2013 NCAA Convention

Division III:  Integrating Athletics Fundraising with Institutional Advancement and Development Programs

The financial pressures of the last few years have focused attention on revenues and expenses associated with intercollegiate athletics as never before. While program reductions and controlling costs have been central to meeting recent challenges, increasing attention has also been focused on generation of revenue in support of intercollegiate athletics. Coaches and athletics administrators are no strangers to fundraising efforts. Generating revenue through booster groups, alumni clubs, golf tournaments, sponsorships and various special events has been part of their repertoire for some time. In recent years, however, these efforts have taken on a new dimension as a growing number of colleges and universities are integrating athletics fundraising with their institutional advancement and development efforts. Today, it is becoming more common for an athletics staff member to be a member of the institutional advancement or development staff – and lead the coordination of fundraising efforts between those two entities. This panel will explore this emerging trend in Division III athletics, including how it affects or facilitates annual giving, special events, major gifts, and capital and endowed gifts, as well as planned giving. The panel will also address staffing and organizational models, giving policies, issues associated with restricted and unrestricted giving, including Title IX considerations, and the use of advancement or development advisory boards.

Moderator: Al Bean, Director of Athletics, University of Southern Maine

Al Bean was appointed athletics director at the University of Southern Maine in 1995, capping a four-decade-long relationship with the university as a student-athlete, assistant coach, sports information director, and assistant athletics director.  Bean served on the NCAA Division III Management Council from 1997 to 2001 and is a past commissioner of the Little East Conference, serving in that capacity for five years.

Bean has served on several NCAA committees, including the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Administrative Review Committee, Playing and Practice Season Committee, National Youth Sports Program, and the Sports Wagering Task Force.  He has also chaired the NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Committee and is currently a member of the Division III Baseball Committee.

Bean is a member of the Husky Hall of Fame and the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.  He received his undergraduate degree in education and history and a master’s degree in education from the University of Southern Maine.

Speakers:

Monica Baker, Associate Director of Athletic Development, Lewis and Clark College

Monica Baker joined the Lewis and Clark Athletics Department in November 2007 to work with the annual giving team on behalf of Pioneer Athletics. She was promoted in January 2012 to the position of associate director of athletics development to focus on further developing a strategic plan for gifts to athletics.

Prior to her arrival at Palatine Hill, Baker worked for Opus Solutions in Beaverton, Ore. as an account manager, managing multi-city seminar tours and conferences. 

Before her move to Portland, she spent just under two years working for the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Wash., first as a procurement associate where she was part of a team that raised record-breaking totals for the zoo’s annual Jungle Party auction, and then as a donor relations cultivation coordinator, when she managed all aspects of the development events and creating opportunities for cultivation of relationships with private donors, potential donors and the community.

From 2002-04, Baker served as an event coordinator for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation NW and was directly responsible for the management and development of volunteer committees to facilitate fundraising and event objectives for Seattle’s largest fundraising gala.

Baker earned her Bachelor of Arts in communications with an emphasis in public relations at Washington State University
in 2000.

Jeff Burns, Director of Athletics, Randolph Macon College

Jeff Burns was named director of athletics at Randolph-Macon College in July 2010.  He has enjoyed a long and accomplished tenure at Randolph-Macon as a student-athlete, coach and administrator.

While a student at Randolph-Macon, Burns played soccer and tennis, and was coached in both sports by Yellow Jacket legend Helmut Werner.  During Burns’ career as a student-athlete, the men’s soccer team won two Virginia state titles, and he compiled a 30-2 overall record for the men’s tennis program.  He was an all-region selection in soccer as a senior in 1986, and was a two-year team captain. He is a 2005 inductee into the Randolph-Macon Athletics Hall of Fame.

Following his graduation from Randolph-Macon, Burns went on to become assistant men’s soccer coach and head men’s tennis coach from 1987 to 1995, later serving as associate men’s soccer coach from 1995 to 2002. In addition, from 1988 to 1995, he was the head women’s soccer coach. In that role, Burns was named the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Coach of the Year four times, leading his team to seven ODAC championships, two NCAA tournament appearances and a 114-23-13 overall record.

In May 2005, Randolph-Macon won its first-ever ODAC championship in golf, and Burns was named the conference Coach of the Year in that sport, which he led from 2002 until 2008, when he resigned after taking on the role of associate AD and director of athletic development.

Burns joined the Randolph-Macon athletics administration ranks in 1997 when he was named assistant athletics director. He then served as the school’s acting director of athletics from summer 2003 through spring 2004. In addition, he was director of the Yellow Jacket Club from May 2000 to August 2001, and was assistant director of that fund-raising organization from 1995 to 2000, a management role that continued after he was named director of athletic development.

