When Teach for America corps member Brian Bordainick arrived at George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the school was little more than a handful of temporary trailers in a parking lot. Three years later, Bordainick has become Athletic Director at G.W. Carver and at age 24, he is closing in on a dream that once seemed impossible: raising $1.85 million to build a new athletic field at the school.

To date, Bordainick has raised almost $1.3 million--primarily from individual contributions and in-kind donations of services--for what is being billed as the "9th Ward Field of Dreams." But at the beginning, Bordainick's fundraising dreams looked like a nightmare as he was laughed out of nearly every office he walked into.

"It was a matter of being relentless," Bordainick says of his eventual success. "Especially in New Orleans, everybody knows somebody who knows somebody. So we tried to get in contact with everyone we could and work our way up the chain.

"On a weekly basis, I send e-mails to a lot of people who I've never spoken to in my life," he continues. "I'm of the firm belief that, except for maybe five people in the world, if you consistently e-mail someone, they will eventually respond. And those who have taken months to get in touch with tell us they really respect our tenacity."

Once Bordainick is at the table with a potential donor, he doesn't do anything out of the ordinary. He's found the school's story is enough.

"All I'm asking for is 15 minutes of their time, and once I have that, I explain what we're doing," he says. "I'm not out here selling vacuum cleaners--we're talking about people's lives and about revitalizing youth sports."

As a young leader new to fundraising, Bordainick has learned a great deal during the drive that started in 2008. The first lesson was how to delegate. "I had cooked up this idea, and wanted to do everything by myself," he says. "But I need other people's help on so many levels. Being able to let go and divvy out pieces of my vision was something that was very difficult for me at first."

He also learned how to deal with failures. "We've done some terrible fundraising events, but now we know who we are and what we need to do," Bordainick says.

For example, initial high-brow fundraisers fell flat. "We tried to host these sophisticated, high society events," Bordainick says. "But we're not a black tie organization. We're a down and dirty sports organization. No one we work with wants to throw on a tuxedo and eat hors d'oeuvres."

An event that did work was a benefit concert held at one of the city's biggest music venues and organized with help from students at the University of New Orleans. The fundraiser brought together all of the project's partners for a night of casual entertainment that included a silent auction.

"It's more fun to get many different people in the same room together who otherwise never would have been in contact," says Bordainick. "We found that everyone just wants to come out and have a good time. The mark of a successful event is getting people talking about our organization the next day and e-mailing us wanting to get involved."

Although most high schools won't ever find themselves in such dire circumstances as G.W. Carver, there's still a take-home message for every athletic director. "A lot of conversations get held up because we're afraid of how people will react," Bordainick says. "We're afraid to go after our dreams because we don't know how we will be perceived. What if it fails?

"This project started in a similar fashion," he continues. "No one wanted to be part of a pipe dream. But I learned to not be afraid to stand up at a meeting and say, 'This is what I want to do.' You have to be okay with a few people laughing, and just work toward what you believe in."