initiative is so important. The Initiative will reduce the cost of our athletic program to the University and help stabilize the long-term financial future of our athletic program.
I encourage all of our donors and fans to help us in this effort. If you would like more information regarding the Initiative or about giving to athletics, please contact Shon Morris at (847) 467-1268 or s-morris@northwestern.edu.
