How to raise $30,000 in two hours.(fundraising for women's athletics)

Financial needs have no limit if we dare to dream big. We often hear that donors are already tapped out, like maple trees with no more sap to give. Cheryl Levick, director of athletics at Saint Louis University MO, sees fundraising for women's athletics as a major part of her job. At the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) meeting in New York City in October 2004, she offered a model to raise new money from an under-tapped source: women.

Before Saint Louis University hired her in June 2004, Levick was senior associate AD and senior women's administrator at Stanford University CA for 12 years and then director of athletics and recreation at Santa Clara University CA for four.

"We all have to fundraise at least as much as we're on campus," she said. Describing how she raised $30,000 with one event at Santa Clara, she challenged NACWAA women to customize her plan to raise at least $25,000.

Under-tapped donors

Typical donors to collegiate athletics fall in four groups: former student-athletes, alumni, fans and members of the business / corporate community.

All four are based on established relationships. Categories often overlap. But most of these donors are male.

Have your business person run the data, she suggested. Of every $10.00 in Santa Clara's Strategic Initiative Fund, $1.42 came from women and $8.58 from men. That suggests a potential fifth donor category that colleges have scarcely begun to tap: women.