Please join us Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. as we take the next step forward for W&M Athletics. We hope to see you then.
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In recent updates, I've shared more on
the gender equity review underway and
departmental finances. This week, I'd like to focus on sport-specific finances and fundraising.
As I've noted, all of our sport programs need actively to build community for William & Mary. There are at least two ways to accomplish this:
- By generating broad interest and providing the opportunity for our community to come together to celebrate and take pride in William & Mary.
- By creating a stalwart community of alumni and friends committed to providing for the program's financial sustainability.
The graph below shows FY2019 team-specific income as a percentage of that team's operating expenses. FY2019 was the last year of "normal" operations before the pandemic. Team income includes philanthropy (annual contributions and endowment income), game revenue (ticket sales, guarantees, concessions, etc.) and NCAA distributions among other sources of revenue. For all W&M Athletics teams, including football and men's basketball, philanthropy accounts for the majority of income.
Operating expenses include scholarships, coaching salaries, team travel, equipment and uniforms as well as some other expenditures. Not included are costs associated with sports medicine, strength and conditioning, academic support and other administrative services provided centrally.
For some time, Men's Gymnastics has been W&M Athletics' most financially self-sufficient program, having recognized that its viability depended on the generosity of alumni and friends. As we now know, and President Rowe stated last week, "Every sports program annually depends upon generous support from alumni and friends in order to thrive."
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Back in October, we established a common fundraising goal for every program based on a per student-athlete metric, which scaled the goal to the size of the alumni, family and friends of each program. As of March 19, six programs have reached their FY2021 annual giving goal: Swimming, Men's Tennis, Volleyball, Track & Field and Women's Gymnastics. Men's Basketball is 99.7% of the way to its goal, and Men's Gymnastics has existing expendable reserves in excess of its goal, allowing it to pursue some endowment giving.
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Combining our teams' fundraising and giving to the Athletics Impact Fund, which benefits the entire department, we are now 96% of the way to W&M Athletics' FY2021 goal of $4M by June 30. The generosity of our community has been remarkable. We depend upon it each and every year.
During these past few months, we've taken a closer look at the challenges facing W&M Athletics. We know the stakes, and understand that we have to be all in as a community to sustain a consistent level of private funding for the athletics program to thrive.
I hope you'll join us Wednesday evening as we take the next step forward together as a Tribe for W&M Athletics.
All the best,
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Jeremy
