Fundraising for the Athletics Department is down $256,303 from where it was this time last year.
The discrepancy was highlighted by Nikki Borges, EMU’s director of Development for Intercollegiate Athletics, in her presentation to the athletics committee at 1 p.m. Tuesday in Welch Hall.
Borges’ presentation showed that as of Jan. 31 of 2011’s fiscal year, there were 932 donors with a total of $577,176. As of Jan. 31 of 2012’s fiscal year, there were only 791 donors for a total of $320,873.
Borges said the discrepancy in total fundraising is due primarily to two large donations the athletics department received early last year.
“There are two large gifts that were represented in this fiscal year ’11 number. One of them was a large, one-time donation that went toward the building of our tennis courts that are currently under construction,” Borges said. “The second is by this time last year, they had received a pledge payment. We are anticipating that we will be receiving that payment here in the coming months. We just haven’t received it yet in this
fiscal year.”
In order to increase fundraising, Borges said the department is looking for corporate foundations to invest in EMU Athletics.
“One of the areas that athletics has not really been able to look into in the past is working with corporate foundations as a way to fund some of our activities and also sort of generate community involvement with what we’re doing in athletics,” Borges said. “I’m hopeful that there will be some money there that can be beneficial not only to our student athletes but to the community as well, with programs that we will be able to put in place.”
Despite the fact numbers are down from last year, Borges was optimistic about the rest of the fiscal year.
“I think we’re rolling in the right direction, and we’ll never stop turning over rocks to find more resources for our student athletes.”
