By Julie Hall

Julie Hall is Associate Athletics Director for Development and Executive Director of the Highlander Athletics Association at the University of California, Riverside and serves on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Athletic Development Directors. She can be reached at: julie.hall@ucr.edu.

When it comes to fundraising in today's economic climate, the more people you have on your team, the better. Even the most adept fundraiser cannot operate at an optimal level without the help of volunteers. That's why we recently decided to reintroduce our Highlander Athletics Association here at the University of California, Riverside.

UCR began its first volunteer fundraising group in 1975, but it became less and less effective and finally stopped functioning completely in 2005. The silver lining to the demise of the association is that it allowed us a great opportunity to rebuild from scratch.

The process forced us to take the time to analyze the structure and vision for the group. It also provided us the chance to find the right leadership for our cause. As a result, the new UCR Highlander Athletics Association is poised to support our student-athletes like never before.

A LITTLE STRUCTURE
Whether you've had a volunteer leadership organization in place for years or you're just getting started, the process of shaping it is similar. It starts with defining why you want the group, developing its mission, and formulating its structure and bylaws.

Why did we revive our association? I've worked at schools both with and without fundraising boards, and I've found that involving volunteers in development helps broaden your base of support. By offering major prospects a voice at the table of influence, you give them ownership and accountability for fundraising endeavors. That motivates them to meet goals and gives them credibility with external constituencies.

Understanding why you created your association will help develop the group's mission. We defined our mission as this: "To provide leadership by securing critical resources to enhance the educational experience of our student-athletes and maximize the visibility of our athletics programs." We are looking to our board to cultivate partnerships, relationships, and opportunities that will lead to a high potential for philanthropic success.

From there, we wanted to determine how to structure the group. To accomplish this, we interviewed dozens of previous Athletics Association board members and evaluated the structure, purpose, and service of our most prestigious campus organization, the UCR Foundation Board of Trustees.

Probably the biggest change we made was to the structure of the meetings. The new organization's meetings are clearly led by its board, not the athletics staff. We certainly have input in terms of the agenda and messages that need to be delivered, but the ownership of the meeting belongs to our volunteers.

Next, we developed board bylaws, which included articles on purpose, membership, officers and elections, committees, and meetings. Our four committees include an executive board and one for membership, development, and marketing. Through this structure, board members understand they have a voice in creating fundraising endeavors, but not in the management of the athletics department.

We also implemented term limits, which helps to keep the board invigorated and refreshed with new members on a routine basis. To ensure continuity, we stagger the terms.

RECRUITMENT
While it's important to properly structure your association, the people who make up the group will ultimately define its success. Therefore, our next step was to create a wish list of community leaders, alumni, parents, and friends who we might recruit to serve on the board.

To do this, I set up brainstorming meetings with several individuals and groups, including our Athletics Director, Associate Vice Chancellor for Development, development officers outside of athletics, coaches, and central development researchers. Along with developing a pool of candidates, these conversations also worked well to re-educate key campus partners on the purpose and vision for the new athletics association.

The first position we needed to confirm was the Chair of the board. We found our champion in a former Chair of the UCR Foundation Board of Trustees and Athletics Hall of Fame member. She'd served in the previous Athletics Association, was a leader within our community, and was already connected at the highest level of the university.

She immediately helped us secure a first-rate executive committee that included the Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce, the Superintendent of Schools, the Executive Director of the Community Foundation, a beloved retired head coach, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, a prominent lawyer, a developer, and a banker in town. The executive committee meets monthly to continue to learn the current institutional dynamics and understand athletics' strengths and challenges.

They are also heavily involved in the recruitment of board members. While the executive committee conducts the business of the group on a sustained basis, members of the board attend quarterly meetings, serve on board committees and are ambassadors. They are expected to make meaningful donations to the Association each year and assist in implementing annual fundraising activities and reaching goals.

To identify prospects for the board, we looked at our Hall of Fame members, our honor roll of donors, notable alumni, community members on other key boards, and former Athletics Association members. To achieve diversity we looked at their professional skills, age, gender, geographic location, donor history, and affinity for a specific sport. And, of course, we also looked at their potential as fundraisers.

COMMUNICATION
Another key element of reinventing our association is putting communication practices in place. That starts with an orientation for all new members. Not only does this serve to educate people, it is a great opportunity for motivation and cultivation.

Making meetings meaningful is also important. Busy people will commit to your organization only if they feel their time is well spent. Therefore, the meetings must start and end on time and have a prepared agenda, which is sent out ahead of time. The discussion should be mission driven, filled with strategic questions, and results oriented. Board members should walk away from meetings feeling privileged and that their suggestions or criticisms are valued.

In addition, keep your board energized by reporting progress at all meetings and following up with minutes. Both the development staff and the athletics director need to commit the time it takes to care and feed the board. Most volunteers don't wake up in the morning asking how they can help you. Our job as administrators is to remind them and follow up. Thank your board regularly, give them visibility, and communicate with them often.