Recruiting and Fundraising: What a Similar World

In the sports world, the coaches who usually are the best recruiters are the ones who are going to be most successful at their jobs.  In the world of college athletics recruiting it's vitally important for coaches to target players that they feel give their team the best shot to win.  The coach must convince the player to come to his or her school.  The schools  that usually win the “recruiting wars” are the ones that are usually who win the most on the field as well.

The same can be said for sports fundraising.  Recruiting and fundraising could not be any more different when looking at a distance, but if we look deeper we can see that the schools that also raise the most funds for their athletic departments are also the ones that usually win more, and in a sense of irony are the best at recruiting.  It’s a weird double-edged sword.  For a team to be able to raise funds well they have to recruit well in order to win, and for a team to recruit well they have to have funds to improve their facilities and make their school more attractive to recruits.  Therefore, the art of fundraising and recruiting are both strikingly similar.

  

To be successful at both you must be able to effectively identify potential recruits and donors.  Yes, any person in the world can be a recruit or a donor, but the job of the school is to decide who to target for each that gives them the best shot at succeeding.  Schools will look at recruits who have relationships with the school, either by geographical area or perhaps they’ve shown interest in the school.  The same can be said about donors, because the school will look for relationships or ties between the donor and school as well.  Also, schools look for recruits who will have the ability to play at their particular level, and they also look for donors who have the money to give to charitable contributions.  Almost every athlete and fan of a school would like to be a player or donor, but it’s up to the school to narrow that list down and target the appropriate people.

After potential recruits and donors have been targeted, next the school must seek to communicate with those parties.  Communication could begin with mailings, and then if there is an interest level they could advance to contact by phone, visits to school and attendance at sporting events.  The goal is to develop a connection with the recruit and donor and convince them that their school needs them and wants them.  Coaches and athletic directors will sometimes look to build these connections by associating with acquaintances of the recruit or donor in order to strengthen those ties. Finally, it is up to the coach or athletic director to get the recruit or donor to sign on the dotted line and agree to play or donate to their school.  They have to differentiate themselves between other schools and show the person how they will help the school.  Once the agreement is made it is up to the coach or athletic director to make sure the relationship continues and try to advance the relationship further.

Saban on the field

Saban raising funds for his charity

Whenever I think of recruiting and fundraising I feel like Nick Saban, the football coach of the University of Alabama has become a master at both of these concepts.  According to rivals.com, since 2008 Saban has had the top ranked recruiting class three out of those four years.  In 2010, they “slipped” to number five.  Therefore, his team is able to compete at the highest level every single year regardless of the player losses they incur from graduation or defection to the NFL.  In fundraising, Saban is also a master at encouraging donors to give as much as they can.  Let’s be honest, although Saban is not the head of the athletic department he is very much the public face of University of Alabama athletics.  In the off-season he routinely travels the region holding dinners, fundraising events, meet and greets, conferences, etc in order to raise money for his school and charitable organizations.  He signs autographs and books so that he can connect with people, in order to make it more likely they will donate to the school. A Forbes.com article estimated that in 2008 Alabam's football program had $54 million in revenue and $32 million of that was profit. That money then helps to finance the entire athletic department. He shows coaches and athletic directors how dependent the success of one is on the other. 

For an interesting article about the similarities between recruiting and fundraising please visit http://tiffinonline.org/pub/content/ac21c4ad-24dd-43e5-8da1-d428a0c72c5a/Recruiting_and_Fundraising.pdf?eclg_res=1156538&eclg_resver=2150639