By Virginia law, William & Mary Athletics must be financially self-sufficient. Each year, Athletics must balance its budget and avoid incurring a deficit. For the past several years, in order to be in compliance, Athletics has had to use Tribe Club reserves to stay in the black. No sport at William & Mary generates enough revenue to be self-supporting. As shown in the “Financial Deficits” table below, as of October 2020 we were projecting substantial deficits for Fiscal Year 21 and subsequent years.
Our goal for FY21 was to raise $4 million in expendable funds, with $2.8 million in hand no later than March 1 to avoid painful personnel decisions to balance this year’s budget. With an unprecedented response from our donors, we achieved the $2.8 million goal six weeks early, and we surpassed the $4 million mark in early April.
While we plan for our financial future, we have not neglected our fiduciary obligation to reduce current costs and expenses. The pandemic allowed for one-time savings through a reduced number of competitions and abbreviated seasons. With belt-tightening, redeployment of some athletics department staff to other university departments and reorganizing team travel, we pared nearly $4 million from this year’s Athletics budget.
Our fundraising success combined with strict adherence to cost-saving measures will allow us to refresh, though certainly not replenish, our depleted reserves in FY21 and provide our next AD with a bit of a buffer from more severe austerity measures in FY22.
In our review of Athletics’ finances, we identified $7,500 per student-athlete as a common level of investment for each individual across all programs. This per student-athlete metric provides an equitable way to establish program goals relative to the size of its alumni, family and friends. Though a stretch goal for some programs with more modest fundraising histories, the shared level of expectation provides the programs with greater self-sufficiency while demonstrating their capacity to build a committed community of support. We established sport-specific fundraising goals for FY21, which is a key to enhancing understanding about the financial resources necessary to achieve sustainability across all sports.
Fundraising
Annual giving is a crucial component of the financial health of W&M Athletics. As indicated above, the support across sports is important to compare, as annual giving is often sport specific. About 31% of the department’s revenue comes from private funds (annual giving and endowments), 15% from operating revenue and the remaining 54% from institutional support. By law, institutional support cannot be increased without a 1:1 match in operating revenue and donations.
We launched the All In campaign for W&M Athletics on March 24. When we reach the $55 million goal, we will have raised critical funds to stabilize our budgets and secure a more sustainable future. With more than $18 million already raised, we are optimistic that in three years or less we will reach our goal.
Two other fundraising events also infused needed dollars into the Athletics budget. The Lord Botetourt Auction raised $340,000 on March 12, the second-highest total in 32 years. On April 13, One Tribe One Day, our annual day of giving, Athletics raised a record $545,843 in cash and pledges from 2,367 donors.
Audit
The recently concluded audit affirmed business processes consistent with university practices and use of endowed funds with the stated intentions of donors. As expected of any audit, helpful recommendations were made to increase efficiency and refine processes. W&M Athletics was already moving on several of these improvements during FY21.
The audit was requested by the W&M administration at a time of transition within the Athletics Department, as is customary during leadership changes. The audit began in the fall of 2020 and was conducted by the university’s Internal Audit Department.
The final audit report provides suggestions to streamline accounting and reporting, and ways for Athletics to integrate more fully its financial transactions with university operations.
One recommendation is for more shared responsibility between Athletics and the Tribe Club to ensure full compliance with donor intent as the Tribe Club moves completely under the umbrella of the William & Mary Foundation in the next two years.
The audit did not evaluate NCAA and Title IX compliance.
