As you take a look at the current landscape of college athletics there is one common thread between all of the top programs. Money. From multi million dollar practice facilities, state of the art rehabilitation centers, study halls and a team nutritionist, all must haves for today’s major programs. But these amenities cost money and lots of it, and despite popular belief major athletic departments don’t have money growing on trees. They too have to go out and find funding for projects.
As a means of raising the money that has become a necessity many universities have turned to athletic foundations or clubs to raise this money. These foundations or clubs vary from university to university with some being part of the athletic department while others operate as separate entities. In order to gain an insight as to how these organizations function and to further define their role, College AD recently had a chance to talk the Tiger Athletic Foundation’s Vice President of Development Ben Broussard. Ben was able to walk us through the history of the TAF, how the foundation is set up and what exactly it is that they do for LSU.
College AD: One of the main things that makes the Tiger Athletic Foundation unique is that it’s a 501(c)(3) organization. Can you explain what having 501(c)(3) status means?
Ben Broussard: Having 501(c)(3) status from the IRS means the Tiger Athletic Foundation is a tax-exempt charitable organization. While all of the money we raise is for LSU and Tiger student-athletes because the TAF is separate from the university, the TAF is private charitable organization.
CAD: But the 501(c)(3)makes you your own organization, correct?
BB: Correct, so we’re not inside the Athletic Department. But we work hand-in-hand with them.
CAD: Are there any other universities that you know of that are set up exactly like the Tiger Athletic Foundation?
BB: There probably are, but I don’t know anybody that’s set up exactly like the TAF.
CAD: How are the dollars that the TAF raises used?
BB: So the first major athletic fundraising campaign the Tiger Athletic Foundation took on was what is now the Cox Communication Academic Center for Student Athletes. And the success of that was two or three-fold. First thing it did was it showed our student athletes that we had a commitment to getting their education. And that if you come to LSU, in addition to having a really good shot to play professional football, or basketball, or baseball, you’re also going to get a degree. That commitment to education was also important to the parents of our potential student athletes. But then secondly, what it also showed our donors is that, “Hey, listen, if it’s the right project, we can absolutely get major dollars raised to get something done.” And the Cox Communications Center was the first project that really showed that.
CAD: Besides facilities, what else does the Tiger Athletic Foundation raise money for?
BB: We have what we call a Foundation of Champions. And that is all of the dollars that we raise that go towards student athlete scholarships. And so we’ve been raising scholarship dollars in conjunction with our capital dollars for buildings for the last 10 years or so.
New LSU Basketball practice facilities (via TAF)
CAD: Are these scholarships for all student-athletes?
BB: Yes, all student athletes.
CAD: But it helps subsidize sports like baseball and just the 11.7 scholarships that are available?
BB: Absolutely. So the way that that works is the earnings off of our scholarship endowment goes to offset the total scholarship bill. When I go to a donor and say, “Can you help send our student athletes to school?” They know that their money is going to go into an endowment that’s going to forever affect student athletes for years and years to come. So absolutely.
CAD: The TAF is a pretty big organization. As far as fundraising goes, is it one of the larger ones in the country?
BB: Yes, so the thing about fundraising organization, it’s hard to measure who’s larger. Because as an example, Ohio State probably has twice the alumni that we have. And so just by nature, you need more people to cover the alumni base. But I’ll say this, from a standpoint of staff size and budgets, and success, Tiger Athletic Foundation certainly holds its own with anybody.
CAD: As far as fundraising dollars, where does the Tiger Athletic Foundation stand compared to other organizations?
BB: Well, as far as fundraising dollars goes, there’s years where Tiger Athletic Foundation is way up there at the top. Nobody ever publishes a document where you can truly compare apples to apples. And so you really don’t know. But again doing what I do, and knowing who I know, there’s certainly schools out there that raise more money. But there’s not too many.
CAD: Another thing the Tiger Athletic Foundation does is, you guys kind of act like as some sort of alumni or booster club, putting together trips for fans. Can you tell me a little about that? Because I found that to be unique.
BB: Well it is. And so most of the credit for that goes to the LSU Alumni Association. What we did was we partnered with the Alumni Association to offer trips to our donors. And so as a result of it, the Alumni Association meets a bunch of new people. Gets a bunch of alumni involved. And the Tiger Athletic Foundation donors had the opportunity to go and support their team. And so it’s hand-in-hand with our Alumni Association that we were able to put on those trips. As an example, right now the Alumni Association has six planes currently booked for the Wisconsin trip next year to go to Green Bay.
CAD: It sounds like there are a bunch of things that make this TAF unique and the uniqueness has definitely benefited LSU.
BB: It has. And I’ll tell you, if you really want to get down to it on what makes TAF unique, and this is important, it’s that the fans in the state of Louisiana are genuinely some of the best you’ll ever see. There’s no more passionate fans than you have in the state of Louisiana. And let’s not forget about our neighboring state, we’ve got great fans in Texas as well that truly support their Tigers. I mean they’re absolutely passionate about the state of Louisiana and about LSU. And so if not for our fans’ commitment to LSU we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.
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