The 2020 Game on for Giving Campaign ran by the Plattsburgh State Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation alongside the SUNY Plattsburgh Office of Institutional Advancement saw 1,130 donors and more than $54,560 raised in support of PSU student-athletes, according to a press release by the PSU athletics department.
Director of Athletics and Recreation Michael Howard said it was gratifying to see the success of the campaign.
“Having that many people make contributions towards us just show the high support there is for the Cardinals athletics,” Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications Brian Savard said.
The Office of Institutional Advancement is the backbone of this campaign. It created the promotional materials, the donation page, and sent mass emails.
According to Savard, representatives from the PSU Athletics met with the Office of Institutional Advancement in December and started the behind the scenes work in January. He also said the coaches did most of the work of sharing the campaign since the beginning of February.
“Personally, my main goal is engagement, with alumni, fans, students, et cetera. My goal is to get people excited for the Plattsburgh Athletics. Money is secondary [goal],” Howard said.
The women’s soccer team defended its Cardinal Cup title, the team with the highest number of donors, for the second year in a row, closing the campaign with 238 donors. The women’s soccer team also won the alumni donor challenge and earned $5,000 in prize money provided by Plattsburgh State Athletic Hall of Famer Richard Semmler of the class of 1968.
“[Semmler] is a great supporter to SUNY Plattsburgh in general, especially the Plattsburgh Athletics. He was so gung ho when he heard of the project,” Howard said.
The women’s tennis team was able to capture the other $2,500 as it went from eight alumni donors during the 2019 Game on for Giving campaign to 101 this year, a total of 1,150% increase.
Savard said there are two methods of donations, online or in-person. The donors have a choice of the teams they want to contribute to and the donation will be deposited into the team’s accounts, which are handled by the head coaches.
“We give the coaches a lot of discretion to spend that money how they want to spend it on and what they see best for their program,” Savard said.
Locker room improvements, new team equipment for strength and conditioning and team travel for growth and development opportunities were the direct results from the 2019 Game on for Giving campaign.
Email Kai Bing Ang at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
