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My class had a reunion recently. The College assisted us with fundraising, trying to set records for our class in % of alums contributing and the amount of contributions.

Yesterday (today?) we received an email thanking us for our contributions. It also said the school raised $5,700,00 for athletics. Does anyone know what was raised last year?

Is there/could there be a policy that anything raised over the goal can be placed into an endowment for athletic scholarships? We could increase the scholarships every year as long as we exceeded the goal every year.

I have the general impression that all sorts of gifts to the college unless designated otherwise can go into current funding or endowment as the opportunity or need arises. I might be wrong, and a certain amount will be fungible anyway.

When I designate money, say, for the Davidson Trust, it might go into current funding or into the endowment funds that support the Trust. I don't need to micromanage that decision for it to be true to my designation.

I would expect that money I designated for the Mike Maloy scholarship fund went into that endowment, and similarly now for the Will DuBose fund. I would expect the latter to help nudge along the number of scholarships available each year. Obviously no matter how much we give to men's basketball scholarship endowments, the program will still give only 13 scholarships, which means some other money is freed up for some other purpose. In theory, it wouldn't even have to benefit athletics if the athletic budget is adjusted downward.

Since a couple of posters here have worked in related areas at the college, they could likely clarify these issues, as could perhaps a trustee.

I'm six months out of my gig in College Relations, but in short, the college's goals for fundraising are based off of campaign priorities and budget needs. (And let me take a moment to tell you what a truly extraordinary job Davidson does with its annual fund. It's just insane.)

How the college meets those goals, however, changes every year. Sometimes the goal is achieved in part because a generous donor decides that year to fund the Endowment for Specific Thing X. Sometimes it's because we have to finish the Project for Building Y.

So setting up a blanket policy for all over-the-goal sums to be transferred to an endowment wouldn't exactly work.

However, in the good years (anybody remember those?) the college occasionally finished with a budget surplus, and if I'm remembering correctly, sometimes those dollars wound up in the endowment. Before you get too excited, it was never an enormous sum of money--and often, those dollars were used to help get extras that the budget wouldn't ordinarily allow for.

My guess is that a healthy portion of that $5.7mm was for scholarships, either current-use or endowed. The college needs both.

I think the bigger question is whether "the College" raised that amount or if DAF raised that amount.

collegecoach8502 wrote:I think the bigger question is whether "the College" raised that amount or if DAF raised that amount.

What do you mean by that?

I mailed my recent checks mostly to the DAF; some were made out to Davidson College.

I sent my main check to the college with a list of designations, including the Will DuBose Fund.

You can count that as you choose, I guess. From my receipts and letters from Gavin, the school seems to have sorted them out just fine.

And that's just one person, and a very tiny portion of the 5.7. Extrapolate from there, or not.

Clearly, more money is raised for athletics than if there were no DAF, if that's your point. A couple of sport-specific gifts of mine were inspired by the challenge gifts. Murphy had told me this spring that he saw the success of those as a sign of hope for increasing scholarships.

wildcatspride wrote:

collegecoach8502 wrote:I think the bigger question is whether "the College" raised that amount or if DAF raised that amount.

What do you mean by that?

Because the raised money is allocated differently whether it was raised by DAF vs Development

collegecoach8502 wrote:

wildcatspride wrote:

collegecoach8502 wrote:I think the bigger question is whether "the College" raised that amount or if DAF raised that amount.

What do you mean by that?

Because the raised money is allocated differently whether it was raised by DAF vs Development

Hmmm, no that's not correct. DAF is a part of Development.

There was a time years ago when DAF was a separate entity, but that hasn't been the case for a while.

wildcatspride wrote:

collegecoach8502 wrote:

wildcatspride wrote:

collegecoach8502 wrote:I think the bigger question is whether "the College" raised that amount or if DAF raised that amount.

What do you mean by that?

Because the raised money is allocated differently whether it was raised by DAF vs Development

Hmmm, no that's not correct. DAF is a part of Development.

There was a time years ago when DAF was a separate entity, but that hasn't been the case for a while.

I never said they weren't a part of Development

the fundraising arm for athletics was the Wildcat Club. It did operate as a separarte entity until in 1993 when PS Carnegie retired. Under Terry Holland a name change for the WC to become the DAF was initiated. Once the name was changed the DAF worked under supervision of Development. In 2000-2001, the separate entity of DAF was dissolved.

collegecoach8502 wrote:

wildcatspride wrote:

collegecoach8502 wrote:

wildcatspride wrote:

collegecoach8502 wrote:I think the bigger question is whether "the College" raised that amount or if DAF raised that amount.

What do you mean by that?

Because the raised money is allocated differently whether it was raised by DAF vs Development

Hmmm, no that's not correct. DAF is a part of Development.

There was a time years ago when DAF was a separate entity, but that hasn't been the case for a while.

I never said they weren't a part of Development

Well then I'm confused. If you are saying that money is allocated differently depending on if it is raised by DAF or Development, but you are also agreeing that DAF IS Development, I don't understand what you are saying.

I think it goes like this:

Not all Development is DAF.

All DAF is Development.



If the DAF arm of Development raised it, it is probably earmarked for athletics.

catnhat wrote: If the DAF arm of Development raised it, it is probably earmarked for athletics.

Almost certainly.

A bit of a exception was back when Annie was with the DAF and she and Gray met with me prior to my doing my will, helping me with naming something in Vance for my parents. As a follow up she talked with someone in the music department about the Donald Plott scholarship fund, and then she emailed me what she found out.

These folks are on the same side.

BTW, a classmate wants to give his RMD for this year to the college and couldn't figure out who would best help him with procedures for the transfer and designation. I did a quick search of my old email and found a message on the topic from Gray Dyer that said to get in touch with him, in case you or someone you know has that question.

Report from Gavin, in case you didn't see it:

More than 2,200 incredible alumni, parents and friends made it possible for the DAF to greatly exceed its $2.3 million goal for current-use funds. We finished with a new cash record of $3,035,239. These funds will directly enhance the scholarship and operating budgets of our 21 varsity programs. Additionally, I would like to offer a sincere congratulations to our scholarship donors. Together, we raised more than $3.1 million in new athletic scholarship commitments and pledges for the third consecutive year.

Finally, when tallying up our various capital projects, multi-year commitments and planned giving commitments, we’re pleased to report that the Davidson Athletic Fund raised a grand total of $6,210,295.