In addition to his Randolph-Macon education, Burns received a master’s degree in recreation, parks and tourism from the sports center program at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002.

Mark Dienhart, Executive Vice President and Chief Operational Officer, University of St. Thomas

As executive vice president and chief operating officer at the University of St. Thomas, Mark Dienhart is responsible for managing the major administrative operations of the university.  He directed the university’s recently-concluded capital campaign, Opening Doors, which raised $515 million.  

Dienhart served as a member of the Division III Interpretation and Legislation Committee, is a past president of National Association of Athletic Development Directors, a past officer and executive committee member of National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, an NCAA certification program visitor, and a former NCAA post-graduate scholarship winner.

A Minneapolis native, Dienhart was a two-sport All-American and Academic All-America at the University of St. Thomas, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.  He also holds two degrees from the University of Minnesota -- a master’s degree in journalism and mass communications and a doctorate in higher education administration.  He has done post-doctoral studies at Stanford University and Harvard University, and has taught in St. Thomas’ College of Business.

Dienhart was a draft choice of the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills and held several positions at St. Thomas after graduation, including football coach and men’s track and field coach.  He took St. Thomas to its first football playoff game while coaching the men’s track team to a Division III national championship.

Before returning to St. Thomas in 2001, Dienhart was a senior vice president with U.S. Bancorp. He was also director of men’s athletics for the University of Minnesota. 

Bonnie T. Lewis, Development Officer, University of Southern Maine

Bonnie T. Lewis is a mother of three adult children. She has four grandchildren and resides in Raymond, Maine. She grew up in Maine where she was a championship athlete, training for the Olympics in track and field.  She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maine in Gorham and taught and coached at Gorham High School for fifteen years.  Bonnie is currently a member of sports halls of fame at Bonny Eagle High School, Gorham High School, the State of Maine, and the University of Southern Maine.

In 1988, she was elected to the Maine State Senate, where she served for six years, focusing her agenda on environmental protection and education.  In 1994, she was a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress. 

Bonnie’s career path took her from education, to elected office, to working with at-risk youth in the Maine Job’s for America Program, and then on to a decade of corporate work in the areas of community and legislative relations.  Bonnie served for ten years as director of advancement at the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute.  She currently works at the University of Southern Maine in university advancement, as liaison to the College of Science, Technology and Health and the athletics program.

George VanderZwaag, Director of Athletics and Recreation, University of Rochester

The 2012-13 academic year launches George VanderZwaag’s fourteenth year as head of the Department of Athletics and Recreation, having previously served as senior associate athletics director at Princeton University.

Since his arrival in 1999, the Yellowjacket athletic teams have achieved great success.  Thirty-eight teams have sent individuals to the NCAA championships.  One hundred two teams have attained a national ranking and 92 have gone to post-season play.

Eighty-five student-athletes have earned All-America honors in a variety of sports. Forty have been named to the Capital One Academic All-America Team^® as chosen by the College Sports Information Directors of America.  Over 81 teams and numerous individuals have been cited by their respective coaching associations for academic prowess.

VanderZwaag has overseen a number of major capital projects, including a $14.6 million renovation of the Goergen Athletic Center, design of the 11,000-square foot Fitness Center, replacement of the turf, lights, and track in Fauver Stadium, and installation of artificial turf and lights on Towers Field.

In 2000, VanderZwaag established the Friends of Rochester Athletics whose mission is to ensure quality intercollegiate and recreational athletic opportunities at the University. The 2012 year was a record fund-raising year for Athletics.

He has worked closely with the college leadership to implement a strategic plan to provide a quality athletics experience for students. He has reaffirmed the important educational role of athletics within the overall mission of the undergraduate college.  In September 2002, his achievements were recognized by the University when he received the Goergen Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Learning.

VanderZwaag revamped the administrative structure of the athletics department and added full-time coaches in the sports of softball, women’s volleyball, baseball, squash, golf and tennis.   

He has held leadership roles in both of Rochester’s athletic conferences — the University Athletic Association and the Liberty League — and recently completed a four-year term on the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics, serving on the strategic planning subcommittee and emerging sports subcommittee. 

VanderZwaag graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He was an offensive lineman for the football team and a member of the golf team. He earned his Master of Science degree in sport management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  From 1989-91, he was an assistant to the athletic director for student services and operations at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in 1991 joined the Princeton staff eventually serving as senior associate athletics director.